Wedding Planning and Chemo. I'll take it!

So I have some really exciting news!!!!! My amazing, wonderful, handsome boyfriend PROPOSED on Thanksgiving!!!! I was so shocked and excited. I really didn't see it coming, he did a great job keeping it a secret from me! It happened at my 93 year old grandmother, nanny's, house a place that is very special to me. He proposed after our big meal and after the Cowboy game ended, in front of 17 of my family members including his mom Arlene who was visiting all the way from Canada. My mom and stepdad were prepared with two nice champagne glasses and some good champagne to celebrate, and celebrate we did until about 1:00 AM! It could not have been more perfect. The ring is amazing- so sparkly and so "us." I'm so impressed with Kelly, my "fiancé!"

I'm also so very excited to have some GOOD news and a big party to plan and look forward to. It's a bit of a challenge getting things planned through my "wedding road blocks" of chemo, a mastectomy, radiation, and reconstruction, but I think we'll manage. :) I may not look totally like myself or quite as I had planned to look on my wedding day but the main thing is that WE GET MARRIED!!!! So excited to be married to my fabulous man! 

Tomorrow will be my 5th chemo treatment and my first Taxol/Carboplatin treatment. I should know by tomorrow whether or not I have the "cancer gene". Fingers crossed that I don't! I think the next 4 treatments will last a little longer- like around three hours to get both drugs. (update- it took four and a half hours! I slept through two hours of it though bc they gave me benadryl.) :)  Kelly is in Chicago and then heading to Toronto with the team this week so my mom will be going to chemo with me. I have a feeling we'll do some wedding planning while I sit in my chemo chair. Works for me! Also- I was given two JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE tickets for tomorrow's concert at the AAC so I'm going to pray that I feel OK after chemo! These drugs are not supposed to be as tough on the body as my last two (which weren't even too bad for me) so I'm hoping that I will feel good enough to dance tomorrow night! :) 

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving, are loving on your hair and not sweating the small stuff in life. The holiday season can be busy and crazy but it's such a good time to reflect on how lucky we all are- (especially if you are blessed with fabulous hair and good health! ;) )  I'm so thankful for my amazing family who is helping me through this battle, my great, knowledgeable doctors, and my strong, supportive fiance, and I'm really looking forward to the Christmas season. Until next time!

XOXO

Julie

Just after the proposal :) 

My gorgeous ring that Kelly picked out all on his own!

My new family! Little did I know they were not just cooking here but also scheming :)

Things are coming along...

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! This blog was supposed to be posted a week ago but things got busy and here we are today :) Here's last week's update and I'll follow with another!

Last Wednesday I went in for my 4th chemo treatment and got a lot of news. Kelly was my chemo partner this time which is always great :) I love when he can be with me. First I went in for my blood work which was all good. That means I can proceed to get the chemo treatment. My doctors were running a little behind so I went and did my 30 minute workout with FITSteps for Life after I got my blood work done. I like doing this workout and who knows, maybe it is part of the reason my side effects have been kept at bay and the cancer is shrinking. So after the workout I went to visit my doctor and her nurse Christina. She told me that she is going to add Carboplatin to my drug "recipe" for the last four sessions. This is the drug that has been good at producing a "pathological complete response"to the chemo- which means that they hope the cancer will be ALL THE WAY gone before surgery and NEVER COME BACK. I really hope it is ALL THE WAY GONE and NEVER COMES BACK!!!! Work, Carboplatin, work!! :) I will get this drug along with a drug called Taxol every three weeks. So my treatments will now move from every 2 weeks to every 3 weeks. It will be nice to not have to worry about chemo every couple of weeks but the down side is that it pushes everything back by three weeks. My first Carboplatin/Taxol treatment will be December 4th. The chemo will now take me through the end of February. So that means my surgery will most likely be at the beginning of March. I'm a little bummed because Kelly and I will basically be off for the whole month of February for the NHL's Olympic break. It would have been good timing to have surgery and recover without having to miss any work. March will get super busy for us again so it's not the ideal time... but let's be real, I guess there's never an ideal time to have your boobs cut off!! :0 I can't stress about it as that won't do me any good. So mastectomy will be early March, then I recover for about three weeks and then I will most likely start radiation. Radiation will last 5-6 weeks and is every day Monday through Friday for 15 minutes. That will be tough. Not sure how that's all going to work with my schedule but we'll see! Then I need to rest and recover for three whole months before my reconstruction, which puts me at about August for that big time surgery.  It' s a lot longer timeline than I was hoping. I will have "expanders" put in with my mastectomy and will keep those until my reconstruction. They fill the expanders every month or so with salene which will help to progressively stretch your skin out to be able to fully finish the reconstruction. I have soooo many questions about all of this and now have an appointment set up with my plastic surgeon for December 18th and I'll get to find out a lot more! Hope everyone has a great Holiday weekend!! XO

Julie