•STRAIGHT•OUTTA•CHEMO•

Phew! These last few weeks have been filled with lots of emotions and celebrations!

As many of you already saw…I AM DONE WITH CHEMOTHERAPY!!!!! 🙌🏼🙌🏼🙌🏼 Ugggh typing that gives me so many emotions 😭🥳🤗 I am so so happy to be done with the harsh infusions. THANKFULLY treatments 5 and 6 I didn’t have as harsh of side effects that I did with 1-4. I had some days right after the infusion of fatigue and nausea but my main struggle was dealing with sinus stuff! Thank you for all your prayers…they worked 🙏🏼 I had one more infusion on May 5th of just the Heceptin and Perjeta to get one more treatment in before my surgeries.

What’s next now? I will have my Double mastectomy and reconstruction surgeries on June 2nd. That will take me between 4-6 weeks to recover. I won’t be able to lift more than 20lbs during that time, maybe some time after too, depending on how I am recovering. Some time after my surgeries I will continue the Heceptin and Perjeta combo every 3 weeks till December. These infusions are to target the HER2 receptor. I will also start radiation therapy for 33 consecutive days. I will also be going back to work at some point during that time. A LOT is going to happening in June & July. 😳

How am I feeling many ask.. that is one loaded question 😂 physically I am doing pretty good! I am gaining more energy and able to do more but still have moments of fatigue. Emotionally, I am all over the place 🤪 Gearing up for these surgeries gets me nervous since this is the biggest surgery I have ever had. BUT I know God is in control and I am putting it in His hands.

I met with the lymphedema clinic to get measurements prior to surgery. If you remember in past posts, during my scans and biopsies they saw at least 3 lymph nodes that had calcification and at least one came back from the biopsy positive with cancer. I will have at least 3 lymph nodes removed during surgery and possibly more if my surgeon sees more signs of cancer cells. Removing lymph nodes effects the lymphatic system’s drainage in your body and can cause swelling (lymphedema) in that area. Radiation therapy can also cause some of that swelling. I have been educated on ways to help prevent this from happening but also have a plan with the lymphedema doctors if it does happen.

The past few weekends we have been celebrating being done with phase one of this journey and the chemotherapy. STRAIGHT OUTTA CHEMO parties is what I’ve been calling them 💪🏼🙌🏼 I am so thankful for everyone who has come out to celebrate and has supported us through this journey.

I will update this blog as we get into the next phase but if you need me in the next few weeks, you can find me enjoying my babies and husband without feeling like crap 💕☺️

Love,

Alysa