Hello everyone!

It's been quite a while since I've posted, but here are 10 updates that happened in the last couple of months. (This ended up reading like a Buzzfeed list, and I'm not mad at it!)

1) Celebrated "31 & Chemo's Done" with some of my favorite people!

2) Went on a mini-honeymoon/post-chemo celebration trip with my *husband* on Jekyll Island. 

3) Got a break to recuperate from said chemo. It really does build up in your system, so it takes a
while to get back to normal. 

4) Shaved my head again to get rid of the wispy hairs, and now I have a buzz cut that's slowly getting thicker! Eyelashes are trying their hardest to come back and eyebrows are almost 100%. Catch me and my mullet this Halloween! 

5) Surgery #1 happened and oh boy... it was a rollercoaster. My surgeon changed her mind about my original plan (lumpectomy with reduction) 24 hours before surgery. Turns out she and all of the other surgeons who were consulted were only looking at my ultrasound results instead of including MRI results, as well. The original MRI showed that I had too much compromised tissue, and in reality, it all needed to come out. I ended up with a mastectomy and expander on the left, and we will do a mastectomy straight to implant on the right once I have my reconstruction 6 months after radiation. I was crushed and blindsided in the moment, but I'll do whatever I have to do to make sure this never comes back. But for the time being, I'm just really lopsided... like REALLY lopsided. 

6) I'm healing really well from surgery, and I will probably get my expander filled this Friday for the first time. It's far from a glamorous process, but I'm just grateful to have such an amazing medical team and support system.

7) We learned that my lymph nodes had a 100% response to the chemo, and all 6 that were removed we're free of cancer! 

8) Nolan continues to be a kind, patient, loving saint of a person, and he hasn't batted an eyelash this whole time. From emptying my surgery drains (a monstrously gross process), to coaching my through my recent-onset body dysmorphia, he's been truly amazing <3 

9) We are now planning for radiation to start later this month, looking into proper exercise and nutrition with our teams, and we're starting research on the maintenance medications I'll have to be on for the next 7-10 years. It will be 5 weeks long, but we are starting to get our lives back a bit. I'm excited to hang out with friends and family, revisit my hobbies, travel, and finally get settled into the new job I got not even a year ago!  

10) We are finally getting excited about our honeymoon in 2024 :) 

Love you all!! Byeeeee