Best Article

This is the best article I've read in quite some time.

Life After Breast Cancer
(link fixed.. I hope!)

This section in particular struck a familiar chord:
"The crisis of breast cancer does not abate with the final chemotherapy or radiation treatments. Indeed, in many ways, the real crisis is just beginning. How do you learn to live with the sword of Damocles ever dangling? How do you come to terms with the changes in your body as well as the changes in your perspective? How do you manage the changed relationships and the intense emotions that continue into the future? These are questions with which the patient will have to struggle, as life is slowly reclaimed. Recognizing that there are existential issues that must be examined by each of us in our own hearts, there are predictable problems in many other areas that can be addressed by caregivers.

The most important facts to be given to all women as they near the end of their active treatment are that the recovery process is slow, that many find it emotionally more challenging than the months of treatment, and that they should be prepared for some days of worry, sadness, frustration, and anger. A good rule of thumb is that recovery will take as long as the total duration of treatment, counting from the day of diagnosis until the day of the final radiation or chemotherapy treatment. The issues of life before cancer will be waiting; cancer does not make other troubles disappear. It is likely that tolerance for these issues will be more limited and that patients will experience a sense of being out of sync with many friends who imagine that the cancer experience is over. "

As much as I want to move far away and never visit Cancerville again, it's not as easy as packing up the moving truck and driving as far away as I can. It sometimes feels like everyone thinks this is over now. Out of sync? You betcha! I do, however, like reading that rule of thumb.. I have another year of recovery it seems. That is something I do like.. an approximate end point. I can deal with that.

As far as my continued treatment, I've been off Arimidex for a month now. So, for a whole month, I've been taking nothing to keep breast cancer away. Kind of frightening when I look at it that way. I'll be starting Tamoxifen in a week or two. It's the more tried and true anti-hormonal. I really wanted to be on Arimidex or one of the other AIs as they've been shown to be more effective in post-menopausal women. That was even a factor in having my ovaries removed a good decade in advance of natural menopause. Tamoxifen doesn't affect the joints like the AIs can and my joints have been affected in a huge way... so tamoxifen it is. For now.

Disney and new hair pics to come... eventually. The other computer is as slow as molasses and that's the one with Photoshop, the card reader, etc. So, we'll all have to wait.

I am off to a crop tomorrow for the first time in probably two years. For my non-scrapper readers, it's an all day event where a bunch of us get together and just scrapbook all day long. Sounds ridiculous, I suppose, if you aren't into this hobby. This is my creative outlet in a huge way, so this could be fun. That is, if I actually figure out what to pack so I can actually attend! LOL. I rarely leave the spare room when I'm scrapping and I've hardly scrapped at all in the last year. I'm very much out of practice.