Cancer is just a chapter in my Life, NOT the whole story.

I know I've been quiet all summer, but I have some good excuses. With treatments and home with 4 kids all day was not the easiest time for me. I went through to the end of June finishing up CHEMO, then I had the month of July to rest, then started up RADIATION to the end of August.

I did my best to do fun summer things like: took them to San Diego for some beach time and took them to Lagoon and Lagoona beach throughout the 3 months. Also just enjoyed each other in some of Utah's beautiful nature. Even had a fun day up at the Lake with wave runners.  But there were a lot of days when I was too tired and just didn't want to leave the house.  Those days the kids had plenty of friends to play with around here.

Radiation was everyday for 5 weeks (M-F = 25 rounds)

1st Day of Radiation

This is the kind of treatment I went through. My husband wanted to timelaps video it, but I shut that down because I am topless for most of it. So this gives you an idea of what I got to do almost everyday for 5 weeks.

It took 5 weeks for the chemo meds to run their course though my body then...BOOM! My hair started to grow back.  YAY! This is 2 weeks of growth with my eyebrows back. Eye lashes are taking longer but those babies are growing too (fake lashes in pic).

You better believe I celebrated this...think I was giggling for days.

Celebrating the small victories really helps get through the hard times.

Then the end finally came!

END of TREATMENT = TIME to CELEBRATE

 I just didn't feel like blogging until I was finished with Radiation. Then for 3 weeks after radiation I was suffering through the radiation burns. THOSE BURNS WERE NO JOKE! Started with red skin like a sunburn, then blistered, then the top layer died and fell off to leave fresh flesh exposed.  SUPPER FUN!  Needless to say I wanted to be topless all the time. It's different than a sunburn because with radiation all the layers of skin are burned not just the top layer. I even had burns on my back where the radiation came out. The worst of it was on the side under my arm, because that's where lymph nodes were removed.  3 weeks after radiation ended it finally started to heal.  Just in time to start back at work.  So now I finally am starting to heal and feel like catching you all up.

I get the month of September to rest and not think about cancer, then I will start Hormone Therapy by taking meds each day to suppress my ovaries and block hormones that feed cancer. I get to do this for 5 years, which will put me in a pre-menopause state for that time. SUPER FUN!!!

I try not to complain about all this stuff that just sucks (side effects). Because the truth is...

I'm alive

I'm Cancer-FREE

Now to find my new normal. I need to now focus on my health and nutrition. I will keep blogging because my journey isn't over.