The Gang's All Here!

The Gang's All Here!

Thursday, May 28, 2015

Yay Summer!

We have an official kindergartener in our house! Stella graduated from St. Catherine's Preschool on May 15. How is she old enough for kindergarten?!?! My parents came down to help us celebrate and we had a great time. In other news, somehow Emma is now three months old? It seems like time just keeps speeding up the more kids we have. She's full of smiles and baby chatter these days, which we are all loving. She's also sleeping between 10 and 12 hours at night which is glorious!

I haven't updated the blog much, but I think that's a good thing? I'm not in active treatment anymore and I'll have my three month checkup with my oncologist sometime the end of July or beginning of August. It's still a little hard to believe that I'm not in treatment or stressing about not being in treatment, but I'm making a concentrated effort on living my life. On MY terms. I haven't been able to do that for so long. Who knows what the future holds (for any of us, really) but I'm taking advantage of my good health and getting back to really living. For me, it's not all that glamorous, this "really living" idea. For example, I'm getting serious about getting in shape and eating better. And by eating better, I mean no more excuses, no more eating crap. Can't blame it on the baby anymore! So, stay tuned. I refuse to turn this into a weigh loss blog, but maybe by mentioning it on here I'll stay more accountable! Oh, and I'm also cutting back on the wine, which is slowly killing my soul. But, if cancer didn't kill me, I'm sure I can survive only drinking wine on the weekends. Maybe...

The kids have been out of school for nearly two weeks now and I'm alternating between enjoying having them with me and being ready to send them to a Swiss boarding school until they're 18. We'll see how it goes. They're heading to camp next week (just a fun week that the school does for the kids) and then we start into our vacation mode. I'm so excited to get home to Virginia! We also have a beach trip planned to South Carolina which be a blast. So, all that to say I'll be in touch, although maybe not as often as in the past. Three kids five and under doesn't lend to much computer time!

Monday, May 11, 2015

That Time I Had Cancer

I have exciting news from Cancerland! I am officially still cancer free!! Let's see, where to start...

I had an appointment with my oncologist to check in and come up with a plan, post baby. I met with her on Monday, April 27th (which, ironically, turned into a marathon week of doctors appointments). I went to the appointment armed with Em's birth announcement as a sort of peace offering. I'm sure I mentioned at least once over the past 10 months that she wasn't overly thrilled with me being pregnant. She was thrilled that Emma arrived safely and loved the announcement. And, I'm still alive which I'm sure she appreciated ;). She decided that she wanted to run scans ASAP and decide where what direction we would go as far as treatments. She had her office assistant call the hospital while I was standing there and they were like, can you come in for scans on Friday, May 1? Holy cow, that was fast, but at that point, I was anxious to know what my body had been up to. My blood work was perfect, which eased my mind slightly.

That same week, we also had two dental appointments. I ended up having to drag all three kids with me which seemed like a disaster waiting to happen. Thankfully, the kids were great and the dental staff was extremely tolerant and friendly, so we escaped without causing any trouble or having to purchase any damaged medical equipment ;).

Em also had her two month checkup that week and she's doing fantastic! She measured 24.75 inches in height which is in the 95% percentile! This child is L-O-N-G!! The doctor thinks she is going to be tall. Thankfully she was switched to regular formula from the high octane stuff. My wallet is very appreciative of that!

That Friday I arrived at the hospital knowing that I was having two different scans done. My oncologist decided to scan my brain as well (go ahead, laugh, I did!) because I had been having some dizziness. The brain MRI was first, to be done with contrast. When an MRI is ordered with contrast, they need to put an IV in so that dye can be injected. Let me preface this by saying that I am normally a very easy stick when it comes to IV's. I can only use my left arm because I had lymph nodes removed from my right arm, thank you cancer... Seven (7) sticks later the staff finally found a vein they could use. I thought I was going to lose my mind. Needles don't bother me, but everyone has their limit. Please keep in mind that I was strapped to the MRI table with my head locked in position while all of this was going on. Two different techs tried to get the IV in before they had to call in an IV team (I had no idea such a group existed!). Apparently the IV team wasn't allowed to enter the MRI room, so I was wheeled (while still strapped down like patient ready to run, and trust me, the thought crossed my mind) into another room down the hall so they could find a vein. I think there at least 5 people working on me at that point. Thankfully once the stupid IV was in, the test went smoothly. I had my PET scan after that and they left the IV in, so that was one less stressor to contend with. However, my doctor did NOT tell me she had ordered a CT with contrast along with the PET scan (they are done by the same machine, at the same time) so I had to drink the nasty contrast (on an empty stomach, of the joy!). At this point in the day, I was so frazzled and over it I didn't even care about the stupid tests, I just wanted to go home. The scans finally ended, but it was Friday, so I wouldn't have my results until at least Monday. Talk about torture!

Thankfully, my doctor called me Monday evening to tell me that the scan results were in and they looked great!! I was genuinely surprised, given how much my body has been through in the past year. She decided that I don't need to be on active treatment right now and she will just monitor my bloodwork every three months. I am so excited to not have to do Herceptin anymore!! So yeah, remember that time I had cancer? This girl is cancer free and I hope to stay that way!!