Good News!

Hey Guys,

I had my post-treatment scans this past Monday, and I'm THRILLED to report that everything is NORMAL!!!! I had a little bit of scar tissue in my lungs (probably from living in the Ohio River Valley for my entire life) and I have to stay out of bars with lots of smoke (i.e. Newport) because of the potential for lung damage from the drugs I was on, but other than that, I've been given a clean bill of health!

I'm having a little issue with an extremely extended cold - lots of sniffles and coughing that's keeping me up at night, but otherwise I've been feeling really good! My counts are basically normal (on the low side of normal, but normal still!) and I have to take Bactrim (an antibiotic to keep away a chemo-specific pneumonia) for the next six months, but other than that I'm off pills and back on my vitamins in the hope that my hair will grow back more quickly. Once the incision from my port removal heals, I can't wait to start doing Pilates again. I want to get a little back into shape before I start my classes up in the spring, because I'm planning on taking Pilates and possibly aerobics at BW.

I'm also SUPER happy to be able to be back on my normal diet. I had my favorite salad from First Watch the other day. I hadn't been able to eat it since June because it has spicy dressing, bacon, avocados, and a few other things I haven't been allowed to eat. It was just as delicious as I remembered! I've also lost about 7lbs of what I'm assuming was water weight from steroids - not that I ever really felt like I gained weight, but it just kind of went away. I haven't been trying to lose anything, but it's nice to be back where I was when I started treatments and be (mostly) rid of the bloated stomach I've been sporting since the steroids kicked in (for awhile I felt like one of those little kids with the skinny limbs and big tummies)

My hair's sort of still coming back... it's getting a lot longer and has a little bit of a reddish cast, but it's still SO thin. I'm getting a little worried, but I guess it hasn't even been six weeks since I finished treatment. If it's still this thin at New Year's, I'm going to start to get seriously worried...

Lots of Love,

Lauren