The Post About Chemo

When I worked for Apache Youth Ministries I used to spend the summer leading visiting groups on hikes with our students. Always, as we climbed my favorite mountain, one of the participants would ask me, "Are we almost there?"

"Yea!" I would reply, "We are getting really close to the top now."

Twenty minutes later, as we were still climbing, I would hear, "What the heck! You said we were almost there!"

"We are!" I would exclaim. "Every step forward is one step closer!" 

Today, that is where I am at with my breast cancer journey. One step closer, but not quite to the top.

As many of you know, I had surgery two weeks ago to remove a cancerous tumor. The surgery went well and had great results. The cancer was Stage 1, the tumor small, margins clear, and my lymph nodes benign. I am healing, regaining movement in my arms, and working on building up my activity.

Unfortunately, when I went to my post-op appointments this past week I got the news that even though my cancer is gone, I will have to do chemotherapy as a measure to prevent the cancer from coming back.

Yuck.

Am I disappointed? For sure. Am I freaking out mad? No.

I've gotten a lot of good news on this journey and been met with a lot of hope. I found the cancer early which I feel like is a miracle. It hadn't spread and my doctors are amazing.

This is just one step closer to finishing out the climb. 

So here are the details on the chemo:

6 sessions, every 3 weeks, followed by the infusion of one particular drug every three weeks to finish out a year.

I will *hopefully* not lose my hair thanks to a new(er) invention called the Cold Cap, which is literally a freezing cold cap you wear that keeps a majority of your hair from falling out. Thankfully Baylor pioneered the trials for this, so my oncologist is supportive and I just have to work with the insurance company to get it approved.

By Christmas the worst of the chemo will be over and the reconstruction will hopefully be completed. It will still be a five-year journey of preventative measures against future cancer, but I just have to endure five months of absolute crap.

Right now, I am scheduled to begin chemo on August 17th. I am blessed with an amazingly supportive boss at work and I will continue working with the teens throughout this process. Another blessing- chemo will be on Fridays and at the youth center we are only open Monday-Thursday.

God has been good to me.

Two weeks after my first chemo session I will fly to meet my brother in Breckenridge, Colorado to be in the mountains and hopefully do some hiking.

I think it is fitting that I will be in the mountains right after my first chemo.

After all, every step forward is one step closer to the goal.