Updates

There is so much less information for me to post these days on the status of my breast cancer treatments.

I am doing very well. I had follow-up appointments with my plastic surgeon, my chemo oncologist, and my radiation oncologist this past week.

I will meet with my radiation and chemo oncologists every six months right now to keep tabs on how I am doing. But all reports are great! My white blood cell counts are back up to a "normal" persons counts (4.4) - normal range is 4.5 - 8.o (or something around there). they won't give you chemo if the counts drop below 1.5. Mine never dropped that low. But - in Feb they tested my white cell count and it was only 2.5 (still well below normal). But, I guess it takes time to regenerate those white blood cells!

I am still taking Tamoxofin - this is an estrogen blocking drug that helps prevent recurrence of hormone receptive breast cancer. I will be on this for 5 years. I have very few side effects from this drug. Because it is an estrogen blocking drug - it blocks my body from producing estrogen so the side effects are the same as those of menopause. Basically - I am in menopause while on this drug. But- luckily, I don't have many menopause side effects like hot flashes or mood swings.

Now I just spend my time, working and training for my 39 mile walk that is in 2 weeks. I feel like a totally normal person with a busy walking schedule!

Note: this part may be TMI for some people - skip to next post if you don't want to read about nipples -

All reports are good from my plastic surgeon. I have healed well from surgery and now need to think about getting nipple put on my breasts. We decided we would discuss it more in the fall. I wanted to have the summer off and this is just not one of the highest priorities for me. It turns out this is a pretty simple procedure. It is done in my plastic's office operating room with local anesthesia. The trick is that I have to wear loose fitting shirts for 3 months so the nipple does not smoosh. This includes tanks, cami's and swimsuits. So - in the fall I will go back to visit her and decide what I will do from there.