Slowest Countdown in the World
When we hit the “5 treatments to go” milestone 2 weeks ago, I kept imagining the New Years ball at time square dropping. “5...4...3...2...1” except this chemo celebration ball keeps getting stuck and also moves at a snails pace.
Today is a new month- yay! For many, March is a symbol that our 1 year anniversary of covid quarantine is around the corner (March 16 for us HB’ers but no one is counting 😝). The 1st day of March has taken on an additional meaning for me. Since October of last year, I’ve been telling myself to make it to March- if I can make it to March, I can make it through chemo.
16 rounds is no joke, and the side effects are real shitty. I am so incredibly lucky that I started this journey relatively healthy (minus the tumor and all) and strong and that my Doctors are very supportive of an integrative approach to treat this cancer. As a result, I’ve now completed 14 infusions on schedule with no delays. I continue to need booster shots for my white blood cells, but I’m also not experiencing every side effect thanks to accupuncture, herbs and supplements. I didn’t have to get a port for my infusions which was strongly encouraged back in December. I worked with my acupuncturist to find the right foods and supplements to boost my blood health. Since then, we’ve had successful IV placement on the first attempt every time. My arms also no longer look like a drug addict with scattered bruises up and down.
March 15th is my last official day of chemo (for now but I need all the prayers that it’s my last forever). Two weeks away which feels like a lifetime, but then we look back and see how far we’ve come since October.
My next scan is on at patty’s day to check tumor size and progress. This is mainly to drive surgery in April, but also to get pulse on if there are still any live cancer cells present. I would be lying if I said I was all sunshine and rainbows over here. I am freaked out that we are not at the end of the road. If the pathology
does not come back clean after surgery, more chemo or extensive radiation will be required. I’m trying really hard to not let my thoughts go there but they do sometimes and it’s terrifying.
As of now, we’re told to focus on the end of chemo, getting healthy for surgery and then depending on how the pathology looks, we go from there.
Best case scenario- if the pathology is completely clean, I will require a course of targeted radiation to lower the lifetime recurrence risk of this BS ever trying to show up again.
We don’t know any of the other scenarios since it’s so dependent on the mri and the pathology from surgery.
