July 18, 2012 End of Round #8…the End (…of Chemo)… and the Winner is…!!!

July 18, 2012 End of Round #8…the End (…of Chemo)… and the Winner is…!!!

Carmela, Cancer Babe - again the ABSOLUTE winner of round #8 AND the Match!!!

Running score:

Carmela Cancer Babe – 7 Rounds

Chemo demons and its friends – 1 Round

Yet another mostly uneventful, unremarkable and normal round:o)

Summer finally came after Canada Day/the July long weekend.  Coincidentally, my “Dr. Banner” mode started pretty much the same day that our summer weather started.  Like clockwork, I again felt the various shades of shittyness, achiness, etc for about the first week after the last chemo treatment, with some residual shittyness in the second week and then I felt quite normal in the last week – but this time I was NOT going to get “hit” again.  The every three week roller coaster ride is over!  Although I was not at “my peak” during the long weekend, I was able to spend time with Laurie (who was in town) and Paul – of course I started feeling better after long weekend after Laurie was scheduled to go back home.  I will just have to make it up to Laurie and Paul as soon as I get into my new normal!

After my routine blood work that seemed to come out normal (ie white blood cell count and hemoglomen, etc were within normal ranges) I met with the covering oncologist Dr. S as Dr. O was on vacation.  The anti-climax continued with this visit.  The doctor did not seem to have read my chart and when I indicated I had a list of questions for him based on how I had been feeling this last round and that I was moving onto expansion, radiation, Herceptin-only treatments and hormone therapy, he seemed rush through this and in the end suggested I schedule another appointment with Dr. O to go any of my questions and concerns.  Considering I just finished 8 rounds of intense chemo (a big milestone from my perspective) and that the system is already really strapped, what a waste of time and emotional fart this appointment ended up being. 

What I was able to get from him was reading information about the Tamoxifen (hormone therapy) that I am expected to be on for the next 5 years and that there is no major harm in moving my August 30^th Herceptin treatment out by a few days to a week so that our family can go on our annual Long Beach trip to the Island (this is one of mine and my family’s favorite places to go -- I have been going there almost every year since 1985 when Laurie originally introduced me to this magical, fun and spiritual place.  There is so much to say about this place and all the experiences I have had there with Laurie, friends, Todd and now may family.  I am sure I will weave some the experiences and emotions in various posts as I go.).  As you can imagine I am over the moon that the schedule between some of the next steps has left this one week window open so that we can regroup as family and start some of the healing process with something and somewhere we all love.

The chemo ride is over.  As everything was moving in an anti-climactic way, I was resigning myself to keep things low key.  But it hit me that I wanted to celebrate is some fashion.  The more I thought about it, I considered what would be an appropriate and easy thing to do that would just bring people together even for just a hug and a thank you.  So I chose to bring together all my Chic Breast Friends to my house for an after dinner get together on an evening where the boys had their things going on and the timing coincided with this end.  This is what I have ended up with as was sent to my network of amazing women – including my Mom so that we can celebrate her recovery as well:

“So the chemo challenge is finally over and I am still here:o)  There is still more to come, but this monster is over and worth acknowledging!

There are too many thank you’s I owe to so many awesome family members, friends, neighbors and colleagues, so I thought we could celebrate this milestone, the beginning of real summer weather and the end of school with my Chic “Breast Friends” (you know I could not go too long without planning something:o))

This will NOT be fancy, but a chance to get together and be in the company of some most amazing women!

Who: Chic Breast Friends

Date: Friday, July 20^th

Time: 7:00pm onwards

Where: My back yard
What to bring:

·         BYOB (Alcoholic or Non – I will help with some non-Alcoholic stuff)

·         BYOC (Bring your own chair)

·         Appies/Desert if you want (I will help with the fruit and vegetable side of things)

Please invite others that I may have missed and friends who have or are going through this crazy Breast Cancer journey.

For those of you that cannot come, please accept this invite and message as a huge thank you for your support so far!

Here’s to the company of women and looking forward to what IS possible!

My Best,

Carmela – Surviving Cancer Babe

PS: Please give my gratitude to all the awesome men and boys in the crowd that have been there for me too.  We’ll catch them on the next event (hopefully later this summer)”

I will try to remain to true to getting “the guys” in on celebrating sometime this summer or perhaps at our annual Christmas party – I will have to see which way the wind sways me:o)

Now I am focusing on the what my “new normal” will be in terms of how my body really recovers from chemo, food and exercising somewhat normally again (and yes, I have some rehab to do—good thing I have gone down this journey before with my sister and should be able to get to a good state of physical health in the coming weeks and months).  I am setting my sights on running, biking, kayaking and swimming again along with all the other therapeutic forms of activity like Yoga, Pilates, Meditation and Tai Chi.  The rehab will include all this as well as trips to Physio, Massage therapy and Acupuncture. Who knows, you might see me in a half marathon at some point—keep watching and you never know!

As last time, the upcoming events will still pose a bumper boat ride, but it can only get better after this stuff!   

I will continue to keep you up to date, but the regular three week routine will fade to posts that give important updates and other musings that may stretch my self-imagined writing need.

Thanks for staying with me and keeping my strength and spirits up.

So until the next post:

Chemo demons and your friends you can kiss my arse AND eat my grits … FOREVER!

Onto the other stuff and the beginning of “normal life”….

PS: Appropriate to a WXN (Women’s Executive Network) Breakfast that I was generously invited to on July 17^th, 2012 by Deb at TELUS where the speaker was Yael Cohen of FCancer: (see www.letsfcancer.com/ for more)--- I agree….

FUCK CANCER!!!