Surgery is Almost Here!

I pulled another disappearing act, but in all fairness, there hasn't been much to report. I finished my last chemo treatment on June 17th with only the Carboplatin. Due to the neuropathy in my feet and hands, they stopped the Taxol and my oncologist said it will get better, but at a point, the residual will be permanent. I'm not super excited about that part, but he told us in the beginning that this was an unavoidable side effect. I'm happy to report that it's better than it was just five weeks ago when we stopped it. Here's to hoping that it gets even better in the weeks to come.

I've been keeping myself busy the last couple of weeks in an attempt to build some stamina back up. I've been so tired that I was napping in the afternoon and then falling asleep in the evening still. I cut out my naps and I let myself fall asleep at 7pm for a week and then I started pushing to stay awake later to get back into my normal groove. I figure it's not going to hurt me to get a little stronger before surgery. Then maybe I won't be down as long and can enjoy a couple weeks before radiation starts.

We've been doing water aerobics a couple days a week and then I'm walking the other days. The water is definitely easier on the feet though. Mom and I hit the Plainfield water park last week with the kids and some friends and we went to Freedom Springs in Greenwood this week with the same group. We went for the lazy river, but the universe had something else in mind when we got to both places. There were four adult tubes in Plainfield and that's not an exaggeration. Cade and Cameron swam the river a couple times checking for any tubes that weren't in use and there were four in use, some kid-sized tubes, and some doubles. When we went to Greenwood, they said they were just having people walk the lazy river because they were waiting on a shipment of tubes. Doesn't that defeat the purpose of the river being lazy? Either way, we had an absolute blast since we were really  just there to hang out anyway. 🙂

I went to my oncologist for a follow up appointment this morning and my labs look good so I'm cleared for surgery Tuesday. Several of my numbers are in the yellow still, but they are better than my numbers from three weeks ago so I'm on the mend! My platelets and liver and kidney numbers are even in the green now. 😁  So on we march to Wilma's eviction! I go in at 9:45am for marker placement and then to pre-op. They are going to do a sentinel node biopsy so they'll inject a dye and see where it goes first. Surgery is not until 1pm and should be done by 3pm. Hopefully this comes back as PCR (pathological complete response) and there's nothing else to do. If I don't achieve PCR, the oncologist told me today that I'd need to come back for additional chemo. If I do achieve PCR, then I move forward to radiation in four weeks and do immunotherapy for a year. We all know I'm an overachiever so don't be shocked when I give you results. 😉

TODAY'S SILVER LINING: Rhys' birthday is tomorrow and we're going to the new Living Room Theaters in Bottleworks to see Thor. Since that's our date night, Christian and Cade are going to see it tonight together. You heard it here: they are going to do something together without killing each other. Oh my heart! ❤️