Fight like a girl.

 Man. I was scrolling through my instagram pictures from this past year. There is a lot of emotion looking at the different stages I went through: surgeries, first day of chemo, last day of chemo, being bald, having my siblings with me, Ryan taking care of Courtney.... There have been so many hard things. But there have been so many good things. But so many hard things. Ha Ha Ha.   I pray that I don't have to do this EVER AGAIN. 😉

 Radiation done! Ryan and my friends were like, "We need to go celebrate!" I'm kind of like, "Eh, no big deal. We don't need to celebrate. Chemo was WAY worse than this." BUT it's another box checked off on this list of cancer treatments. I only have to finish out my year of Herceptin and then the exchange surgery. Hallelujah!  I ran into a lady this week at the cancer center. She was getting ready for her radiation treatment while I was heading out the door. We started chatting for a minute. She made the comment- so this is your first dance with cancer? I said, "Um yes my one and only dance." I was thinking, no I'm not doing this again.  I saw the doctor and nurse yesterday. The nurse sat in with me first asking about my skin and fatigue. She looked at me and said, "You look like you're ready to fall asleep." I was super tired yesterday and yes I needed a nap. She also said that my skin will continue to react for the next ten...

Alright, I did pretty well with the lack of skin issues with radiation. I've started with a pink sunburn this week. It's not too bad on my back but it's quite tender under my arm. I know it doesn't look like much in the picture but it hurts a lot more than it looks. And think about your arm moving constantly throughout the day and rubbing against the sunburn.  On my neck/shoulder/back, my bra strap rubs. It's not a huge problem but just a little discomfort. These pictures are from the beginning of the week so it's a little more red and tender now.  This week was kind of a roller coaster. Tuesday morning, I got up, went and worked out, got going with my day and was feeling really good. I called the hospital, labor and delivery, and said, "Hey I'm feeling pretty good. What if I come and break some nurses for lunch? I could do one break before radiation and one after radiation." So I got Courtney off to school and headed to the hospital. I sent one nu...

 I've been meaning to write this post for a week now. I'm almost done with radiation. When I heard I had 25 rounds of treatment it sounded so daunting but now I only have 7 rounds left. YAY!!! I'm so excited. I've gone to the hospital Monday through Friday for the past three weeks. These three creams have saved my life. If anyone you know ever has to go through radiation give them this advice: Put the MiaDerm cream on every day, multiple times a day if you can. I got an old t-shirt that I would wear to bed and I would slather aquaphor all over the area. I don't think I'm going to have much, if any, skin breakdown.  With radiation, imagine going and getting a sunburn everyday. If you have a sunburn that peels and blisters, you can't really keep going and getting treatment. So it's kind of important to take good care of your skin to help prevent a disruption in your treatment.  When I get radiation, I can't feel anything. I go under this machine and it...