SUE'S ESCAPE FROM CANCERLAND: Done!

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Done!

Me at 3

As a graduating senior

With Shanna, age 1, and me age 26.

Finishing the Detroit Marathon at age 31. Over the next few years, I became faster

So its my birthday and I am done, done, done with treatment. A good thing too as my last day lasted 2.5 hours of waiting and waiting. No respect for patients.

5 comments:

S. F. Heron said...: WOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

Woot! Woot! Woot!!!!

Happy happy happy DAY!!!!!!!!!

XO; April 21, 2009 at 4:34 PM
Anonymous said...: Happy, happy birthday! And happy, happy new life!; April 21, 2009 at 9:14 PM
Daria said...: Nice pictures ... and good good good for being done done done.

What a great feeling!; April 21, 2009 at 10:51 PM
Teri Bernstein said...: Wow! Yeah! Happy Birthday!
into the land of happy plans and return to fun.
Love and all the best...; April 22, 2009 at 1:48 AM
Renee said...: Happy birthday, Sue!!!!

So glad that you are done with the treatments. Yippeee skippy!

~R; April 22, 2009 at 10:43 PM

About me

I am a mother of 3, wife of 1, and grandmother of 6. For years, I had been a medicinal chemist. Not long after I was retired early, I found myself with triple negative breast cancer. My struggles with it are in this blog along with the joys and trials of being a mother and grandmother. I love to be physically active, travel, read, and garden. Although my degrees are in chemistry and cellular biology not medicine, I keep up with the medical literature and report herein watching closely for good news against this deadly disease. As time goes on, my stay in Cancerland has become more a bad memory than a reality. This blog has since morphed into a photo blog in which I try to capture moments of beauty in my life.

TIMELINE

9-10-08: 1.6 cm tumor discovered by routine mammogram confirmed by ultrasound

9-21-08: Biopsy confirming Grade 3, triple negative invasive breast cancer

10-7-08: First surgery and sentinel node biopsy.

10-9-08: Tumor had grown to 3 cm plus an additional tumor was found. Poor margins but the 3 sentinel nodes were negative

10-16-08: Follow-up mammograms: lots of microcalcifications that could be DCIS

10-29-08: Second surgery removing 3x the tissue as the first: Good news: no sign of cancer in any of it.

12-2-08: First dose dense treatment with Adriamycin and Cytoxan followed by Neulasta the next day

12-16-08: Second dose

12-19-08: Hair began falling out. In 2 days I would be completely bald.

12-30-08: Third dose

1-13-09: Fourth dose

1-27-09: First of 4 doses of Taxol

3-10-09: Last dose of Taxol

3-31-09: First of 16 radiation treatments (so-called hypofractionated Canadian study)

4-21-09: Last radiation treatment

Early May: All eyelashes and eyebrows suddenly fall out but see evidence of stubble on head

Mid July: Have an inch of curly salt-pepper hair vs straight blondish-white of before. Officially retire the wig.

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Done!

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