15 of 25

Today was my 15th treatment. Things are still going well. My skin is quite pink and I slather on the cream 3 times a day. Scheduling is still going smoothly. Only 10 more to go.

Tonight I lost my first finger nail. It broke off across the middle of the nail. Thankfully I have a very very thin nail growing underneath. No blood and no pain. A little tender to touch. From the looks of my other nails I have a few more to go.

I did go to an interesting course the last 2 Mondays. It was called Life After Breast Cancer. It was put on by 2 female doctors that have extra training in breast cancer. It looked at what to expect when treatment is over. The part of breast cancer that is the scariest now is the chance of recurrence. Each new ache or pain that a cancer patient feels is the chance that it may be a recurrence. 60-80% of recurrences are diagnosed within 3 years of completion of treatment. Risk of recurrence steadily delicnes with each year but never reaches 0.

For me it put recurrence into perspective. A recurrence is not a death sentance. Even people with metastic cancer can live a normal life for many years. We also looked at things like depression, anxiety, drugs and side effects. It was very informative.

So things are going well and I am continuing to read books and learn on how to live a normal life when this is all over. Somehow I think it will never be what was normal to me in the past but I will find a kind of new normal of life after breast cancer.

Have a wonderful weekend.

With love,

Carolin