This is my final week of radiation!
Monday, September 8, 2014
Today was my 32nd of 34 treatments. This is the LAST Monday I have to walk into the cancer center first thing in the morning and start my week off with radiation. I walked in ready to conquer this week and close this chapter of my life. I'm very much OVER radiation. As my photos below show, my skin is almost completely healed along the top and between my breasts. The new skin is very soft and smooth. The area beneath my breast, under my arm and onto my abdomen is still peeling. I still have some ugly, brown skin that needs to come off, so I have a very distinct line between new skin and the old radiated skin. It's slowly coming off though. I'll be glad when it's gone so I don't catch people staring at it while I'm at the gym! The scar area that's currently being radiated looks very good and shows no signs of damage. I didn't snap any pictures after this treatment.
Tuesday, September 9, 2014
Today was my 33rd of 34 treatments. Sheer determination that tomorrow is my FINAL radiation sent me walking into that building. My dissolution hearing is at 8:30 a.m. in the morning, so I won't get my final treatment until later in the day. I find it ironic that my marriage is officially over on the same day in which radiation treatment is over. At any rate, tomorrow will be a BIG day for me. I plan to continue posting photos even after radiation has ended until my skin is completely healed so those facing radiation can see how long it took my skin to recover.
Today was my LAST treatment! I have completed 34 of 34 treatments! I can't even begin to explain how good it felt to finish up these treatments and the entire cancer process in general! I have one more stage to complete my reconstruction process--nipple tattooing, but that is simply a few hours. I have several tattoos already, so I know what to expect for that. I also have to have a full hysterectomy in November since I'm BRCA1 positive, but I'm not focused on that right now. In this moment, I'm simply celebrating the fact that I have completed this breast cancer nightmare all before I hit my one year anniversary date from the day I was told I had breast cancer.
I give God the credit for how well I've come through all my treatments and the blessings in my life. I'm not superwoman, and there is nothing special about me in general; but I know without a doubt I have breezed through these treatments because God has kept his hand on me. Even when things were very difficult and I felt like God had forgotten me, he was right there holding me up. I'm so very thankful for the blessings in my life. Even my darkest days were manageable because of God's grace, love and mercy.
My dissolution was final this morning. It was an emotionally trying morning, and it was a little bittersweet to start my day with a dissolution but finish it while closing the cancer chapter on my breasts. I was quite tired that evening and literally crashed and slept most of the evening and through the night. Emotionally, I was just drained.
My photos below show how well I'm healing. I still have a distinctive line on my abdomen where the new skin is lighter in color, but time will take care of that. I just need a little sun to even things up. Nothing hurts anymore from radiation. The only residual effect I notice is my left breast is tighter than my right. I can feel the muscle on that side tensed up and tight. This causes that implant to sit a little higher and not look as natural as the right, but I'm told this tense and tight feeling will go away now that I'm done with radiation. This is simply my body's reaction to the radiation that was directed right on that breast.
I woke up today to my alarm I had used the past 6 weeks for radiation. As I was walking out my front door thinking "Ugh....I don't want to go to radiation", it dawned on me that I didn't have radiation. As awesome as that felt, I then realized I was late for work! My radiation was always at 9 am, so I would always go to radiation first then go right to work. It was quite funny to realize I was so tired the night before that I didn't even change my alarm or have the foresight to truly enjoy the fact that I was done with radiation every morning to start my day.
It felt amazing to NOT start my day with radiation. It's one more step toward leaving cancer behind and moving on with my life. I'm ready to keep moving forward toward brighter and happier days. For too long, I've wasted days, months, and even years allowing others to steal my happiness. Life is a gift, and we should be enjoying every second we are blessed with. My promise to myself is to never waste another moment not appreciating the life I've been given or waste a second of my life on things or people that don't make me happy.
I didn't take photos for this day, but I will be posting more photos soon to show how my skin is healing. For this week, I'm going to take a break from the boob pictures and just enjoy my weekend!
No comments:
Post a Comment