Great News & A Great Day

On April 2, I had a CT Scan of my chest to see if there was any remaining cancer, or if it had come back in the tumor site or any of the nodes. The news: nothing abnormal showed up anywhere, and we are all clear. Hooray!

Alice turned 7 on Tuesday, and we celebrated for the whole day. 

We started our day with breakfast at Hilda’s, then went ice-skating:

Hit a merry-go-round:

And ended with dinner at Mi-Pueblo’s:

We had so much fun—happy birthday Alice!!

Radiation & Field Trips

I can’t decide if radiation is easy, or if it is a complete pain in the neck. On the one hand I don’t feel any different--my skin is growing a little red, but that is to be expected and Dr. Halberg and her team are keeping a VERY close eye on things. At the same time, it is logistically a huge hassle. I go to the doctor every Monday through Friday at 3:10pm so this is not only cutting deeply into my work day, but it is right at school pick-up time. Fortunately, I have many people stepping up to bring the girls home from school—we really couldn’t do this without our friends and family.

In the past couple of weeks, the girls both had field trips and I got to go. We successfully dodged the rain storms both days--what a stroke of luck!!

Elsa went to the Kule Loklo Miwok Village in Pt. Reyes:

Alice went to Spring Lake Regional Park in Santa Rosa. Here she is with her cousin Gracie and friend Elizabeth.

Last weekend, Chris and I (and Josie too) went to Inverness for the weekend to celebrate my birthday. Thanks to Susie and John we not only had a beautiful place to stay, but they took the girls for the whole weekend! We also fit in a field trip--ours was to Dillon Beach:

Baaaaaahhhhh!!!

Last Thursday I started radiation.  On Wednesday and then Thursday before radiation, I spent a good hour on the table in the radiation room. The technicians moved me into different positions, sometimes making miniscule adjustments, so that I was in precisely the right spot.

Radiation is directed at the areas where cancer has been found—so, the tumor site, the nodes under my arms, and the nodes in my internal mammary chain. It is those internal nodes that are the most difficult to reach, as they are under my sternum, and above my lungs. They are also the most important to hit with radiation, as we did not remove them during surgery. So while we assume they are cancer free, we could not confirm that as we did with the nodes that we took out during surgery.

Dr. Halberg (and her fantastic team) spent a lot of time calculating the exact position for me to be in so that the internal nodes would be hit with radiation, while also minimizing the radiation that would touch my lungs. The calculations are so complex that they have a physicist on staff to help them figure this out. Amazing.

On Thursday, the calculations worked, and I got my first treatment. This entailed a few minutes more on the table while a large machine whirred and buzzed a bit next to me. Then it was over. I just need to do that every weekday until April 30 and I’m done.

One of the side effects of radiation is that my skin may get burned. To help protect my skin, the nurse at Dr. Halberg’s office, Jana, gave me a large tub of lanolin to put on my skin twice a day. For those of you that don’t know what lanolin is-it is a wax or fat (depending who you talk to) that is extracted from sheep’s wool. It is extremely thick, sticky and yes—I now smell just like a sheep.

Anyone watch Frozen Planet last night? Josie did! She was especially enamored with the wolf pups.

My First Tattoo(s), with Frankie Baby

Last week I met with the radiation oncology team to create a radiation treatment plan. Much of this appointment was spent flat on my back in the radiation room while the very lovely technician Alice (!) gently pushed and prodded me into position. A mold of sorts was created of this position so that I am in the exact place every time during radiation. Along with the exact positioning of my body, Alice marked me up all over the place with markers, tested out the beams (without the radiation) on the target spots, and then—gave me four very tiny tattoos, which will be used as guides for the beams. Although they are very tiny, those little suckers still hurt like h***. Fortunately, Alice had cued up Frank Sinatra on her iPhone for me and he helped me through it.

Radiation starts on Thursday, March 15, and will be every weekday at 3:10pm until Monday, April 30. Many thanks to the people who are doing pick-up at Wade Thomas during these weeks. I could not do this without you!

Here is Josie by the fireplace this weekend. She loves the fire so much—I can’t tell if it’s comical or scary. We often have to pull her back from the hearth because we are worried she is going to crawl into the coals!!

No More Than 33

Next week I meet with the team at Dr. Halberg’s office to do my radiation treatment planning. The week of March 12 I’ll start radiation. Dr. Halberg has promised that I will have no more than 33 radiation days, which works out to a maximum of 6 ½ weeks.  I can do anything 33 times.

If you are looking for a book full of compelling research and great stories illustrating the power of a community….look no further than here. My friend Allison Belger has written an amazing book showing how much our physical and mental well-being benefits from connection to a community. I can vouch for this first-hand as I have had unbelievable support from my community throughout my treatment for breast cancer. (Full disclosure here—I'm honored that Allison considered my story worthy of inclusion in her book. When you buy it, its at about the 60 page mark).

F all!!

Three Things We Need

1) Radiation: While my cancer journey is not over yet, I'm feeling closer to 100% than I have in months. The plan is to do one more expansion at the end of the month, wait a week, then start radiation with Dr. Francine Halberg, a radiation oncologist at the Marin Cancer Institute. Dr. Halberg is right downstairs from Dr. Head, Dr. Kelley and the chemo lounge. There is a lot of healing going on in that building. Radiation will last no more than 6 ½ weeks, so I should be done by the end of April. Hooray!

2) Chocolate: Here are the girls yesterday before school. Valentine’s Day arrived just in time and proved a great distraction from my parents departure the day before. While Grandma and Grandpa are still missed, the Valentine's Day chocolate is really helping to ease the pain.

3) Love: We couldn't do this without our family and friends--their love and support makes this all possible. Thor (the handsome old guy on the right) knows all about love. Thor and Toni welcomed Thea—a 1 ½ year old Chihuahua—into their home last month. Thor—who is 12—has been acting like a 9-year-old ever since she arrived. I guess love can work wonders for everyone.

Expansion Underway. Looking for Prototypes.

Just kidding!

Dr. D’Amore began the expansion process this week. During the surgery on January 9^th, he put in “expanders” which are essentially empty plastic-y containers. He will fill them up gradually—about once every ten days—until I reach the right size. This process creates an adequate space for the implants, which will go in about six months after radiation.

The expanders were pretty uncomfortable the first few weeks after surgery, but the expansion process rounded out the corners and I feel a lot better now. The best news I got last week is that I’m cleared to exercise again. Hello 5:15!!