A year ago today I was diagnosed with breast cancer. Does one celebrate? I don’t really know. I survived the year: Five surgeries (I had sugery on my vocal cords last week), 6 rounds of chemo, odd and irritating illnesses brought on by said chemo, adaption to Tamoxifen and the first onslaught of menopause. I’ve done pretty damned well. I have new hair, new clothes (necessarily), and a whole lot more earings (from the ‘less hair, more jewlery’ phase). I’d go so far as to say I feel okay. That doesn’t mean that hot flashes don’t suck, that my joints are acting like I’m eighty or that I don’t still have days that are a downright misery, but I can honestly say that I’m back in the land of the living instead of living in the land of limbo. All other things will even out and become ‘normal’ over the course of the next year or so.
What happens now…My mother-in-law had a lovely friend who had breast cancer. Her sage advice was something like, “Take the pills and get on with it.” So that’s basically what I’m doing. I walk as many days as I can manage (studies show that walking 30 minutes a day reduces your risk of recurrance by 54%), I take a lot of supplements, I have a j0b in the fall (montessori assistant), and I’m knitting like a fiend. Knitting is good. It’s the closest I can get to meditation. I think it might actually be better, in my case. I’m somewhat occupied, but my mind occasionally wanders. The blog after this will be a knit blog. I’ve got a lot of completed and half-completed projects.
So…this is it. This is the last post. I appreciate the heck out of those of you who have read every one and commented (privately…mostly) and been morally and otherwise supportive. It’s been a long, long year and goodness knows I needed the help. Thanks! So now I begin the long road onward…I’ll see you out there.
:)k
GrnGrl 