Another milestone for me!

Finally I can count the number of chemo treatments remaining on one hand! Last week was treatment 12 of 16 which means that I have four treatments remaining. That's four fingers, or one month of treatments left. If that's not encouragement to stick this out I don't know what is. Just four more weeks of icing my head, hands and feet! Giddy up!

I keep telling myself this means I need to be on my "best" behavior - not over doing it with exercise, eating well, encouraging myself, and doing everything in my power to stay healthy. A week out of treatment is a week or more delay on finishing my chemotherapy, and I am CHOMPING AT THE BIT to get this part of my journey over with. 

Thank you to everyone who has sent socks, bandanas, and head coverings! They have made my chemo days brighter and helped me feel "put together" when I need to go out of the house. Good news is that my hair is growing fast and I no longer look like Gollum! Now I just have lots of fluffy short hairs sticking out everywhere. So still wearing bandanas, hats, and head scarves but only because I want to not because I feel like I have to. That's a win. I am hoping this means that in one month or so when chemo is over I can go get a cute haircut to put this chapter behind me. It's not what I had hoped for - I had wanted to keep as much of my long hair as I could. But I am also not starting from zero and hope I can step out into public feeling confident and not drawing attention to myself. Here are some of the fun things that have been sent my way:

 

 

 

 

I asked my oncologist about when my immune system could be strong enough to travel again. I've been wanting to go visit my grandfather who is turning 99 (!!) this summer since March/April. He said that by the end of August I should be good to go so I have gone ahead and made some plans to travel. That too is something to look forward to! 

Generally speaking, studies show that my immune system should be close to full recovery about 2 weeks after my final chemotherapy treatment. But these same studies also show that everyone is different in terms of how fast and robustly their immune system recovers post chemo. With COVID still out there and the Delta variant now in Texas I am playing my cards cautiously. Ain't no body in this household got time for COVID. Doctors are not sure how the COVID antibodies developed after a vaccination will fare in chemo patients, but they are studying it. To help in that research I have signed up for a study that checks in with the antibodies in my blood at a 3 month and 6 month point post chemo. I wish I would have signed up for this study earlier - they could have been studying me this whole time! But at least I get to pitch in for a few rounds of data. 

Pivoting topics, recently I ran across this great blog post titled "What it's really like to receive a cancer diagnosis" on Cancerpal.co.uk. It really sums up what this adventure feels like for me and I hope that it provides some perspective for you too. Even though my "active treatments" will come to an end with chemo, this is a life long thing for me filled with preventative surgeries, daily medications for a decade or more, and a potential recurrence or a different kind of cancer related to my genetic mutation. I have lived with the fear of cancer returning since I was 18, but it doesn't make this path any easier. 

As always, I hope that you're doing well! I look forward to telling you that chemo is over very soon! 

Sending our best, 

Nicole & Tim