Catch up

It's been a while since I've shared with you and a lot has happened since then. First things first, I GOT MY DRAINS OUT! Those drains were the most awful part of recovery. I was so happy when I was able to get them out, but let me tell you the removal process was strange. Literally the nurse just yanked them out. She just cut the sutures and yanked which was a weird feeling. That's how I started my morning of marathon doctors appointments. But I was just so thankful for them to be gone! Two weeks and two days was long enough!

My marathon day of doctor's appointments consisted for the plastic surgeon, breast surgeon, and medical oncologist. I was exhausted by the time we left the last one. All was well and they said I was healing extremely well. The breast surgeon was a quick appointment (thankfully) and I am free and clear until my follow-up in October. I've realized that this will be my new normal, seeing these doctors quite a bit over the next ten years. Now it was on to my medical oncologist. This was the appointment I guess you could say I was looking forward to, if that's even possible. We were going to cover what my next course of treatment was going to be and in the matter of 20 minutes, it all changed! That's the thing about cancer treatment, they're always doing research on new medications. So in a conversation with one of the other oncologists in the office who sees more breast cancer patients, she was convinced to try a new course of treatment with me. So my life for the next ten years is still taking a pill daily (which I still haven't gotten, thanks insurance), but also getting a shot monthly. I got my first shot this past Thursday, but that's for another post (it was rather interesting)! Let's just say it was not what I expected...

After my marathon of appointments last week, I headed to my hometown with my mom. The next day we were participating in our family's first Relay for Life and I had family coming in from Pennsylvania. Relay started Saturday morning at 10 and lasted until 11 that night. This wasn't my first Relay, but this was the first one as a survivor AND I was going to be speaking! The day was a lot of fun, but I was still recovering from surgery, so I couldn't do a whole lot, but I did some walking and relaxing! The survivor lap was actually a lot of "fun". I've never been one to feel sorry for myself with this diagnosis and seeing the group of survivors and leading them around that lap was a great feeling. I even made it in the paper...

They got the caption wrong to this photo, but it was still pretty cool we were in the paper!

Our Relay for Life team during the team lap.

I was going to be speaking before the luminary ceremony at dusk. I had no idea what I was going to be saying and I knew I couldn't really plan anything because I didn't want to read of a paper, I wanted to speak from the heart. I am definitely not shy talking about my journey with breast cancer, so my husband said just share all that I've been through. My goal wasn't to make people cry, but to really share a story of hope, strength, and determination. The hardest part was looking at my mom and aunt while I was speaking since they were both crying and I was trying so hard to keep it together. I don't like crying over this stuff, I didn't even really cry when I found out, to me it wasn't worth it. I shared with everyone that being 26 and diagnosed with cancer sucked, but that I was actually thankful for all of it because it taught me what is important in life, family. My family is the reason I was able to make it through with my head held high and my son especially gave me the drive to never let my treatments and surgeries get me down.

 Kolton joined me half way through the survivors lap. He woke up from his nap just in time!

Until next time...

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