Moving from one stage to the next

I finished my chemo in mid-January, and over the past five weeks the side-effects have slowly left. At this point, I still get the odd, metal taste in my mouth, but it isn’t as strong and it isn’t constant.  I am also still battling swelling in my legs from water retention, and, while the majority of the muscle cramps have gone away, I still have a lot of hip pain.  Now, please don’t think that I’m complaining, I’m not.  I feel very blessed that the side-effects weren’t as bad as some people get.  All and all, I am feeling a lot better and, after a blood transfusion, a lot more energetic.  One funny thing – my eyebrows and eyelashes did great, at least until my last chemo and then they both decided to noticeably thin.  I’m not sure why, but I do find the timing funny.

So that’s the update as to where I am in my treatment.  I’m grateful to God that He provided me with so much strength to get through it.  I’m glad that I entered chemo much more physically fit then I’ve been for probably 20 years.  Other than taking off for doctor appointments and actual treatment, I haven’t had to miss any work.

One thing about my chemo, I didn’t receive it because the cancer had spread.  I received it to help keep it from spreading.  My lymph nodes were clear when I had my first surgery.  However, my tumor came back with the protein HER2, which meant a 1 in 4 chance of a distal recurrence.  To treat for that I am receiving the drug Herceptin which is started with a round of chemo.  While the chemo is done, I still go every three weeks for the infusion of Herceptin and that will continue through September.  It, thankfully, does not have the side-effects of chemo.  Doing this takes my odds of a distal recurrence to 1 in 10.

Next up I surgery, which is scheduled for this Wednesday.  I am having a left-side mastectomy with immediate, two-stage, reconstruction.  The surgery is expected to last 3 hours, 1 for the mastectomy and 2 for the reconstruction and it will involve 2 surgeons, a surgical oncologist and a plastic surgeon.  I have no clue what to expect.  I’m a little nervous, except when I’m really nervous.  Jim has had to deal with a few breakdowns.  The Lord has been gracious though and the verse that I keep focusing on his Psalm 23:4:

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,

I will fear no evil: for though art with my; thy rod and thy staff

they comfort me.