7.14.25

For we walk by faith, not by sight.

2 Corinthians 5:7

Hello! I hope everyone is having a wonderful summer. I know that I said I was done with my posts but apparently I was wrong… 

Things have been going well for the most part! First I want to say that hormone dependent cancer stinks. You don’t get to finish traditional cancer treatments and then be done. There are years of treatment after. For me it’s 10 years. The tests have shown that I will greatly benefit from being on hormone therapy for 10 years. (Some people get told 5 years.) The last two years have been hard. Mainly to do with side effects from my medications. I don’t want to go into details of the exact problems with them but they were noticeable to me, to Aaron, and to the kids. I recently took a break from the 2nd medication and I’ll be starting a third one in a week or so. I’m hoping this one goes better than the last two! If not there is another option. But if that one is hard on me I’m not sure what I’ll do. The doctors really want me on some kind of hormone therapy for 10 years (I’ve completed 2 years so far..) It’s enough of a problem for me that I’ve actually been checking into alternative medicine. I’m not sure how long I can put up with negative side effects, 8 years is a long time. First I want to say I’m not anti med. I think there is a time and place for medication. Even before I had cancer I saw the side effects of some medications and decided then that if I ever needed those particular meds I just wouldn’t take them. After my cancer diagnosis, when I found out that I was supposed to be on medication because my cancer was hormone dependent I said Ok, fine. BUT, I’m not taking another medication to treat side effects that I may get. I really don’t want to go down the rabbit trail of taking more and more medications to treat side effects of the previous medication. This is my personal choice and a line in the sand I’m not willing to cross. I do have a couple of prayer requests. One: I would appreciate prayers for my medical team as they are making decisions/suggestions on my treatment plan and for Aaron and I as we navigate my options with both traditional and possibly alternative medicine. I want to have that gut feeling that I know I’m making the right decision whatever that decision is. I don’t want to “give up” on a treatment plan too early because I’m not willing to ride out some of the side effects. (How long do you give the negative side effects a chance to balance out before you say nope it’s not getting any better it’s actually getting worse??) I also don’t want to alienate my family, 8 years is a long time to be emotionally all over the place… If I’m understanding the doctors correctly not taking the hormone therapy is basically inviting myself to get cancer again. And probably sooner than later. I know that doing the hormone therapy doesn’t guarantee I won’t get cancer again.. but it is supposedly supposed to significantly reduce my chances.. 

I know that God is in control. Here’s my struggle: Do I just rest in that fact: That God is in control. Don’t worry about the possibility of getting cancer again because I am not taking any type of hormone therapy?? (Probably doing some type of alternative doctoring vs doing nothing.) Or do I try to stick with taking some kind of medication, side effects and all, knowing God has given knowledge to people in the medical field and trust that in the long run it’s in my best interest. I’m not at the end of my options for traditional doctoring. But it’s hard to decide. Prayers would definitely be appreciated!

I don’t know if any of you saw the social media post featuring Princess Catherine. She was talking about how hard it is after cancer treatments. That it’s actually harder after than it was going through cancer treatments. I whole heartily agree with her. You keep waiting for “normal” to return and it doesn’t. You look “normal” on the outside but feel anything but normal on the inside. It’s hard. And the side effects from the medication certainly don’t help. If you want to read the article featuring her you can do so here. It’s hard for people to wrap their minds around this. I was sharing it with a mom from our school year last year and she wasn’t being rude or judgmental by any means but I could see she was having a hard time understanding why it would be harder after the treatment. After all…

Cancer is gone.

You won.

Life goes on.

You look normal.

But it’s just not that simple…

On a little different note: Aaron and I went back to San Antonio for a 2nd revision. At the moment I am really happy with my results. (Even the nurse on my Friday follow-up was like “Wow! You look so good!!” 😀 ) The only “problem” is it can take 6-8 weeks to know what the final results will be. My body can reabsorb some of the fat. This leads to a 2nd prayer request of mine: It sounds kind of silly but I would really, really appreciate prayers for the fat grafting to stick. I want so badly for this to be the end of it and for me to be happy with the results.

I was a lot more sore with this revision than the last one in Feb ’24. For the first two days after surgery every time I stood up I felt like I had been in a cage fight. Gravity was not my friend! And oddly enough my eyes were messed up. I could see fine, but reading a text or any small lettering was a blur. I found that if I had my contacts in AND my glasses on I could read a text. The weird thing was my sight didn’t seem magnified by having both my contacts in and my glasses on! It was crazy! Thankfully that got better 2-3 days later. My over all pain level was noticeable better on days three and four. I feel bruised in certain areas but for the most part I’m feeling pretty good. This time they took from multiple sites for my revision. I have two holes where they took fat from my thighs, they did a little scar revision on the scar going across my abdomen so I had a couple of sutures on each side there, and then I have 4 holes in my back where they took some fat (both from my back and what I think you would call your haunches??) He put 200cc in my right side and 50cc on the left to even things out!! He also redid my port scar!!!! I was going to ask about it but it fell through the cracks going through all the other major things to revise. After we were done talking, he looked at my port scar and goes “What about that, would you like that fixed?” Pretty sure I lit up and said something like “Could we? I would love that fixed.” I know it seems trivial but I hated that scar. It was so thick. The first scar from it wasn’t bad, but I think when they took it out they cut below the first scar. So it ended up being a really wide, nasty scar. Dr. Nastala made it to a single line again. I’m so happy with it!! I have to wear wraps on my thighs for 2 weeks and then I can go to a compression short (I think for another 2-4 weeks) I also have my lovely binder and the ever so stylish surgical bra. It sounds like I can be out of both of those around the 2 week mark as long as I have high waisted compression garments and a good support bra. This time around the surgical bra isn’t as uncomfortable so thats a plus! I’m not supposed to lift more than 10 lbs for two weeks and I’m supposed to stay out of the heat for at least three weeks. They would like to prevent extra swelling in my body and to give the incisions time to heal. A little easier said than done when you are wearing extra garments from your chest through your thighs in the middle of July!

My surgery was on Monday (7.7.25) We flew home on Friday (7.11.25). Friday evening I crashed, I got super tired and really cold. Like uncontrollable shaking. I ended up taking a hot shower and going right to bed, even under a heating blanket I was still shaking!! Saturday wasn’t much better- I crashed on the couch all day and dealt with a headache that wouldn’t go away with meds. Sunday morning I woke up with the same headache and ended up dissolving two chunks of Redmond Real Salt 30m- 60m apart and that seem to really help with my headache. I’m still dealing with the lightheadedness… Hopefully that will reside soon.

I lift up my eyes to the mountains—
    where does my help come from?
 My help comes from the Lord,
    the Maker of heaven and earth.

Psalm 121:1-2

Thank you so much for your continued prayers it means so much to me!

double rainbow on our way to the airport.

Third times a charm. We finally got a rental with Texas plates!!

Largest cowboy boots in the world!

My first sea food boil. It was delish!

Here we go again…

Dr. Nastala. I’m so thankful for his expertise!

I was not feeling well after I woke up. It tends to be an issue when you are rolled back and forth while under.. The alcohol swab helps with the nauseous feeling.

I don’t know, I think I’m on the verge of a new fashion trend!

All wrapped up from my chest to my toes…

Funny story… This was our wake up alarm the day after my surgery. Yep. Fire alarms went off at like 6 a.m. Oh and we were on the top floor! Thankfully it was only four floors. 😉 We got to the second floor and they stopped but we figured we should probably go the rest of the way down just in case… It was a false alarm. They didn’t really know why they went off and the firefighters cleared the fault and said it was safe to go back up.

Some of my battle wounds.. I have two more pokes on my back farther up and another bruise on the other side to match this one…

Thursdays are apparently their slow day, so if your in Austin, TX, thats when I would recommend you go. Otherwise, you can be in line for a long time. We didn’t know that Thursdays are typically slower so we got there 2 hours before they opened and were the 2nd ones in line. The line really started to grow about an hour before they opened. They actually provide lawn chairs for you to sit in while you wait!

I sure do know how to make a fashion statement… Thankfully Aaron isn’t too easily embarrassed. This was our third trip to Texas- hopefully our last (for this reason anyways) so I went home with a cowboy hat.

I think he was done taking pictures at this point!

Thankfully this helped with my headache!!

fear not, for I am with you;
    be not dismayed, for I am your God;
I will strengthen you, I will help you,
    I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

Isaiah 41:10