As many of you know, 7-16-15 was my last chemo round.  So how did I decide to celebrate?

With Imagine Dragons in Dallas!  Yeah!

It's a long and funny story -
Tickets for the Imagine Dragons tour went on sale in February of this year.  I bought our tickets for the American Airline Center concert on 7-17-15 as soon as I could and posted them on our fridge to remind my husband and I what we have to look forward to this summer.  But, a little over a week later, I was diagnosed with breast cancer.  I was told over the next six months I would need chemotherapy treatments and eventually schedule a surgery.  But what about my concert????  I don't want to give up my tickets and miss a great show??
As chemo came to an end, I realized that my last chemo day would be on 7-16 and the concert is on 7-17 so it was a huge win for me!


So Friday night was a blast!  After I got my last booster shot at the hospital, we headed toward the AAC - after 3 detours and numerous traffic jams of course - we finally made it!  My husband bought me a shirt as a souvenir, but also surprised me with an Imagine Dragons beanie!  I've only had it for two days so far but it is becoming one of my favorite head coverings!

The concert was great!  I love I.D, and was so happy that they covered so many songs from both of their albums.  And of course I knew the words so I got to sing along with all of them!  I got lots of pics and even got a handful of the confetti that came down during one of the last songs.  By the end of the night, I was completely exhausted.  I might have even over-done myself, but I was glad I made it and got to have a night out after such as stressful 6 rounds of chemo.

I'm finally learning how to use Twitter, so I took some fun photos that day and played around with the hashtags.  Now you can follow Go Stina Go on Facebook and Twitter!

Round 6 is over.
On to the next phase....

Thursday 7/16 was my last chemo round.  Hopefully this will be my last chemo round - ever.  Normally, every chemo round consists of four different medicines, including 2 chemos and 2 antibody medicines.  The chemo is designed to kill the cancer cells, while the antibody medicines are designed to stop any further growth and kind of act as a preventative measure.  So after this round, I don't have to do anymore chemo (whoo hoo) but I still have to go back every 3 weeks to continue 1 of the antibody medicines, until March 2016.  The doctors think this is the best option for me to help reduce any type of occurrence.  Luckily - this antibody medicine does not have any of the side effects that chemo does, so I won't have to stay overnight in Dallas anymore, I won't feel as sick and I won't have near the amount of symptoms I do now.  The only thing I have to worry about is drive time and paying down my office bill.
When I went to my visit this time, I admit I tried to avoid the finance lady who wanted to talk to me about my bill.  I thought I had succeeded,but as soon as I went into the infusion center and started my first chemo drip, she found me.  I was cornered.  She explained about the amount that was due now and how the bill was due to keep growing.  She said I could stay off of a payment plan if I brought in a payment each time I come back, which would kind of be like making a co-payment again.  Ugh.

I went home (I mean my cousin's house aka home away from home  lol) Thursday night and slept most of the night away.  Friday came and I got my last booster shot after chemo.  So glad not to have to do that again!  Once I finished up at the hospital, I left to prepare for the Imagine Dragons concert that night! - which I'll explain in the next post.  It's been a busy weekend.

From here, I have surgery scheduled August 24th for a double mastectomy.  Six weeks recovery time for that.  Ugh.  One celebration at a time.

Monday I had 3 appointments back to back in Dallas.  Phew!

First had an appt with my endocrinologist, Dr. B.  He was happy to report that my A1C is the lowest it has ever been and he is happy for me!  He adjusted my Humalog scale for the next chemo cycle and prescribe me a cheaper type of insulin to use since we had to double my Lantus dose.  That's the first time I left his office in a happy mood!

My next appt was was with the breast doctor, Dr. L.  She had a long consult with me about my upcoming mastectomy.  She is glad to say I can save all of my skin and 'landmarks', so there will not be a need for much reconstruction.  They will be putting in the expanders at the time of surgery, so I get to deal with those for several months after the surgery.  Dr. L showed me various diagrams and photos of how the surgery works, and explained what methods they'll be using with me.  She didn't go into a lot of detail since I'll have a final consultation with her in a few weeks, but she gave me some of the basics, such as that I'll be in the hospital for 2-3 days after the surgery, I'll need 6 weeks of recovery and that I'll need a lot of help at home.  Ugh.
My surgery is scheduled for August 24th, with another consultation and several pre-op tests scheduled for the week before.  That's only a short 6 weeks away :-(

My last appt for the day was with a new gastroenterologist, Dr. R.  The chemo and other meds have been giving me a lot of gastric problems, so Dr. S. sent me for a consult.  While we did a lot of talking and going back and forth with symptoms, Dr. R. is pretty sure my problems are caused by the medications, but he says he doesn't want to overlook anything, so he's sending me for a colonoscopy.  Oh joy.  My first one ever.  Of course I asked for general anesthesia - I do not want to be awake for any of that!

So it was a long day with a ton of information to take in at once.  I go back next week for my last chemo. Then the next obstacle on the horizon is the surgery....