It's been 8 weeks since the end of the hard chemo. I can't say its been all fun and games, but its a hell of a lot better than those 16 weeks when the oncologist was trying to kill me.
Doug took me to Vegas for my birthday in May, and the rest of the Norvell family surprised me by being there, too. We ate great food, had a couple of drinks, spent a day in a cabana at the resort pool, went to High Tea at the Mandarin Oriental, did the spa thing, and saw a couple of shows. The only thing that mattered was that we were all together, enjoying the little things in life.
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| The whole wacky family! |
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| So much love! |
The weekend after we got back from Vegas, our friends from Arizona - Kerri and Kate (and their four-legged owners, Bisbee and Callie) - drove all the way to San Antonio to visit us. That weekend was filled with good food, wine (see a pattern?) and lots of dogs. I was still pretty worn out from the Vegas trip, so we didn't do much exploring. But it was great to catch up on everything we've missed since leaving Arizona.
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| Four energetic dogs all in one RV! |
Then it was time to go visit Mom at the Jersey Shore. The whole time I was going through chemo, she was such a support. She even mailed me Irish Soda Bread kits every couple of weeks when that was the only thing I could eat. I know she needed to see me as much as I needed to see her. I forgot to take a picture with her, but I did take a picture of the ocean!
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| Seaside Heights, New Jersey |
Traveling absolutely wears me out, but so does getting up too early, staying up too late, getting too hot, doing too much exercise, getting stressed about work, blah blah blah. The docs keep telling me that my body has been through hell and its going to take time to get back to normal, but I don't like that one bit!
As far as treatment goes, I only have to get infusions once every 3 weeks - a triple-dose of the Herceptin - and I take Tamoxifen every day. Apparently 7 out of 10 women have no side effects from that combo, but guess which group I'm in? Essentially it feels like every single joint in my body has been hit with a sledghammer all...the....time. Then there's the hot flashes and falling-off fingernails, but hey, I guess that means its killing off all those cancer cells.
Oh, and my hair is growing back. Check it out -
Happy Independence Day y'all! Enjoy life!
