I’ve been waiting to type that title since I learned I had to have chemotherapy back on April 19, 2022. It’s been a long road so far and my journey isn’t done, but this phase is checked off with a big fat middle finger (thank you Savannah for the shirt, it was perfect)!

It was an emotional day for sure. Pretty much everything made me cry. Similar to what I wrote about in my last blog, when there was a slight chance that last week would have been last. The feeling of knowing I’m fighting and that I KO’d that son of a bitch!

Back to crying. Yes, I cried multiple times yesterday. Every morning I wake up at 2:30am to kiss my husband goodbye. Yesterday morning as he bent down to kiss me he told me how proud he was of me. Gosh darn it, the waterworks started at 2:30am. When I finally woke up for the day and came downstairs, I was surprised to see a couple little packages on my kitchen island along with a card. It was from my mom. Knowing I’m a hot mess, I didn’t want to read the card. I didn’t want to ugly cry to start the day off. But, of course I have to read it. It was hard to read, because I had to keep blinking and looking up. You know, so the tears don’t actually fall out of your eyes. I actually put eye makeup on, I didn’t want to mess that up before I took my iconic middle finger picture. Also, didn’t want to rub my eyes and mess up my painted on eyebrows. ha! Don’t worry, she didn’t take it personally. She also bought me a Pandora Breast Cancer necklace that reads, “Hope”, AND a Willow Tree Angel for Courage. 🥰

Thank you to everyone that texted me yesterday as well, I cried. Thanks alot. As I was driving to chemo I was listening to The Drive (duh), and the song, ‘The Final Countdown’ by Europe came on. THAT made me cry. I texted my husband to tell him, because he probably played that song on purpose. They (Sherman & Tingle) ended up calling me so Brian could give an update on me to their listeners. I’ve been an open book on this journey since my original diagnosis on March 3rd, which if you’re just tuning in was stage 0 NON-invasive ductal carcinoma. Brian and I announced it on The Drive and have had so many listeners reach out and follow my journey. Since then I’ve been fortunate enough to continue to give periodic updates on the air, from surgeries to my diagnosis changing after surgery from stage 0 to stage 2 invasive, hitting my lymph-node and finding out I’d have to go through chemotherapy. Announcing live on The Drive that I was finally finishing up my last chemo treatment was emotional and I cried again. I should have carried around a ‘Cry-O-Meter’ yesterday.

Back to crying. As I sat down in my normal recliner in the cancer clinic my favorite nurse came over to say hi. Sometimes it’s only luck of the draw that I’m able to have her as my nurse, depending on how busy they are and which other nurses are working the floor. Yesterday she came over and told me that specifically switched shifts with another nurse just to be there for my last treatment. Shit… I’m going to cry again, but seriously holding it back because everyone doesn’t need to see me like this! It was so thoughtful though for her to remember that it would be my last treatment. I never thought I’d develop relationships with these nurses, share stories, learn about their families and they learn about mine. I wasn’t just a patient to most of them, and it was those nurses that made going in for treatment more tolerable. Some days I’d walk in and think, “oh, I can’t wait to find out how her son is doing because last week she told me he hurt his shoulder in baseball.” She remembered our conversations too and would ask for updates like, “how was your mom’s surprise party?!?!”.

Back to crying. Treatment is in full force and I get another text. It’s from my oldest son, Evan. “Happy last chemo!!!! Good luck! I love you!” You know what happened next, I don’t have to tell you. Love him.

So this treatment is done now. I won’t be back to this clinic until 2 weeks after I finish radiation. My Oncologist tells me that at that point I will get lab work and we start injections to, “put my ovaries to sleep”. Awww… that’s so nice of you to sugarcoat this. Call it what it is though, ‘to kill my ovaries.’ I’m a big girl. In addition to these monthly shots, I’ll also start taking a daily pill to further push me into menopause. My cancer is estrogen feeding, so we need to kill off and minimize the opportunity for my body to produce estrogen. All part of the journey. As I walk out to my car, I of course need to take one more selfie. The ending pic. I’m in the car like a teenage girl taking selfies of myself when a car pulls up next to me. Who is it? The husband! He came to surprise me and tell me again how much he loves me and how proud he is of me. You know what happened next. Cry-O-Meter. Love him.

To end the extremely emotional day my mom took us out to dinner to celebrate and cheers. That we did! Love her. Also opened a gift from my in-laws with another tear jerker note of encouragement. In fact they actually send me card before almost every treatment just to let me know they’re thinking of me and they’re counting down my treatments. Love them.

Thank you everyone for ‘congrats’ on finishing this part of the journey. I still have a long way to go, but to close out this part is satisfying, both physically and emotionally. My youngest asked me what was next. I let him know next I’ll be going through radiation. He had questions on what that meant and if it will hurt me. After explaining how radiation works and being honest that my skin will likely hurt in that area and be red like a sun burn he responded by saying, “sounds like it’s better than cancer”. Yes Jesse, yes it is. Love him.

To end on happy notes… My hair continues to try to grow back. It’s obviously thin and growing in patches, so maybe for Halloween I can go as a cheetah?

Sherman family had an outing to the Blackhawks preseason game last weekend. Didn’t come home with a win in the game, but family time was a win.

Next week I go for my radiation scan and hopefully soon will get the official start date of radiation so I can start a 28 round countdown to that. Until then, no scented deodorant (boo), no scented body wash (boo. boo.) no shaving armpits (good thing it’s getting colder… you’re welcome).

Until my next blog… reminder, it’s Breast Cancer Awareness month, get your boobies checked!