Julie can't eat cheese

I freakin’ did it! 16 chemo sessions DONE! It felt like I was doing chemo for 100 years (it was only 5 months… but a loooong 5 months). I’m kind of shocked I made it without getting sick or having any delays. But I developed a cough last week that is waking me up at night – so no instant relief from my fatigue (as much as I hoped!). So while I am excited to be done with chemo, I am not done with treatments yet.

I’ve had quite a few appointments the last 2 weeks. I saw an ob/gyn on 6/30. I’ve never established care with an ob/gyn since moving to WA (apparently I had really been neglecting my health here!) but really liked the doctor. I wasn’t sure if ovary removal would just be ok’ed or if I’d have to get it cleared somehow, but given my cancer, it wasn’t an issue. The doctor talked about removing one vs two ovaries, but I will put into medical menopause regardless with hormone suppressants so it makes sense to just remove both. Ahhh menopause. Here is what I can expect for the next 3-5 YEARS (I was like years?? Not months? Yes, years…): hot flashes, mood swings, and possible osteoporosis. They can put me on a low dose antidepressant for the hot flashes and mood swings if needed and I’ll take vitamin d (already on it) and calcium to prevent osteoporosis, plus weight bearing activities. I’ll also get bone scans every few years to monitor.

My dermoid cyst is pretty big! The doctor said it was measuring 8cm on the CT scan. The ovary removal surgery will be laparoscopic and one of the incisions could be bigger if the cyst has “hard matter” (i.e. spinal matter or teeth!). I had a dermoid cyst removed in 2007 from the opposite ovary, which I named my dead baby twin, and it only had hair and fat. I’m hoping for teeth this time! Does that make this cyst my dead baby triplet??

I met with my radiation team on 7/6. First I saw my radiation oncologist (RO). Given the number of positive lymph nodes I had, I will need 33 treatments of radiation. Radiation is Mon-Fri and I will start early August, so this will take me until somewhere around 9/20 or 9/21 as my last day. The RO said I should expect some redness on my skin (like a sunburn) and maybe some fatigue. They will be radiating all the way up to my collar bone – which will cover my level 3 lymph nodes. I will see my RO every Monday during radiation so she can see me/my skin and help manage any side effects. With radiation, my risk of lymphedema increases, so she suggested starting lymph massage and doing it a couple of times a day. We talked again about diet and exercise – plant based and 7 days a week, 45 minutes/day. [I know I have said this before, but a healthy anticancer lifestyle feels like a full time job: get enough sleep, exercise, meditate, eat well, limit stress, lymph massage/scar massage…work, be a parent, spouse, friend…] My RO said it takes the body about a year to heal from chemo, so my mantra right now should be “This time next year…” I totally started crying when she said this – I was also told with surgery it would take a year to heal/recover, so was disappointed to hear my year timeline to “normal” (although normal has now shifted) was set back. I have had major chemo brain lately, so I wonder if I can use that for a year too? She thought my taste should get back to normal in about 3 months as well.

Then I had a CT scan for radiation mapping and got my radiation tattoos. The RO came into the room and said she had forgot to mention that while I was stage 3 for my cancer, my prognosis stage is 1b. Meaning I have a very good prognosis. This was really good to hear – no one had actually said that to me. I have just heard I was high risk for recurrence given my age and cancer spread. I will have a radiation test run on 8/4 and then start officially 8/7.

I saw my oncologist on 7/10. I had assumed I needed labs before and went to the lab over the weekend, but there were no orders for me! My oncologist said I won’t get blood tests moving forward but will get CAT scans every 3-6 months to monitor. If things look good after 6 months (no signs of cancer), I can get my port out. I will have to get it flushed every few months so there is no build up. My first flush will be in September. My oncologist had previously said I could get it out after radiation – so we’ll see. She just wanted to check in on my ob/gyn and radiation appointments and see how I was doing after chemo and I didn’t really have a lot of questions – so it was a pretty short appointment. I will see her in September after I finish radiation and depending when my ovary removal is, she will start me on a hormone blocker (there are 2 different ones – pre-menopausal and post). I’ll be on those for 5-10 years (they potentially have a lot of side effects, but not going to worry about that yet).

Today is my first Wednesday without chemo in months! Things I won’t miss about chemo/chemo side effects: fatigue, anemia, sensitive mouth, tongue canker sores, sensitive/sore finger nails (which make it hard to open things and I drop things a lot), steroid swelling, food tasting off (and because of this, nothing really sounding good to eat), weird throat thing (I keep choking or swallowing weird and then cough a ton! It’s so weird), bone pain, hopefully less migraines, and worrying about my immune system, getting sick, and interrupting treatment!