ok it's been a while since my last update.

I am DONE!!!!  Well at least with radiation treatments.  During my treatments it appeared as though my skin handled it really well.  However.....

After my last radiation treatment my skin really started turning REALLY dark in my armpit and around the entire area where my surgery scar is....and what is really weird is that I have REALLY dark spots....all over the area too....looks like a dark rash or just dark polka dots -its pretty weird and ugly.

My armpit area is bit sensitive, but not too bad, I am still applying the medicated ointment and aquaphor daily.  But I am glad to be done with radiation and lucky that I didn't get too horribly fatigued by it either.

So now I have done some follow up visits with my oncologist, the radiation dr., the reconstruction surgeon and my regular surgeon (on my gall bladder).

- Oncologist says I will need to have immunotherapy 4-5 times, this is given by IV once every 6 weeks.  This is a drug called Keytruda that puts antigens into my system to help build my immune system to fight off any potential cancer cells from coming back.  Many times with triple negative breast cancer, if it does come back, it can come back in the brain 😱  that is pretty frightening...so ok I need to do this!

- Also my oncologist is putting me on a low-dose chemo pill, which is a maintenance pill that I will take for one year.  It is a very low dose, so I won't lose my hair and doesn't have the side effects that regular chemo has.  The most common side effects are diarrhea (that won't be funny....just runny) and my skin on the palms of my hands and feet might peel (weird) - so we will see - maybe I'll get lucky and not really be affected all that much 🤷

- my radiation dr. says my skin was doing fine and it tolerated radiation better than most patients...i follow up again sometime in May

- my plastic surgeon, in 6 months I will be going in for a procedure to suck out fat from another part of the body (hey free lipo) and they inject it into the breast area to give the area some good fat cells to help the skin recover and be more stretchy.  About 2-3 months after that procedure they take a look at the skin again to see if it's able to stretch enough to put an expander in place.  Note that the right side should be fine for an expander already....as it didn't get radiated.  If the skin still is too tough to stretch, then we talk about other procedures that can be done.

- my surgeon for my gall bladder says that I don't really need to take it out unless it flares up again....or if I really can't maintain a lower fat diet.  But she said I can eat a steak!!!!  AND I'm going to!!!!  Just as long as it's not cooked in butter.  So I did tell her I wanted to push the envelope a bit with my fat intake in my diet...and she said to just go slow...but to stay clear of fried foods, lots of butter and oils.....and cheese (that makes me wanna cry).  I have experimented with some cheese in my diet...I just have to measure it out and make sure it doesn't exceed a certain amount of fat grams per meal.  I can do this for a bit I think......I'm gonna try to continue with the lowfat diet for now. (but I REALLY miss eating cheese)

My fingernails have grown back really nice...I should go get a manicure now.  My toenails have not quite grown back all the way...and some of them are still really dark.  I do still have some lingering neuropathy in my feet, which mostly only bother me at night.  I no longer have any neuropathy in my hands, which is great.

My hair......well.......I'm turning into a chia head...my hair is starting to grow long enough that those pesky curls are showing up.  Ok these are not nice curls.....these are frizz-head curls...trust me you don't want these types of curls...they are not good!  So I'll be glad when my hair is actually long enough to straighten again!!!!

Otherwise I feel great, wonderful, energetic!  It's nice to not feel like I'm being poisoned or damaged!  So I am enjoying this time!

I am hoping to be eligible for the COVID vaccine March 15th as a person with underlying health conditions - fingers crossed!

Looking forward to traveling a couple of places this month.  This weekend we are head to AZ - phoenix area, the girls have a LAX (Lacrosse) tournament this weekend in Mesa, AZ....so looking forward to seeing our AZ family this weekend.  While we are there, we are going to have Maddie tour University of AZ, since she was accepted there (and given some scholarship $$).

Then at the end of March we are flying to Louisiana....can not wait to see my family there too.  But while we are there, Maddie will also be touring LSU, because she was also accepted there and given some scholarship $$.

After I do get the covid vaccine....I will be planning a trip to Dallas, TX to visit my 90 year old MawMaw......she and I have a date!  We promised that after this Covid crap died down and I was cancer free we would go out and celebrate....and I intend to make that happen!!!

I want to thank everyone for following me on my journey....for sending me cards, gifts, words of encouragement, prayers, phone calls, text messages....all the good feels that helped keep my spirits up, especially in times of darkness and feelings of helplessness, frustration, despair and even defeat.  It really make the biggest difference in my fight....I don't even know how to properly describe how much I appreciate it all....other than giving the biggest, most heartfelt THANK YOU ❤️

I feel like my journey isn't quite over....but I do want to celebrate being DONE with treating this cancer and being free of it.  However I know these next 2 years are crucial to keeping a VERY close eye on my body and to act immediately if it surfaces or tries to come back.  I really hope and pray it doesn't.

So I am choosing to say I am cancer free on Feb. 18th every year!  I hope you will toast and cheer with me every year on this day!  And I hope that we do this every year until I'm old and done here on earth.

Cheers!! 🥂