Hair!!!!! Last Herceptin!!!!! Survivorship!!!!!

Tomorrow is my last Herceptin, hopefully I'll have the port removed by the end of the month, and my hair is growing.  It's been one heck of a year.  A year of trials and a year filled with more blessings than I could ever imagine. 

I was asked recently "HOW DID/DO YOU GO FROM BEING A PATIENT TO BEING A SURVIVOR?"  Here is my answer - "Wow this is a tough one - I just had my one year mammogram, only one more Herceptin to go, survived mastectomy, chemo and radiation, on my third type of AI (the doctor keeps changing them hoping it will help with the pain), I'm still very fatigued and lots of pain (from the AI's? residual side effects from chemo and radiation?). I'm waiting to feel like a survivor, and wish it would happen soon, instead, I just keep waiting for the other shoe to drop. So at this point I still feel like a patient. I'd sure appreciate any tips on how to move on to feeling like a survivor. I like the idea of the the survivorship plan and the retreats."
Well, I'm happy to say, that in the last couple of weeks, I've gone from feeling like a patient (one who wrote that pathetic answer above), to feeling like a survivor.  So what helped me go from patient > survivor?  I'm not sure, but these may have contributed to the change -

• 1 year appointment with my surgeon
• a good mammogram report
• last Herceptin coming up w/port removal
• proactively dealing with the lingering side effects of treatment (find out what can be taken care of and what I will have to learn to live with)
• started yoga, swimming or walking almost every day
• conscious effort to stop thinking the negative thinking
• pray more for the grace to trust in the Lord

We choose how we handle the trials that come our way - my FNP recommended a book - "Managing your Pain Before it Manages You" - I think that can apply to a lot of things in our life besides pain - we don't choose a lot of the things that happen in our lives, but we can manage the way we deal with them!  So - now I can truly say, though I still am a patient, I'm also a SURVIVOR!!!!

And on another subject - I'm reading this wonderful book, "The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer", recommended to me by an oncology nurse.  It's kind of a big book, but worth the time, it's a fascinating history of cancer and cancer treatments, it reads like a good murder mystery, I can't wait to see how it ends!! 

God Bless you,
Linda