Anniversaries and Turning Corners

Dear Ones,

We noted the first anniversary of this adventure in late June. 

Happenstance got me back to Dr. Mrose, my favorite radiologist at Bay Radiology, for my first set of mammograms exactly a year after I had been in because of the lump I found in my breast.  All is well in mammo-land these days. 

As I continue to play with western medicine, there has finally been a shift to looking forward to long term health! A welcome relief from the "you are a cancer patient, you have cancer" mindset.  Now, the reality is that most of what I can do to support my system and offer it opportunities for wellness are outside of traditional medicine, and I have arranged a team of docs who are supportive of holistic health care, thank goodness!

So, I will be taking Tamoxifen for a couple of years, and then other drugs to reduce the risk of a re-occurrence.  Tamoxifen is pretty interesting and feels important in my situation, it blocks/interferes with estrogen receptors, especially in the breast.  Since the cancer in my breast was estrogen-positive, blocking some of that makes sense to me.  I had been aware of and working to shift the estrogen dominance in my body for many years, Tamoxifen is doing that for me, with sledge-hammer style results.

Because of the Tamoxifen, I have had to get my ovaries and uterus checked out, fun! We also had a unscheduled trip to the ER to rule out deep vein thrombosis one evening.  Thankfully I got to go home with the diagnosis of unspecified rash.  The leg cramps are epic and about a few of the other side effects - that will remain private.

Beyond that, there isn't anything else to do, except be healthy and take good care of myself. (And lots of supplements!) It is a very strange feeling,  after such intensive treatment for almost a year, to then be, simply done.  Hmmm... This huge threat, major danger has been treated, and now I am simply done.  "Come back and see us in three months." Wow.

Now, don't get me wrong, I am really happy to step back into my life and get distance from all of that, and it is a somewhat rough transition and redefinition of self.

But hey, I have gotten to re-define myself so many times in this lifetime and especially in the last year!

Have you seen the hair? 
I love it, it's staying short and blonde!

Blessings to you all,

~Amelia

Who also no longer has a medi-port in her body either, yahoo!