Checking in on Amy

I had my first post-chemo appointment with my oncologist today and he had great news to share. My MRI looked really good! Lymph nodes are looking clear and there is only a very small tumour left in my breast after chemo. He explained that they can't even really tell if it is a tumour for sure and that it may just be scar tissue.  This was the good news I was hoping for, but the EVEN BETTER NEWS is that the planned surgery is a lumpectomy and lymph node removal! After mentally preparing for a much more invasive surgery I was surprised and delighted by this news. I don't have a surgery date yet, but it should be sometime in September. If they do a lumpectomy as planned, they will examine the tissue they remove (what remains of the tumour as well as the tissue around it) and that will inform the rest of my treatment going forward.  Tomorrow I have my first immunotherapy-only treatment (the drug is called Herceptin) which happens in the chemo suite where my other treatments were. I

I'm 9 days out from my last chemo treatment and I'm feeling more like myself every day. :) Although I have probably lost sight of what 'normal' flavours are I'd say my tastebuds are at about 75% today, which is something to celebrate. My mouth has been sore the last couple of days; it was sore last round too and I'm not sure if I mentioned it then. I have avoided getting any actual true mouth sores but there is a tenderness to my gums and parts of my mouth that makes me think I narrowly avoided them.  Our morning walks yesterday and today were the first that have felt good from start to finish, so my fatigue is fading and that is nice. I'm still pretty tired after walks but it is nice to feel the small improvements. My adventures with the open wound meant way less activity than usual for the last few weeks and it feels good to get moving a little more. My brain is also feeling a bit more normal the last couple of days. Brain fog is hard to measure. Sometimes

Well, my last 'helpful poison' infusion was successfully delivered yesterday. Today I've got that familiar weird feeling as my steroids help keep my body only semi-aware of the effects of the chemo. My pee smells bad again. My face is puffy. I'm too wired to nap but I know the crash will come tomorrow. My last chemo day was much like the rest of them. I was lucky to have a window seat with a nice view on a beautiful day. Rick got to join me since it was the last round (visitors still limited to first and last appointments). He came for the last hour of the day. The chemo suite was a bit hectic as it was slightly understaffed, but my care was still as incredible as always. Last day! My view On the last day of chemo treatment one of the ways patients celebrate this important milestone is by ringing a bell. Over the course of the last few months I have met many people who will be on chemo for life and won't ever get a chance to ring the bell. I have learned that some p

Here are my selfies from my FIRST chemo eve on April 13th and my LAST chemo eve which is today (August 10th). It's hard to believe that four months have passed since then. I am very glad that this first phase of treatment is finally coming to an end. It has been a bit of a marathon. The image from April is mirrored...I must have changed a setting on my phone since then. Both picc lines have been in my left arm. :) I'm going into my last chemo treatment with a similar mindset to the one I had before the first treatment. I'm glad things are moving along. I trust my doctors. I was nervous the first time because I didn't know what to expect. I am nervous now because I DO know what to expect - that I'll feel great until Saturday, really awful for a couple of days, then suffer broken tastebuds and fatigue for a few more days after that. I know I'll have trouble finding food I want to eat, but that the food will stay down. I know how much it helps to stay hydrated and