Done with Radiation!

Yesterday was my final day of radiation! Not only was it my last day of radiation, it was my last day of all cancer treatment. Forever.

It's hard to believe I've been in treatment for 8 months. It seems both shorter and longer. It's still kind of surreal.

I had 33 rounds of radiation. 27 to my whole breast, chest, and armpit. And the final 6 were to my mastectomy scar line. I'm happy to report that burns in my armpit are already getting better thanks to Aquaphor, Miaderm, and Silver Sulfadiazine cream. I'm starting to feel major fatigue and probably will for the next several weeks. But it's nothing I can't manage.

Elise came with me to my last day of radiation (she stayed in the waiting room with my Mom). We wore pink to celebrate!

DONE!

Now I will have follow up appointments with all three of my oncologists (radiation, medical, and surgical) every 3-4 months. And in 6 months I can have my permanent reconstruction surgery (the implants I have now are temporary). TNBC is most likely to reoccur/metastasize within three years, so there will be lots of vigilance in watching me for a while.

What's the Plan?

The treatment plan that is.

My doctors and I decided that I will do chemotherapy first.

This is due to a variety of reasons:
1) The cancer has already spread to a lymph node so we know it's spreading quick and the spread must be stopped now.
2) This is the most aggressive (i.e. likely to spread) and it responds well to chemo usually. 
3) I cannot be doing chemo around the baby's delivery (due to white blood cell counts and risk of infection) and I cannot have chemo around when I do breast surgery (same reasons), so there is a unique window to do chemo now.
4) There are some types of chemo that are generally considered safe during pregnancy and surgery with anesthesia has it's risks.

I will start chemo on Wednesday (3/13) and will go every other week for 10 weeks (5 rounds). As long as my body tolerates that much chemo. Pray that it does.

Then I will take a break to delivery our baby girl.

After delivery I may or may not do more chemo. That will depend on my oncologist's recommendation at that point and how well the chemo has fought my cancer.

At some point after I'm done with chemo (maybe in July?) I'll have surgery to remove the lump and a few lymph nodes. TBD if I'll have a lumpectomy or mastectomy.

Then after that I'll do a few weeks of targeted radiation to make 100% sure all of the cancer is gone.

Then, if everything works, I will be cancer free by Fall 2013.

That's the plan right now. Let's do this.