From Start to Finish (A Chemo Photo Diary)
A selection of pictures from my diagnosis in February 2016 to January 2018, when I really started feeling like myself again.
Posts from the ‘Breast Cancer’ Category
Mar 5
How I Got My Groove Back (Mona Lisa Touch)
Six months after my first chemo, I was starting to feel like a sexual being again. But I quickly found out that my vagina was not the same as it used to be. After a few months of using Vagifem low estrogen vaginal suppositories, sex was not as painful. But that wasn't good enough for me. I wanted sex to be more comfortable.
Sari Center for Integrative Cancer Care
The Sari Center offers integrative cancer care therapies for patients and there caregivers. Over my 14 months of treatment, I used many of their services. Every single week. Hypnotherapy, acupuncture and massage were my mainstays. But it’s not just the services that helped; as important were the people there.
Chemo, Menopause and Sex
We would not let a little thing like breast cancer and toxic chemotherapy drugs get in the way of hot 50 year-old sex. I used to write about Love and Sex. I reviewed sex toys. I had this.
One Year Out
I’m cancer free. Which is great. And I am definitely feeling better physically. My thyroid medication seems to have kicked in. (Thanks, newly diagnosed Hashimoto’s.) I have more energy. I really love my short hair and black and white color. I don’t have hemorrhoids anymore.
I Want My MRI
A mammogram. What was I thinking. I should have pushed for an MRI. I don’t trust mammograms. I found my own tumor. And it showed up on the mammogram. Of course it did. It was big enough for me to feel. Hard as a rock. The size of an edamame.
Tips to Help Get Through Chemo
I pulled together a list of the tips for getting through chemo, and the side effects, that helped me the most.
Hashimoto’s Messed Me Up
Then came the circles under my eyes. And the rapid weight gain. The slightly puffy face. Well, I was thrown into menopause after my first chemo back in February so my metabolism is slowing down. What about the edema in my ankles? My ongoing Herceptin perhaps.
51 Years Old
Still, on a sliding scale of awfulness, if I add up all of the bad things that have happened to my family in the last 12 months, I would put the awfulness at the higher end of the scale. One of my worst years ever. No, make that plain and simple: my worst year ever.
Vegas, Baby
On November 18th, almost to the hour of when we first said, “I do,” we’ll say it again. In front of Elvis, in a little chapel on Las Vegas Boulevard. I’ll be wearing the dress I wore when we got married the first time. He’ll be wearing a Ralph Lauren Ultrasuede jacket that we found at Goodwill last week for $20.00.
