Spring's a-coming!

And with it, so is my hair. My fingernails are growing again. The dark spots are moving up already. They don't hurt anymore. And, I can see little stubblies on my head where there weren't any before. Not even enough to fill in, but it's definitely sprouting.

I saw the plastic surgeon on Tuesday and got a little "boost". She said the exchange surgery where she swaps out the expanders for the implants is very quick and I would not be restricted from riding horses for more than two weeks. And that, only if I was not using a mounting block to get on. She said she is more worried about pulling myself up onto the horse. So with that being settled, I might have the exchange surgery as early as the end of March, rather than waiting until late fall. (Which is what I was planning if I was going to be kept off horses for six weeks, like I thought.)

I saw my ob/gyn for the annual visit on Wednesday and she told me the plastic surgeon did a nice job. I can't imagine that she would say anything other than that, really. But it was nice to hear, nonetheless. I told her to tell her staff that their protocol of having me come back for a six-month follow-up had perhaps saved my life. She also thought my whole story was pretty amazing.


Here's a blast from the past picture. This was taken four days after surgery, in October. It was my birthday. And that was my hair.

I will be starting Tamoxifen this week--yeeha!

Are you on schedule?

Sooooooo, is your mammogram scheduled? Are you on schedule? Are you taking an active stance in your healthcare?? These are important questions! I want to remind everyone, my cancer was "found" because I had missed several years (!) of mammograms for various reasons. I had gone in March 08 to get back on schedule. I had a physical exam by my ob/gyn at that time and was given no cause for concern. BECAUSE I had been off for several years, they asked me to come back for a six-month follow-up, in September. PTL! Had they not asked for that, I would just be getting ready to go for my annual mammo in March. Next month.

In addition, keep in mind that I had a physical breast exam by my ob/gyn and a mammogram. Both normal. In September, I had a mammogram and an ultrasound. Then a biopsy. No one could "feel" anything. They requested I have a biopsy on a suspicious site. That biopsy turned up positive for lobular cancer, which does not form "tumors" or lumps. It is more of a thickening of tissue.

I then saw a breast surgeon, who also did a physical exam--didn't feel anything unusual. He showed me my mammogram pictures and said other than the biopsy site, he didn't see anything that concerned him. He also sent me for an MRI.

The MRI showed another suspicious spot, right next to the biopsy site. This apparently didn't look suspicious on mammogram or ultrasound, since no one else mentioned it. Since I had already decided for a double mastectomy, we didn't feel it was necessary to wait longer and do another biopsy on that site. It was all coming out anyway, was my/our thoughts. (I decided to do the double after I asked him what he would tell his wife to do--and he said take it all off and be done with it.)

THEN--after surgery, the tissue studies found cellular incidence of cancer in MY OTHER BREAST! The one that showed NOTHING in mammogram, ultrasound, physical exams and MRI's! NOTHING. But cancer was there.

PLEASE stay on top of your own health. I know the Lord orchestrated my whole story because it's an amazing story with more twists and turns than I have shared here. Please know your family history and pay attention to any gut feelings. Do those goofy self-exams. Stay on schedule with doctor appointments and don't short yourself because it's expensive, etc. (The bill for my last chemo just came--$13000! That's just one treatment.)

Take care of yourself--for my sake! :)

Last symptom

Here's hoping it's the last one...

my poor, sore finger tips are now showing evidence of some kind of damage. Two weeks ago, I slammed my left hand fingers in the front door, as I was racing in to get something. I took a big ole' chunk out of the side of my index finger and busted the trim on the door jamb doing it. Fortunately I had one of those leftover hospital ice packs. With daily doses of Corona (not the beer), it healed pretty nicely but the finger tip seemed pretty painful, which I assumed was from slamming it in the door.

The big notch out of my finger is now healed but all of the sudden the pinky and ring finger on that hand have blood under the nails, as if they too were slammed. I told Handyman that it was pretty amazing that I could slam three fingers in the door at once. Kinda odd.

That was until the pinky and ring fingers on my right hand also have blood under the nails. Weird. I KNOW I didn't slam my right hand in the door that day. It still hurts to drum my fingers on a table and even a little to type. I read that some people lose their nails during chemo; but I think it's really strange that this wouldn't happen to me until two and a half weeks after my last chemo. I guess it's just a cumulative effect thing.

Please pray for Angela--a young mother of three (I think) in my church who is pregnant and has been diagnosed with invasive ductile breast cancer. Her baby is due in about eight weeks and she is undergoing chemo now.

Also, regarding the little boy hit by the schoolbus and killed last week. Our children's pastor's wife is a teacher at that school. And she is my daughter's Awana table leader. She told the girls tonight that that little boy was being raised by his grandmother, who is a Christian and the little boy was also a Christian. So we can know that he is with the Lord now. :*)

Taking inventory

I am late in posting this picture from Christmas week. From the left, there's me with my "hair", then Needa who lunched with me at chemo (and makes the best chicken pot pie), then LD, who knitted umpteen awesome hats for me way down in TX, and KS, who coordinated all the meals you brought us and she drove me to the hospital to have #3 (oh and helped Needa and my other buds paint my kitchen the same day.) Merry Christmas!

Today is the day after Day 14--the official day when my white-cell blood count should start heading back to normal. Of course, #3 played with a "coughing girl" at Awana, it was reported to me. And of course, #3 now has a runny/stuffy nose...so we'll see. But even if, I think we'll conquer it.

That being said, here's the current situation: No hair, but lots of little pricklies--that don't hurt anymore. They're not new. They're what refused to go! Here's to the tough hair that hung in there, no matter what! Yea tough hair!

My fingertips are all touchy. Like each one has been tapped well with a hammer. I'll be glad for this one to go. Fingernails are tough and cracky.

Tongue seems to be on the mend. I gorged myself at my mother's last night on lasagna and garlic bread and halibut dip and cocktail weenies and a great salad brought by Aibrean with goat cheese and cashews and craisins and sliced pear--good heavens--I'll have to post that recipe. Also, salsa tasted tomato-y to me yesterday at lunchtime. That was a shocker. Maybe I won't have to keep drinking limeade.

My right eye twitches all the time--how that is related to chemo, I don't know but it never did it before and has done it consistently throughout.

My GI system is not totally itself yet either, but definitely tolerable.

So far everyone, to a person, loves my "hair". Everyone says I look way younger. Okay, so I looked haggard and aged before. And I always thought a pony tail took off ten years--might have to rethink this.

So today's poll is...what color do you think my hair will be when it comes back??