One year latter......

Today is the one year mark of my official breast cancer diagnosis. I can’t believe that it has been a year already. I feel much stronger than I did a year ago. I was determined to beat this or at least beat it unto submission and that I have done so far. My reality is that I will always worry about it becoming metastatic, like my Mother’s ovarian cancer did. But I am also determined that I will not let that consume my life. If it happens I will deal with it then. I know I have great doctors now and they will pay very close attention to me. On Monday I go for the MRI to make sure everything is okay.

Looking back at this past year in the beginning I let my fear dictate how I chose my original surgeon and oncologist. I will not ever do that again. My first surgeon was so impersonal and I just felt like a number. The oncologist that she sent me to was a little bit better but I felt like once I told him that I would be using a different surgeon and going to Duke he had hands off approach with me. I rarely saw him after that and only saw his assistant. The one thing I loved about the oncology practice was their breast navigator. She was amazing and has become a good friend of mine to this day.

If I could go back and do it all over again I would have switched my chemotherapy to Duke. I think they would have handled my side effects much better. Lesson learned here always trust your gut. I am glad that I had the approach that I was not going to wait around for them to schedule me an appointment but the fact that I scheduled it myself. I think this made a difference in everything.

I am very happy that I changed breast surgeons and oncologists and did my radiation at Duke. Yes it was a trek to drive their everyday but it was worth it.  I barley have a scar and my reconstruction surgery is right around the corner. It is still the TRAM Flap surgery which in some ways I am excited to get. Yes I am looking forward to the tummy tuck. I am very nervous though about what my new boobs will look like. I know I have a great plastic surgeon though and he works well with the breast surgeon. It will be a long surgery but I may be in the new medical building which will be nice not to be in the main hospital. I am worried though about getting sick again and it will be one of my questions for Monday to ask them. I need to look up other ones too.

So there you have it one year later and I am still here kicking ass. Thank you for all the support that I had through twitter and on this blog it does mean a lot to me.