It's been a whole year...... WOW!!!

It's hard to believe that one year ago at this time we were dealing with a cancer diagnosis. It's really amazing when I think about everything that we have been through. I have been truly blessed with how well my body has tolerated all of the treatment. I am doing well :)
 Things are continuing for Dan and I like we are normal people :) I am working my normal schedule. I feel like normal. What ever that is haha.
 I have had a little hick-up this week, dang it! I have had this continuous shoulder ache that comes and goes. It is the weirdest thing ever. Some days and mostly nights my right shoulder aches horribly. It keeps me awake at night and really drives me nuts. Then I will wake up and it is totally fine. Well, this week I woke up one day and I felt this real heavy feeling in my right arm. It clicked in my head that shut....this might be lymph edema. I made an appointment today to go see the physical therapist that my doctor recommended I see. She said that my achy shoulder is probably what has caused this lymph edema. Lymph edema is something that can happen when you have had your lymph nodes removed like I had when I had my mastectomy. She said that from my shoulder having a problem the extra fluid that normal lymph nodes would take care of is going into my arm because my lymph nodes have been removed/altered in this arm. So the long and short of it is that today I had to go get a sleeve to wear on my arm.  The sleeve is really tight, but not to bad at all to wear. I also have to wear a glove :( I don't like the glove. People can see it. Boo hoo......  I need to wear the sleeve during the day and the glove when I can. I will not be able to wear the glove at work. Just wont work. I put gloves on a 100 times a day and another glove, especially this thick one, wont work. The fluid is pretty minimal, but is present, so I need to get the fluid gone an do some manual lymph massage and then when the fluid is gone I wont have to wear the sleeve. So....as long as I manage the swelling and keep on top of it, I don't think I will have to wear the sleeve and glove to much. That is my hope anyway.

My reconstruction is scheduled for January 7th. I am excited to just get that done and get done with all of these surgeries.

I was very upset to learn that I will not be able to do the clinical study that Dr. Kaplan wanted me to do. For some reason I missed the window to start the study. I was pretty pissed about this. They have me fill out all of the paper work get me totally ready for the study, then they didn't call me to have me come
 in when it was time to start.  I was told that I had to start it within 60 days of my last radiation. I am like why didn't you guys ever tell me that and why didn't you call me to get me started on it. They really had no answers for me. But what ever. I guess it wasn't meant for me to be in on the study.

Hard to believe that Thanksgiving is next week. HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO YOU ALL.

Doctor appointments and first mammogram

Well, it's been a crazy week for Dan and I. I saw Dr. Kaplan last week. Just love him. Everything seemed to be fine. He examined me and ask me how things are going with my arimidex. No crazy lumps or anything yeah! I seem to be handling the arimidex fine. I maybe experiencing some minor fatigue, but not even sure of that. There is a list of symptoms one might experience and I don't seem to be experiencing them.

Then I had my mammogram this last Tuesday and my world was rocked...again!! The radiologist told me he wanted a couple more views. So they take me back and take a few more shots of my left breast. He brought me back into his office (you can imagine the crap that is racing through my mind) he told me that everything was okay, but he wanted to see me again in six months to check some small calcium spots he sees. I am like, you are freaking me out. He says I don't want to freak you out we just need to check things in 6 months. I then leave there office and walk straight over to my appointment with Dr. Buchanan. I bawled the whole way over to her office. I am like really? How can this be? I wanted a double mastectomy and they didn't want to take them both. This is one of the many things that was racing through my mind. I am thinking that i will get over to Dr. Buchanan and she will reassure me that it is okay and we will just continue to move forward. I have my reconstruction surgery scheduled, so I am thinking I can't go ahead with reconstruction if there might be something in my left breast. So I walk in to see Dr. Buchanan, she has already received my scans and report. I could tell by the look on her face that it wasn't good. Now I am crying and totally freaking out. She suggested that we do a "stereotactic needle core biopsy" right a way. They scheduled it for the next day at 3:00pm. She said that 80% of these come back benign so there was a great chance this would be nothing. I left her office and started my trek back to Harborview to go to work. I called Dan and of coarse he is pissed and scared and wondering what the heck. I got to my clinic and walked straight into my bosses office shut the door and started hysterically crying. My boss was crying with me. It was horrible. Thanks Jo for the hugs, love and support. Dr. Kaplan called me and told me his toes were crossed and he just wanted me to know he was thinking about me and hoping for the best. His call was great, but it also kind of scared me because it made me realize shit this could come back bad. As you can imagine that night, the next day, the procedure...it was all awful. Poor Dan. Poor me. Poor Nancy. Thank you Nancy for coming and picking me up from the procedure and bringing me home. I didn't even tell Nancy what was going on, I just ask her if she could pick me up from a procedure that I needed to have. So she was freaking out too.  After the biopsy the doctor told me it looked like all of the tissue and the calcium deposit looked benign. That made us all feel better, but you don't really know until you get the true biopsy report. So Dan and I had another night of wonderment, fear, worry, ugh!!

They didn't think I would get the results until today, but I got the best call ever from Dr. Buchanan last night just after five. She called and said all the tissue was benign and that everything is A OK!!

Praise the Lord and hallelujah!!! We are so happy and relieved.  

I have my reconstruction surgery scheduled for the first week of January. I will have about 6 weeks of recovery after that. Then I will have implants place in late spring. Kimmy's rack will be back :)

Lets just stay on this schedule with no more scares PLEASE!!

Doctor tomorrow.......

I see Dr. Kaplan tomorrow for blood work and my 3 month check up. I feel pretty good about it, but there always is a bit of fear too. What if? Seems to creep in, but nothing I dwell on at all. I am just positive and I am feeling good and doing good. I am handling the medication that I am on really well. I haven't had any side effects. Yea!!!

I saw Dr. Isik my reconstruct doctor a few weeks ago. Surgery will be scheduled around the first of the new year. He feels my skin is looking really good. The better my skin heals from radiation the better my out come will be so I was glad to hear that. I did learn that this surgery is another big one :( It is more uncomfortable than my mastectomy. Bummer!!! Not excited about that. But I can do it! I will be off work for about 6 weeks. Then I will have the final surgery around May. Then I should be rebuilt :) Yes!!!!

I see Dr. Buchanan my breast surgeon next week. I also have my first mammogram next week. Its been six months since I have had any scans. Amazing how fast time fly's by.

I am feeling really good. My energy is back. My hair is coming back. Wish it would come in a little faster haha :) 

Summer has come to and end and now it is time for football and time to watch my girl play basketball. woop woop!!!

The 3-day walk

The 3-day Susan G. Komen walk was so awesome! My team and I just rocked this walk. It actually turns out to be a bit more than 60 miles in the 3 days. It was myself, Jody Nelson, Courtney Edelbrock and Jenn Stendera. We came in in the top 200 out of 1400 each day. It wasn't a race, but we seemed to just truck along at a good pace everyday. It is so cool! Camp is a see of pink tents. I must say it has been a few years since I have slept in a tent :) but I totally loved it. The weather was perfect. Nice and warm. My husband was totally amazing through the whole event. He set our tent up, which was so great. We came in after 22 miles our first day to our camp totally ready for us to enjoy. Most people had to arrive after there 22 miles and still put there tent up. The first night we came in showered and then had our little "happy hour" at our tents then we went and ate and enjoyed others. My credential tag had a little gift box on it which meant someone had purchased a sweet treat for me. I was so surprised and tickled when I went to pick it up and I had two, one from Greg and Katy Mowrer and another from Ric and Terry Owen. Thank you guys so much!

The second day we were all a little sore, but ready to hit it again. Our camp was at marymoor park in Redmond. We left camp and headed straight up a trail heading to Bellevue. It was a brutal way to start the day. Through the day you have certain areas that are cheering stations. These were pretty emotional for me for some reason. It is just amazing how people come out and I mean a lot of people to just cheer you on and thank you for walking to support breast cancer. It was just really cool.   Courtney's friend Jenny was meeting us at one of the cheer stops so we all were excited to see Jenny.

When we got to the cheering station that Jenny was at she had made this great sign

Thanks Jenny! Also thanks for the peanut butter balls. They were so good!

Big shout out to Jenny. Jenny has recently been diagnosed with breast cancer also ;( She was going to do the walk with us and then was diagnosed her self. Isn't that horrible. Ugh!! Jenny anything I can do for you please let me know.

The final day of the walk was very cool and emotional. Dan was fabulous again....he was at our camp at 5:30 am ready to tear our tent down and pack it up so that we didn't have to do it. Wow!! We were able to just get up get dressed go have breakfast and go to the bus. It was really nice. They bused us to the University of Washington and we walked from there. We walked through the UW campus over to the Ballard locks then up to and through Magnolia and ended at Memorial Stadium in Seattle. When we got to the finish line it was really cool. Dan was there taking pictures of us and we got all confused and passed the entrance and had to run back to enter...

We were all so excited!!  We all got t-shirts. I got a pink one since I am a survivor and the others got white ones. I got really emotional when I got my shirt. It was weird, I just started bawling. The whole experience was just amazing. My team was amazing. Thank you all for experiencing this event with me. "Kimmy's breast friends" rock!!! And our goal is to each bring in at least one more person to the team next year. So anyone that wants to join us let me know. It is a weekend that you will never forget.

                                  Haley made this sign for our tent. Loved it!!! Thanks Haley

                                                    My team.....ready to go day one.

                                                               Opening ceremony

                                                         Walking across I-90 bridge

                                                     Volunteers really get into this event

                                                                    Lunch day one

                      My friend Libby from boot camp. Diagnosed the same week I was :(

                                                               Coming into camp day one

                                                                  The pink tents

                                                              Courtney and Jenn

                                                            Our new 3-day hats :)

                                 Lake Washington.....day two with our groovy pink glasses

                                                                closing ceremony

                                                                   We did it!!!!!

The closing ceremony. My dear friends Nancy, Amanda and Sammy Pugh. Also Kristen (Jody's daughter). So so sweet of you guys to come to this event. I love you all lots!!!

I am doing well.....

Hi everyone. I am back :) Sorry I have been away for a while. I guess I just decided to take a break from this darn cancer thing. I am doing really well. My hair is coming back....yea!! I am feeling more and more like normal again. It has been almost two months since my last radiation. Wow...hard to believe. Time goes by so darn fast. This week I have made appointments with all of my doctors for my 3 months check ups. Oh, I don't think I have shared with you all that I am now on my maintenance medication ( i guess that's what you would call it). We thought all along that I would be put on tamoxifen....surprise, my blood work showed that I am in menopause so that meant I would be on a different medication. I was a little shocked and I knew nothing about the other medication so it freaked me out a bit. My doctor said this is all good stuff though. He said this medication is actually better, so I guess all good. I take arimidex daily now for five years. I guess since I am so young that my numbers could change as time goes by and my body continues to get back to normal. Anyway, so now I will see my reconstruction doctor this next week. Excited about that. Kimmy's rack will be back...haha I should find out when we will schedule for that surgery. It's kind of a long process. Surgery, heal, expansion and then implants. Should all be done by next summer. I will see my breast surgeon the first of October. I will have my mammogram the same day I see my surgeon. Nice! Will be nice to find out those results immediately. I also will see my oncologist this same week.

One week out of treatment....

It's been one week now since I've been done with cancer treatment.  It's so nice :) I plan on working my normal schedule this whole week.  I have been working, but I've left early if my patient load was down.  My skin has been really sore.  The radiation area truely looks like my skin caught on fire.  It  is dark and red and burnt.  I do think it is starting to heal now though.  The dark layer is literally peeling away.  It's kind of gross.  The skin underneath is so soft and like new skin.  I can't wait till the whole area looks like that.

I see Dr. Kaplan again on August 7 to start my tamoxifen.  I kind of want to get started with that.  I guess I feel like if I'm taking something it will help with this cancer not coming back.  Which that is exactly what the tamoxifen is doing.  I will see my radiation oncologist towards the end of August.  I need to schedule with Barry to get going on the clinical study real soon too.

I AM DONE.......

Today was a great day.  I am officially done with cancer treatment.  I had my last radiation treatment today :) WOW.....  I arrived at Swedish Medical Center for my first appointment at 11:30.  I saw Dr. Ridgeway at the Laribee center to get more latisse.  This stuff is amazing. My eyelashes and eye brows are coming in so well from this product.  Next I went over the Dr. Kaplans office (my oncologist) love him.  My appointment with Dr. Kaplan was for noon.  My last radiation appointment was for 1:00pm.  As usual I waited for about an hour to see Dr. Kaplan, which I don't mind at all because he is a very busy man.  I get called back to see him at 12:50.  I let them know that I need to run down stairs to get my radiation.  Of coarse, it was not a problem at all.  People at the cancer center are amazing people.  They all treat you so well.  I went down stairs to the radiation clinic and I see all of my friends that I have made over the last 5 weeks.  We have a special bond.  We have seen each other Monday through Friday at 1:00pm for 5 weeks.  I brought some yummy cookies....that's what people do when it is there last treatment day.  I went in and changed into my designer gown, as they call them.  Then  I came out and started visiting.  My favorite little lady was passing my cookies around to everyone....it was so cute :).  Her husband has esophageal cancer and his throat is so sore from radiation that he can't eat.  He has lost so much weight :( I will think of them often.  Then everyone was so happy for me that it was my last day.  We all discuss how many days each has left, then Beth came out to get me for my treatment.  I jumped up with excitement and everyone started clapping for me....I have been an emotional basket case every since.  It just touched me in a way that I can't even describe.  I continued to flood tears through my radiation.  My therapist were so sweet and totally understood even more than me about the emotions I was feeling.  I gave them all big hugs and Beth gave me a big kiss.  I told them thank you for always treating me so kind and I shared that I hope I never see them again :) I quickly ran in and changed back into my clothes.  I rushed out of the dressing room and told everyone that I could not stop crying since there wonderful applaud for me.  I wished them all the very best...and ran to the elevator and scurried to floor five where Dan was still waiting in the treatment room for me at Dr. Kaplans office.  Dr. Kaplan came in and I was still emotional.  He sat down very close to me and shared that this day is often as emotional as the first day you are diagnosed.  It is a weird mix of emotion.  I am so excited to be done, but yet a little scared also.  Now the fear of it returning enters your mind.  As you all know that continue to follow my journey, I am not a downer nor will I be a downer nor will I allow these thoughts to remain with me, but today they emerged and it is okay.  Dr. Kaplan discussed with me that I will now take tamoxifen for probably just a couple of years then as I emerge into complete menopause I will switch to another drug that I will take for a total of 5 years.  I will see him every 3 months now for two years.  I will have mammograms once a year and CT scans and or MRI once a year.  So I will be scanned every six months.  I am good with that.  I also will be starting a clinical study with in the next month.

My skin is very dark and is getting pretty sore.  The treatment area is very defined now.  I put first aid cream and aquafor on it many times a day.  The treatment is accumulative and will continue to get worse before it starts getting better.  It will probably be about two weeks before it starts getting better. 

I am doing much better now.  I started this blog about two hours ago.  I am no longer crying and seem to have a grip on my emotions for now.  Dan and I and Haley are having a nice dinner tonight and enjoying saying that I am done with treatment.