Cancer Survivor, writing about Health and Fitness as you age

I thought it would be interesting to share a picture of those damn blood counts since I talked so much about it to everyone who cared to ask. The really rough stuff wipes out your white blood cells and your immunity along with it. In the picture you can see the almost complete wipe out when I get my chemo, the above normal reading when I got the shots to help increase the WBC and the normal range. The Taxol (not-so-rough-stuff), results in a more gradual decline in WBC. The AC treatments were every two weeks, so AC1 was the count before the 1st round, AC2 shows the counts (but no chemo was administered that week) and AC3 shows the blood counts before chemo. The Taxol was every week, so the counts reflect the values before chemo that day.   And what about the red blood cells? From the picture, I was already on the low end of normal. I got Aranesp shots to boost the RBC (resulting in the upward trend on graph). For good measure I've also included the haemoglobin trend whi

Last year, when I was thinking about what to do for my milestone birthday (it is also a milestone year for my husband and brother), a bilateral mastectomy wasn't on my list. However, I am inclined to look at this as having given myself a gift of insurance - insurance against future recurrence. This week has been a week that is blurred in my mind. I am at home recovering now and so far so good. I will meet with my oncologist in a couple of weeks and we can pore over the pathologist's report in detail. For now, preliminary results are very positive. I have to admit to a degree of self-pity for what I have lost and what I am unable to do for myself (not to mention how I look with tubes hanging out of me), but I know others who have gone through this and come out so much more magnificent for it and they are my inspiration. For the survivors out there, know that you have touched the lives of so many women and because of you, the rest of us are open to the possibilities. Happy

This week the oncologist felt that I had done enough chemo- I was not going to get Cycle 11 and Cycle 12.  I've talked before about the effects of the chemo on my fingers, but you know it is a sad situation when you knot your pyjama bottoms and then can't untie it to go to the bathroom. No more chemotherapy for me. Yay?  Yes, a bit of an anti-climax, but I still get to ring the "end-of-chemo" bell and get confetti thrown on me by my chemo nurses. My doctor also had in her hand the results of my post-chemotherapy MRI and it showed that there was a reduction in the tumour, it looked less dense than before and above all it looks like the volume of the tumour decreased by about 75%. Yay to that for sure! Considering I didn't feel that anything was changing I was very happy about the result. Next on my list: surgery. She said that although my blood counts are low in some areas, she felt that if I wanted to have surgery that day, I was well enough to do it. Me? We

Yes, I completed cycle 10, but I may not do 11,12. The pain in my fingers is not going away, and since most people only get about 10 cycles, we think that may have been my last. I will confirm with my doctor on Tuesday whether or not I get one last cycle (#11), but either way, there isn't going to be #12. What that means - I am done with chemo, potentially - Yaaay! But surgery is a lot closer - Boo! But I can finally get this thing out of me - Yaaay! And I've just had a follow-up MRI, so I am waiting on the results of that - Boo! Regardless, I am counting step 1 of 3 complete (or almost). Surgery is step 2, Radiation is step 3. So what have my Tuesdays been like? I've had friends give me a lift these past few cycles because the Benadryl that I get leaves me feeling very woozy. If things run late I get home by 1:30pm or 2:00pm (after being at the doctor since 9-ish). If things run smoothly, I am done by 12:30pm. Either way, it is a long day. I get home and I get into my

Where have I been? It has been a very hectic two weeks. My brother was visiting for one week, so there wasn't much  time for blogging (even though I didn't do too much with him).   It was a busy two weeks at school for my older one as well, but this coming week should be a bit slower. I know I need the routine. On the kid front I am gaining ground on the discipline issue and the kids are doing well. I am shouting less, which makes everyone happy. So, how did the last two cycles of chemo go? Much like the rest, however for sure I do have some additional symptoms or maybe it is more pronounced. Side Effects My eyelashes are gone and almost all of my eyebrows. I've also been more bold about being bald - if you come to my house, you run the risk of seeing me bald, but I've recently come into a bag of hats, so I may have something I feel like putting on. I don't know.  Just be prepared. I have more pain around my nails now, so opening tupperware, chips/crisps pack