We made it through the summer!

Phew!  Summer seemed so daunting when school ended in mid-June.  The surgery was looming and I had no idea how well I'd do afterwards.  But finally, it's all behind us.  The kids got too much screen time and we didn't do nearly as many fun things as we usually do in the summer, but we made it through and I'm so thankful for that.  I had so much help from my mom and of course Ray.  Emeline stepped up to the plate more than a 12 year old should have to, but we are so blessed to have such a mature young lady so willing to help out.  She's nothing short of amazing.

And what a summer it was- surgery right after the 4th of July, recovery and then to round it all out, Elianna spent 4 days in the hospital for a kidney infection.  That was so scary and I hated seeing my poor sweet girl in so much pain.  She was such a trooper though.  I stayed with her the 3 nights she was there.

It never occurred to me that I would have any issues being with her in the hospital.  But the smell of saline made me feel nauseated and I slept terribly while there (although that would have probably happened either way). The whole thing was really bad timing- I'd just started taking the Tamoxifen and Sunday I was nauseated and tired all day.  I was so afraid that it was totally due to the Tamoxifen but I think it was probably from the lack of sleep and not having my med that helps me sleep at night. I also had to stop one of my other meds and I was feeling super emotional.  I kept thinking this in the midst of it all:

(please tell me someone else remembers this movie?!  It's a classic!!)

The kids are all tucked into their beds, ready to wear their first day of school outfits tomorrow.  I'm ready to drink coffee in peace LOL  (although the twins don't start preschool until thursday, they meet their teachers on Tuesday).  I'm really happy that we can get back into the routine of school & I can make doctor's appointments without having to find a babysitter for the twins.  I am feeling better than I probably have felt since I was diagnosed almost 9 months ago.  I hope this means the rest of 2016 won't suck nearly as much as it has thus far!

3 months!

In case no one else realized it, exactly 3 months ago today (May 24) was my last chemo!  I definitely like being on this side of the countdown, instead of the other!  

And, just for this occasion, I tried a faux-hawk (my hair is NOT quite there yet, but not too bad, eh?)

I don't have much time to blog right now, but couldn't NOT celebrate with a post!  

(oh, and look, my eyebrows are back for real now!)

I'm feeling quite good, but I'm losing my mind!

Literally, I'm losing my mind.  I forget simple things on a regular basis.  Sure, I forget things everyone forgets- where I put the remote, where did I put down my phone & what I was going to do when I get into a room.  But it goes beyond that.  I'm finding myself completely forgetting words and having to work really hard to find them.  I took the twins to the beach 45min away last week and forgot their lunches.  I forgot about an orthodontist appt that was on my phone calendar.  I forget how to spell words. There's definitely more, but I forgot LOL. It's so strange.  Chemo brain has definitely hit me like a ton of bricks.  I've heard it can last 2 years or more.  Oh dear Lord, help me!

The twins and I at the beach last week

Physically I'm feeling really well.  It no longer hurts to put my arms up straight, and I never even did the exercises the PT recommended (I think those are for little old ladies who don't have 5 kids to chase around like me anyway).  My incisions are looking great and I'm kind of getting used to having numbness under my left armpit and have even managed to shave it without cutting myself. I did have a little freak out last week when I thought one of my expanders sprung a leak.  But it turned out to be fluid buildup.  I saw my surgeon and he tried to put a drain back in, but he was unsuccessful so he ended up just using a needle & syringe to get it out.  Since then, I've had a little bit of fluid build up but my body is doing a great job of taking care of it (woot!  I did not want another drain!). I'm working on losing some of the weight I gained throughout this process and it's motivating to see the scale go down.

I have an appointment with my oncologist on Friday where I expect to get a prescription for the med I will have to take for the next 10 years.  It's called Tamoxifen and it'll control my hormones so hopefully another cancerous tumor can't grow.  It'll also keep me in menopause.  Awesome.  I'll have another fill on Tuesday at the plastic surgeon's office, I'm hoping it'll be my last.  Then I'll have 1 more fill to "overfill" them a bit then wait 6 weeks or so to have the real implants put in.  I can't wait.  These expanders are so uncomfortable- they feel SO hard (ask anyone who's felt them- I basically make all my girl friends touch the expanders & my new head of hair).

Speaking of hair, here's the latest hair picture:

Looking pretty good, right?  This is about 10 weeks post chemo.  I'm really excited to see if it starts to curl when it gets longer.  It's funny because the hair in the front naturally goes to the right, when I pretty much always parted my hair to the left.  I'm pretty sure I never want to cut my hair again!

Thanks for following along on this journey with me.  I'll update again soon!