I am a survivor...

I am not 100% sure when I can consider myself a breast cancer survivor, but for right now, I am a chemo survivor!!!! Woot, woot!

I had my final chemo treatment last Thursday, the day after 4th of July! I have thought a lot about how I feel about the end of this chapter of my journey. Obviously, it is great to be done with chemo. I wouldn't wish that on anyone, even my worst enemy. It sucked. Not much more I can say about it than that. But, it is also weird that it is all over.

My journey began just over six months ago and all I can say is, where has the time gone. It is hard to believe that in the past 6 months I have had the pleasure of enduring the following:

20 shots
18 doctors visits
14 pokes to find a vein for IV's
7 blood draws
4 chemo treatments
4 tissue expander fill-ups
3 ultrasounds
2 mammograms
1 MRI
1 Biopsy
1 surgery

 And a partridge in a pear tree.... :0) And chemo brain that makes me wonder how I even remember my own name! All kidding aside, its been a long journey so far. With chemo finished, I now move on to the next chapter in this journey - hormone therapy. Since my cancer was estrogen positive, I have to cut off all estrogen in my body. For the next five years, I will receive a monthly shot to suppress my ovaries and a daily dose of tamoxifen. My oncologist thinks this is the best route to go even though there aren't many studies regarding this treatment, or any other treatment, in women under the age of 35. Why, you ask?  Because people like me are few and far between. Breast cancer in my age group isn't common so the studies on treatment options just aren't out there...yet. Tamoxifen is the standard treatment in women who haven't reached menopause.  Adding the shot to the tamoxifen is to make sure my ovaries shut down and don't produce estrogen.   From what I hear, the shot and tamoxifen will put me into menopause.  Awesome.  I am sure I will have many blog posts on how awesome this is going to be! 

On a more positive note, in August, I will start my weekly trip to the plastic surgeon for tissue expander fill ups!  Hello boobies!!!!