Nine months and three days later...

Sorry for the weird formatting.  It drives me crazy when Blogger doesn't format correctly...
 
I was diagnosed with cancer nine months and three days ago.  I had my last radiation treatment this morning.  I took the day off from work, but any big plans to celebrate have been postponed because Aaron’s grandmother passed away and her wake is tonight and her funeral is tomorrow.  I did get a manicure and I went for a long walk.  I also finished putting up our outside Christmas decorations.  I’ve had a productive day and I love productivity, so say overall it’s been a great day.

I’ve been very reflective today.  I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about this past year and everything I’ve been through.  I’m relieved, tired, even kind of overwhelmed at everything that has happened.  I also feel more confident that I’m going to look back on this time as a blip in the road and I’m less scared of a re-occurrence.  I think I have to, because otherwise I’m just going to waste time worrying about things I don’t have control over.  I’m sure I’ll have my moments, but I’m feeling really good.  I think getting my energy back has made a huge difference.

I’m hoping that the next month will be a chance to celebrate with various friends that have been so amazingly supportive this year.  When I think back on the friends that I’ve made here in Massachusetts the last 11 years, the majority of them I met while working out.  For many years I had my boot camp friends and now that I live in Natick, I have my TBS friends.  On Sunday I’m doing a 5k with a bunch of my TBS friends in Cambridge.  They made shirts and everything!  I’m really looking forward to that, especially in the light of the sad news of the passing of Aaron’s Meme.  I had my first race since treatment started on Thanksgiving and I did much better than I thought I was going to.  Of course, I’m already pressuring myself to do better at this Sunday’s race.  I’ll let you know how it goes!

At this point I’m looking forward to, well, looking forward.  I’m going to enjoy the rest of the holiday season, but I’m really excited for New Year’s Eve.  I hope I can pay forward all of the kindness and generosity I’ve been touched with this year.  I have many amazing people in my life—I am a very lucky woman!

Homestretch

Written last week but never posted...at this point I only have two treatments left!  I'm still a little amazed that I'm as excited as I am.  I wasn't expected to be this excited.

This week I hit the single digits in the number of radiation treatments left.  Two weeks from today, barring no machine breakdowns or snow storms or a pause in treatment because my skin is too red, I will be done with radiation and "active treatment".

I didn't think I was going to be this excited, but at this point, I really am.  Of course, I'm doing a race with some friends on Sunday, December 8.  If my treatment gets pushed past that, that would kind of stink, since part of the point of the race is to celebrate being done with treatment.

So cross your fingers and toes!