What a Difference a year makes

The top photo was from last year, during the part of the adventure that left me bald.

The bottom is me today in my surly, feral crone mode. 

if you smell bacon

If you smell bacon during your radiation treatments, it's you.

changes

I have found myself thinking about how breast cancer has changed my life. 

Scar tissue is denser than breast tissue so it throws off my balance while swimming.

Speaking of my breast stump horrifies the loin fruit. (Lest you be horrified, I don't have a stump I have a small scar) . I also refer to her as Peg, keeping shit as piratey as possible. 

I joke about being feral now, but seriously I am in my feral crone time and I'm a biter 

speaking of luck...

I didn't go through this alone. And I would not have gone through it, no matter how convinced I am that I need to beat the actuarial projections. Dori went with me to every single appointment, every last one. Made multiple meals on days when I couldn't eat what she had made for the family. Made multiples of meals on the days I could eat. Kept track of my meds when I got chemo brain (or antipsychotic brain cuz it's also an antiemetic).  Made certain I was as comfortable as possible and calmed me when I was too sick to deal. And did everything else that I could not.  A & S also kept us in snacks and groceries. Helping with the critters. And Dori, A & S handled the horror when the sewage backed up. 

So I am inordinately grateful for them and my great good luck in knowing them. 

Today was my 20th infusion

I did 6 rounds of heavy hitting chemo (Cisplatin, Taxotere and Herceptin) 4 rounds of immunotherapy (just Herceptin) and 10 rounds of targeted chemo (kadcyla, aka Herceptin and emantasine), there was also a portacath insertion and a lumpectomy. Oh and 21 rounds of radiation. Still have tingling in my left snack hook and have accessorized with DeQuervains  tenosynovitis in the right snack hook. My hair has returned both curly and darker. I lost 50lbs, my sense of humor for about 4 months, as well as my hair, all my hair, no hair in winter is a cold cold situation.  I am currently looking at 4 more treatments, 5 years of hormone blockers.  On the bright side of things, the lump was too small for the clinical trial for small tumors, 7 days after my lumpectomy we joined a hatchet throwing league and I was able to kayak the week before surgery (and a month after so score) . Additionally I know consider myself mainly feral, which really isn't that big a lift from my formerly polite but not friendly.  I refer to my left one alternately as Peg, Stump and Lucky. Mostly lucky because it was caught on a screening mammogram before it was palpable. My tumor is triple hormone positive which is really good news now but 15 years ago not so much. Mainly because the immunotherapy medications are complete game changers.