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Hi Team,

Happy Monday. Lots of news today - mostly good!

Cat scan came in clear (other than the tumor in my breast we already knew about). Funny thing I forgot to share about the cat scan last Friday - the technician who administers it injects you with a bunch of dye to be able to show up in the scan - as he does this, he says to me "you may feel like you have to pee or that you ARE peeing. Don't worry, you're not. It's just the pelvis arteries dilating very quickly." Awesome. But this is actually really good/important news that it came back clean because that means as far as they can tell, the cancer has not spread into far regions of my body. Breast cancer is a curable disease as long as it doesn't spread too far!

Today I also did a MUGAscan (got moved up from Wednesday, that is the mugascan machine to the left). Very interesting process. They take a vial of my blood, leave the IV in my arm for 30 mins while they label the blood with radioactive tracers. They then inject the blood back into me, and put the machine over me to trace for 10 mins as the blood moves through my heart. They can tell how healthy the function of my heart is by doing this. Good news! My heart is very healthy, beating 75% of it's blood through on every beat. Normal is anything above 60%.

The last thing medically related was that I got a voicemail today, the nurse from the oncology department, scheduling my first chemo session. Monday April 19th, at 1:15pm I will start my first infusion and it lasts 3 hours. For some reason that hit me a little hard, it's here, and it's a week away. Pretty soon all these tests and labs are going to get real, and quick. So far I really haven't felt bad other than the emotional stress of dealing with the diagnosis and the occasional prick or bruise from biopsy or IV/blood tests. I am nervous about the chemo. I know all the side effects, I've done my homework and they don't look fun. And based on my calculations, every 2 weeks for 4 months means I won't be done until July 26th. That's of course assuming everything goes to schedule and we don't have to delay at all. July 26th seems like a long time to feel really crappy. Mom will be here on Thursday for a month which will be nice, but I am going to somehow have to learn to cope and manage my quality of life. It seems like the beginning part of a roller coaster where you keep scooting up to the top of a really tall hill and I am just about to get to the peak where I can see that plunge and I am scared shitless. I know I'll make it to the end because lots of people have done this before, and I am a feisty one, but I am sure as shit not looking forward to it.

That said, she did also say in her voicemail that I can bring as many people to my chemo appointments as fit in the room - I haven't seen the room yet, but I was thinking a salsa dancing workshop maybe? I will only take the first ones to RSVP so hurry up, first come first serve ;) PS. I will give priority dates to smokers trying to quit and want to see what it will be like when they get lung cancer

Love,
Amy