Thankful, Grateful, Blessed

Well I enjoyed a wonderful two weeks with NOTHING on my calendar.  No appointments, no treatments……just NOTHING.  What a blessing that was.  I didn’t feel my best earlier in the week – I had some headaches, wasn’t sleeping great and just feeling yucky…..almost like I was trying to come down with something, but thankfully, that passed and I felt much better as the week went on.  I enjoyed a lot of Netflix time.

***Side note – if you have Netflix and HAVE NOT watched Parenthood……oh my……add that to your list of MUST SEE TV.  It really is an awesome show!!  Yeah – I mighta watched all 6 seasons in record time!  #allthefeels #missthebravermans #reallifestuff

Wednesday I had my follow-up appointment with my medical oncologist.  My blood work was incredible she said.  My potassium was a bit low – but other than that, everything looked fantastic.  Praise God!  My radiation burns are healing nicely.  The area under my arm pit is almost completely healed.

We discussed immunotherapy and she put me on Tamoxifen for the next 10 years.  I admit I was startled when she said 10 years – most folks I know that have taken Tamoxifen have only been on it for 5 years……but as we all know, things change.  There are new studies out indicating that studies have shown that taking tamoxifen for 10 years reduced the risk of breast cancer recurrence and death more than taking tamoxifen 5 years……so there ya go.

As with any drug – there’s a host of potential side effects…….so the plan is for me to start on the Tamoxifen and go back to the doctor in April to see how I’m tolerating the drug.  I hope and pray that I don’t have any issues with it – but she assured me there were other options for me if this one didn’t work out.

I will go back next month for a bone-density test.  So between follow ups with the surgeon, medical oncologist and radiation oncologist – my Duke My Chart is already full of return appointments set up for the rest of the year.  They said the first year is the worst – lots of follow-ups and return visits.  I will see the surgeon every 6 months for 2 years.  I’m already scheduled to return to the surgeon for a visit and a mammogram in May.  But……the hard stuff is behind me.  I can handle random appointments and tests for sure.

These last 9 months have seemed like an eternity and then they seem to have passed rather quickly.  So much has happened…….I have encountered so much GOOD over the past 9 months.  I have been loved on like nobody’s business.  From family, friends and folks I didn’t even know.  I have felt the overwhelming power of prayer – and the peace that only God can give us.  I’ve been moved to tears when I had friends say “I was up and down all night praying for you” and I’ve been the recipient of so much love and kindness in so many forms (cards, food, texts, visits, calls, gifts, money, transportation, prayers, etc).  I will be forever grateful…..and I know I got a little slack on thank you notes…..but please know that I appreciate every act of kindness that has been shown to me and my family during all this mess.

Several folks have asked if I”ll continue blogging.  My initial thought is this……I pray my life is uneventful enough that I won’t have much to say! 🙂  But……if you know me…….you know I’m typically not ever at a loss for words no matter how mundane and uneventful life may be.  So we’ll just see.  Stay tuned!

My prayer has been that God would take my MESS and turn it into a MESSage.……and for the rest of my life, I will continue to praise Him for the many ways He has blessed me always…….but especially over the past year…..and I will continue to share my personal testimony of how He saw me through one of the toughest battles of my life.  I have been praying for God to reveal to me my “purpose”…….and I trust that He will answer me……in His time.

Until next time,

Sonja

Acts 20:24 The Message (MSG)

22-24 “But there is another urgency before me now. I feel compelled to go to Jerusalem. I’m completely in the dark about what will happen when I get there. I do know that it won’t be any picnic, for the Holy Spirit has let me know repeatedly and clearly that there are hard times and imprisonment ahead. But that matters little. What matters most to me is to finish what God started: the job the Master Jesus gave me of letting everyone I meet know all about this incredibly extravagant generosity of God.

Author: temporarylumps

A Christian wife, mom, daughter and friend View all posts by temporarylumps