The First Day...: Thursday, September 24, 2009

...of the rest of my life! Did you know that is what today is? I wish I could tell you that it started in some extra special celebratory fashion but, alas, it did not. No, it started just like many others recently: Woke up at about 6:30 a.m. with River, then strawberries and Ezekiel cereal (still love that stuff!) during the first hour of The Today Show, and then a 30-minute walk with my mom and the dog. What's on tap for the rest of the day? Well, I just returned from purchasing eight dozen blush roses for all of my chemo nurses at Dr. E's office, all of whom I will see later today when I go in for my hydration therapy and the first of my last five Neupogen shots (a little more excruciating bone pain to endure but that's no biggie!). And since I'm feeling pretty good right now (remember, the Day 1 (IV) and Day 8 (IP) Taxol does not hit me nearly as hard as the Day 2 (IP) Cisplatin...), I think I'm going to do a design errand or two and then start digging out.

Digging out of what, you ask? Well, let's see: bills (think I have another fight with my insurance company on my hands...), mail, dog hair, blog photo postings (am going to get those Southern Swing photos up soon and a full recap of yesterday, as well), birthday thank you notes, my ovarian cancer awareness month project, which will most likely not make it to everyone until the month is over, etc. etc. I have a lot of catching up to do over the next month before I go back to work. And, in case you're wondering, I still have a lot of medical appointments as well. I'll give you a full run down on what the next several months look like for me after my last chemo planning appointment with Dr. E on Monday but the bottom-line is that while my formal treatment is over there is still much ahead, including a new anti-estrogen drug I will take everyday for at least the next five years but probably for the rest of my life (Tamoxifan), regular blood work, regular CT scans and perhaps other scans, a visit to the plastic surgeon to see what I can do to improve the look and feel of my scar short of a tummy tuck because, uh, well, there's really nothing to tuck and I hear it's a miserable surgery anyway, and much, much more.

Oh, and as for the future of this blog, I still haven't decided how long it's going to "live." I know it will live through the one year anniversary of my diagnosis (March 10, 2010) but I don't really know beyond that. I'd like to keep it to provide good news to everyone on my scans and blood work, my progress on my triathlon training (more on that in October...), as well as the various ovarian/gynecologic cancer awareness-building and fundraising activities I undertake, but part of me thinks it will need to be re-branded at a certain point, right? I mean, we know that Cancer was there now and we also know it's now gone so at some point, I think the name needs to evolve. I had a nurse suggest to me yesterday that perhaps the new name should be, "Jennie Won, Cancer 0," and I liked that a lot. Or it could be "Sans Ovaries," which is my Twitter name. Let me know if you have thoughts on re-branding/launch timeline.

Okay, I'm off to do stuff. Thanks to all of you who sent messages yesterday. They brightened my day as I lay there getting infused for THE LAST TIME!

1 comment:

  1. I am so glad that it is OVER!!!!!!! You got through it and are amazing!!

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