It's almost over! Yay!
If you are reading this, you are either:
A: A regular reader of my blog ‑‑ thank you! I do see the 18 to 20 of you that tune in regularly and very much appreciate it!
Or
B: You got a Christmas/holiday card from us and this link was on the back and you may be checking this out for the first time.
We are doing well here and hope you are too!
This post will hopefully be fun for all, but it's going to start with a review of what on Earth this website is about: Tata cancer.
Specifically, my tata cancer that I discovered in 2019 when I went to get a mammogram. I didn't want to go, but after my doctor's office called me to make sure I was going ‑‑ I'd gotten it scheduled by then! ‑‑ I went. And they saw something.
After that I went for biopsies ‑‑ those are super fun ‑‑ where they thought it was going to be a cyst, but no. It was not a cyst. In June of 2019 I was diagnosed with triple negative breast cancer (TNBC), stage 1, in my right breast and ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) ‑ basically pre‑cancer ‑ in my left breast.
Awesome. Not.
But wait! There's more!! I underwent genetic testing and found out that I also have a BRCA1 mutation. Basically, people with mutations in the BRCA1 or BRCA2 have a higher likelihood of breast cancer. And other cancers. Great.
What I keep trying to hammer home in this blog ‑‑ feel free to go back and read all 80 + posts! ‑‑ is that all cancers are different. My cancer was very aggressive. But it was also kind of a niche cancer because of my mutation. Because I like to be special.
Anyway, before starting chemotherapy, I found out that I could do a clinical trial instead. It was a PARP inhibitor. It basically would starve the cancer cells if it worked the way they thought it would. It had already been proven to work the way they thought it would on stage 3 and 4 cancers.
So, I signed up for the trial and starting in August of 2019 I took a pill at pretty much the same time every day for 6 months. It made me tired. I was nauseous for a day, but that's certainly manageable. I couldn't exercise like I had been and wanted to. I gained weight ‑‑ common with any cancer treatment despite what the movies say ‑‑ and overall felt like crap.
I didn't drink alcohol except on Christmas Day with approval from my oncologist. I had mimosas. One of the side effects seen in the previous trial was liver failure, and although they could not trace it directly back to the drug itself, better safe than sorry. Amiright?
I finished treatment in February of 2020 and was set for surgery in March of 2020. March 18th. Because of the type of cancer I had, they did treatment first. Other cancers they'll do surgery first and treatment after. All cancers are different.
Anyway!
March 18th, 2020, I had a double mastectomy with a flat closure. I also had a salpingo‑oophorectomy and a full hysterectomy that day because one of the additional cancers that my mutation could cause was ovarian cancer. Most people have a 1% chance of developing ovarian cancer in their lifetime. I had a 40% chance. Now I have less than 1% chance. Ha!
That threw me into menopause, though. Oops. And I'm not allowed to take any hormone drugs because of the type of breast cancer I had. peachy.
I think that's the back story. I'm sorry about the pandemic, but I decided that if I couldn't have any fun in March, no one could have any fun the rest of the year. My bad. I was lucky in that Gabe was able to visit me in the hospital still. I could have one visitor. I felt kind of bad ‑‑ I had to tell my dad not to visit because pandemic. And now here we are in December and I still haven't seen him or any of my family since my surgery because pandemic. I look the same, just with no tatas.
You can find the posts about why I chose the route I did with no reconstruction if you'd like. It was not a light decision I made, but I'm glad I did it. It was the right decision for me!
So, here we are. Almost the end of 2020. Since this is my blog, this post is heavily about me, but I want to say that I could never have gotten through this time without my husband ‑‑ he's been awesome. He's the tall guy in the holiday photo. I really don't know how I would have gotten through this without him. He's the best husband in the world. No contest.
Also, the little doggos have helped keep us sane throughout this time. We adopted Arthur the Chihuahua‑mix right before I was diagnosed because we had lost our old man Spencer and Edie beagle was so sad without a friend in the house. It was palpable.
My next adventure is a Project Athena walk in San Diego in May. Hopefully I'll have gotten a COVID vaccine by then and things will be better for everyone. I know one person who has died, and countless friends have lost people they loved, others are struggling after the illness is with health issues. It's just been a really crappy time. I mean, even as an introvert, I'm ready to get back out there and hang out with people.
Anyway, for now I hope that you all stay safe and healthy. Stay home if you can. We are for the most part. I haven't been to a store since March, Gabe does all the shopping. And now I know how long it is before I really start craving people again: Approximately a year. Ha, ha.
I hope you have a wonderful holiday season. Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Bhodi Day, Happy Pancha Ganapati, Happy Yule, Happy Yalda, and, of course, Happy Festivus.