Cancer Free






    As of Wednesday, October 5, 2022 I am technically considered cancer free. Honestly, finishing radiation and being able to say I am cancer free feels kind of anticlimactic. They don’t do any end of treatment scans to ensure I am cancer free so it’s hard for me not to let my mind wander and worry that there is still cancer in my body. But, I have to trust my doctors when they tell me that all the treatment I have gone through has rid my body of the cancer they found almost a year ago.


    The day I finished radiation was a “normal” Wednesday. I woke up at 5:30am, showered, made coffee, picked up my friend/mentor, and drove to the West Cancer Center (just as I had done almost every morning for the past 7 weeks). What was different about this morning was me bringing my friend/mentor and it being the last day I had to lay on the table and receive radiation.


    It’s wild for me to think about all that has happened in the past 10 months. I have received 8 rounds of chemotherapy, a mastectomy, 30 rounds of radiation, and more. My hair fell out and it grew back! I have been cut up, burnt, tattooed, and healed! All of this in less than a year. I’m thankful for this blog to be able to look back on the past year.


    One thing I know for sure – God has provided for me in miraculous ways through other people (friends, family, and strangers!!). I hope to blog in the future more about my spiritual journey during the past 10 months, but for now I don’t have the capacity.


    Because I am done with active treatment (!!!), this blog will transition into life post-cancer treatment. Cancer is never really over so I know I will have lots more to blog about.

    
Thank you to everyone who has joined me in this journey and is still walking alongside me (both near & far). xoxo

Comments

  1. MusiquelOctober 17, 2022 at 7:50 AM

    What grace and relief I hear in this post Amy!! We are all cheering for you <3

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Rambling Reflections

Image
     Today is the 2-year anniversary of me finishing chemotherapy and ringing the bell on the terrace of West Cancer Clinic in Memphis, TN. Time is a funny thing. On one hand, the day feels like a lifetime ago. On the other hand, receiving chemotherapy infusions feels all too familiar. Either way, today is a day of reflection, gratitude, and celebration.      This morning I woke up knowing that I wanted to reflect on this day but unsure as to how. I sat down in my green, velvet ikea chair for my quiet time. I read back through journals about what this day was like one year ago and two years ago. I looked back through my camera roll to see what this day was like one, two, three, four, five, even six years ago. I started listening to a week old sermon from my church that I missed. Then some threads of reflection came to me.      On my camera roll two years ago today, the day I rang the bell, I screenshot a picture I had taken on November 19, 2020 at 8:42pm. The picture is shown above,
Read more

Life as a Cancer Survivor in 2023

Image
       Hi everyone! I thought I’d write an update blog post since I haven’t posted in half a year. The sad news is that life as a cancer survivor is not like my life pre- diagnosis. The happy news is that my most recent scans showed no evidence of disease!      2023 has not been as smooth sailing health wise as I had hoped or expected. The biggest scare of this year was in February 2023 when I mentioned a bump I felt above my implant to my plastic surgeon. She suggested I get an ultrasound “just to be safe”. I now hate those words. Don’t get me wrong – I am grateful I went for an ultrasound “to be safe” and we found my cancer when we did. But I’m not reassured when people tell me “it’s probably nothing and they’re just being cautious.”      Praise God the biopsy in February turned out to be clear. It was just scar tissue. Since February, I’ve had some big life updates. I got a job in Boston and decided to move from Memphis. It is definitely bittersweet.      It was strange going to
Read more

What’s Next? Anastrozole, Fragility, and Awkward Interactions

Image
  Me and my carrot tart from Thanksgiving Anastrozole      Unfortunately, finishing active treatment and being cancer free doesn’t mean your life goes back to the way it was before being diagnosed with cancer. I still have a few doctor’s appointments a month. I’m very thankful to not be planning my life around chemo infusions or radiation treatments but there’s also a scary side to being done with active treatment and being cancer free. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t nervous about a recurrence.      So now, I attempt to do what’s in my control to prevent recurrence. One thing I’m doing to prevent recurrence is taking anastrozole. Because my cancer was ER/PR+ (this means my cancer was hormonal), I am now on hormone therapy. Anastrozole suppresses my hormones so I have no hormones to feed cancer.      I take anastrozole every day at the same time. I’m thankful there is a pill I can take to work at preventing recurrence. Unfortunately, hormone suppression means my body will be in chemic
Read more