PROGRESS: Day 12.5

I will probably continue to do these progress updates until I’m done with my “active” treatment. That will be inclusive of radiation, but I will not consider the remainder of my Herceptin infusions and Tamoxifen as part of my active treatment even though it technically is part of it. I’ve had the same type of side effects this round as I have the others. I can’t say they have been significantly worse, but they are probably just a little bit worse than the previous round. Luckily, there are no more rounds to worry about them getting worse!

I had been experiencing some neuropathy in my right hand the day after my 12th treatment, but that has seemed to mostly have gone away thankfully. Probably if I had to have more treatments, the neuropathy would have gotten worse. I’m looking forward to my stomach acid issues going away and not having to take so much Pepcid anymore, too. I know I’ve shared in many of my previous posts that the emotional and mental toll of treatment has probably been the most challenging side effect. It will definitely be the most lasting side effect since it will be hard to not fear that it will come back. People tell me, and I hope both that it’s true and that I have all the years for it to come true, that it gets less scary and the fear isn’t so strong as time goes on.

Another weird thing I noticed is that the chemo bleached half of my left eyebrow! It’s not like I had really big, bushy eyebrows or anything. I actually have not plucked my eyebrows since I was in my early 20s! My eyebrows are brown and I’ve noticed that they’ve gotten lighter on both sides just in the last few weeks. It seems like for that to be possible, hairs must have fallen out and were replaced with lighter colored hairs. The only other thing is that the chemo made my eyebrow hair more susceptible to photobleaching, so they lightened from sun exposure like my hair does. I’m not sure if that is even possible. We will also see if my eyebrows and eyelashes completely fall out! I’ve heard people say they kept them all through treatment and then two weeks after treatment stopped – BOOM! – eyebrows and lashes fell off. Those won’t take as long to grow back though.

The thing I am most excited for is to watch my biometrics change over the next few weeks. With my hematocrit and hemoglobin so low, it’s really hard for me to recover during and after my workouts. Also, the Zoladex shot will take about 12 weeks to completely wear off (or so they say), which would mean December 14th. I might ask my oncologist about delaying the start of my Tamoxifen to see if it truly wears off and my body goes back to normal. My VO2 Max has seemed to have plateaued at 43 (it was 54), so it’ll be nice to watch that go back up. And finally, it will be nice to lose weight. I don’t know how much of the weight I gained during treatment was related to stress eating, transitioning into menopause and/or inflammation and fluid retention from treatment. I’m sure it’s a combination of all of them. Aside from the fact it will just feel more comfortable to lose weight, I think it’ll be even more important to lower my recurrence risk and my risk of developing diabetes. I’d have to find it again, but I definitely read a paper that suggested there is potentially a link between breast cancer and type II diabetes. Since I don’t remember the paper, I’m not even going to try and guess the theory or potential mechanisms. For all I know, it’s not even a very good study, but it can’t hurt to be more careful regardless.

Overall, the side effects for this final round haven’t seemed to be much worse or different from the previous rounds and it’s exciting to know it’s the last one and the weekly cycle has now ended. I have my appointment with the Radiation Oncologists tomorrow, so I expect to figure out what my specific treatment plan will be in November and I might even get it all scheduled. While I’m not exactly looking forward to that, I am excited about getting through that challenge as well.