Friday, July 6, 2007

July 7, 2007 I'm a lucky girl


What can I say, I'm a lucky girl. Here are the Top Ten Reasons I feel lucky:
10. I'm lucky I have a very treatable form of cancer. I'm estrogen receptor positive, progesterone receptor postive. Her2 negative. Very treatable.
9. I'm lucky I was diagnosed with cancer in my 40s, after having my children. I'm glad so many new treatments and medicines are now available, after years of clinical trials.
8. I'm lucky to have friends and acquaintances who've gone through this before me and have taken the time to explain to me what to expect and t
o share with me their experiences so I'm not as afraid.
7. I'm lucky I was diagnosed with cancer when I was OLD (mature?) enough to know how to deal with doctors, insurance, appointments, schedules, prescriptions, and all of that. At my age, and having had 2 kids, I am pretty bold when I talk to medical professionals. I do a lot of research and I ask a lot of questions.
6. I'm lucky I have a great job with good insurance benefits, a generous leave policy, and kind bosses.
5. I'm lucky I have the best (in my opinion) OBGYN, r
adiologist, oncologist, breast surgeon, plastic surgeon, and radiation oncologist that I could ever hope to find. I have no worries.
4. I'm lucky I have my mom, also a breast cancer survivor, in my life. She helps me so much and keeps me sane.
3. I'm lucky that my two children are being so great
through all of this. If you know them, you know they've been through a lot of bad stuff. They remain mentally and physically tough and very positive. And they make me laugh so much! Craaazy!
2. I'm lucky I have my faith, and it has not been shaken by this minor bump in the road.
1. And the #1 reason I'm lucky: I have the kindest, smartest, loveliest, most generous and loving friends in the whole wide world! Yay for friendship. I owe you all a big one. I will never, ever forget your kindness.

I have had the good fortune to be able to spend a lot of time with old friends lately. It has been a laugh riot (remember my earlier pledge to have a belly laugh once a day? This has not been hard to achieve!) Catherine W., who lives in Alexandria, Virginia now, is such a great friend to me. She has flown out to NM a few times since my diagnosis, and even sat with me through one of my longer chemo appointments. She's been so strong for me when I was at my weakest, and always tried to make me laugh. I thought I'd include a photo of her (and she's wearing my shoes, thank you very much). Gawd. Look at us. I'm going to start bawling again. (no, not about the shoes!)

One of my work friends, Phil F., wrote me an email, saying, "Grace, thanks for inviting me to your last chemo treatment. I couldn't attend, but wanted to extend an invitation to my next colonoscopy." I love his d
ry sense of humor. That's most people's reaction: Why would I ever want to go to a chemo treatment? Well, I totally understand. I don't even want to go!

And yet, lots of people came and sat with me through the last 4 months of treatments. So much gratitude and love go out to those brave souls (you know who you are) who sat with me when I freaked out, when I
fell asleep, when I wanted to pull the tubes out, when I started to cry. I really couldn't have done it without you. I'm lucky to have you in my life.

My last chemo treatment was Tuesday, June 26th. My latest MRI was nearly clean, meaning the tumors have disappeared completely on the right and 75 percent on the left. My oncologist HIGH FIVED me when she read the report. Have you ever been high fived by one of your doctors? Seriously, hav
e you? I feel like a champ and very, very lucky.

I still will undergo surgery at the end of the month, but the prognosis looks very good. I will need a sentinel node biopsy to determin
e the extent to which my surgeon will dissect the lymph nodes on the left. I'm getting ready by having some diagnostic tests (chest x ray, EKG, MRI) and blood work done prior to surgery. I also will need radiation, but don't know all the treatment details yet. I'll post again soon when I know more.

This much is true: Even if you wouldn't trade places with me, I still kn
ow I'm the luckiest girl in the world.



1 comment:

Cosmogrl said...

Now I'm crying ;-)
You are soooooo lucky in spite of everything that's happened to you. And I'm lucky to have someone so brave to call my friend.
Love ya!!!!!