Here I am holding my certificate of completion from the Radiation Oncology office.  It says that I completed my course of radiation.  Way cool.  I hung it on my fridge like a report card, or a diploma!


Here are my kids helping celebrate.  We had IBC root beer!!! 


As I was laying in bed last night, I had a very vivid memory come into my mind.  I remembered that night a year ago, when I was surfing the internet trying to figure out what was wrong with my back, leg and knee.  I had been having quite a bit of pain, and it was to the point that I couldn't lift 1 year old Ammon.  I couldn't walk up the stairs without tons of effort and pain.   I had been to see an orthopedic surgeon, and he told me he suspected I had a bulging disc in my back which was pinching on a nerve and causing my pain.  A couple of weeks before that I had been to my OBGYN and had asked about my swelling and red breast.  He had said that it was probably just scar tissue causing engorgement from milk in the ducts.  So I decided to google that, and read about it, and that was when I first stumbled over the term inflammatory breast cancer.  I had a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach, and I briefly allowed my mind to wander and imagine what would happen if I indeed had breast cancer.  I thought about how hard it would be to go through treatment, and how hard it would be for my family.  I told myself not to be silly and worry about something like that, and tried to put the worry out of my mind. 
 
Now here I am, 8 months later, having successfully battled cancer.  I just feel like dancing!!!!  I am DONE with treatment.  My mantra the last 8 months has been, I have to get through chemo, I have to get through surgery, I have to get through radiation.  Now here I am, DONE.   I got through it!!!!!  I don't have this big obstacle to overcome in front of me anymore.  I feel like I have finished a marathon.  I never thought I would actually be able to do it, but here I am, DONE!!!!  Did I mention I'm DONE!!!!!  

Now, DONE is a theoretical term.  I will have to take a pill daily, and receive an hour and a half IV infusion of Herceptin every 3 weeks, and a 30 minute IV infusion of Zometa monthly for the rest of my life.  I will have to do these treatments to keep my cancer stable.

A lot of people have asked, so are you in remission now?  The answer is that once you are stage 4 cancer with multiple metastases, there is no remission.  No matter how well the treatments work, there are still going to be cancer cells left.  My oncologist told me that remission translates to cure in people's minds, and stage 4 cancer is incurable.  However it is treatable, with pretty good quality of life.  I have  a long ways to go to get my energy and strength (AND HAIR!!!!) back.  I still have pain where the cancer damaged my bone, and I have a lot of healing to go from radiation.  My quality of life is better now than it was a year ago.  I hope to continue to get feeling even better, and have this period of "stable disease" (Which is how my onc defines my condition) for months and hopefully years.  We have already seen so many miracles, I am sure that we can have a miracle of having no progression of cancer for a long, long, time.  

Now all that being said, please know that there is no way in the world that we could've made it through all of this treatment and sickness without all of the help from our family, friends, and people we don't even know.  All of the prayers, all of the service, all of the child care, all of the meals, kindnesses more than I can even count, have made it possible to endure our trial.  Thank you again.  I know I say it a lot, but I mean it.  THANK YOU!!!!!!

1/21/2008 06:24:22 am

Amber,

I CAN'T BELIEVE IT. Congratulations! I also can't believe it's been a year. Keep it up.

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1/21/2008 01:14:33 pm

Congrats!!!!! You are an example to us all!

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Heather
2/5/2008 04:11:10 am

I am so glad that it has come to this...to you being able to say "you are done" and not some other outcome. It is because of your attitude and example to everyone that you survived this. I think that I am going to give my informative speech for my communications class on IBC, the disease and not the drink! ha ha! I want to inform people so that maybe one day they can help someone find out sooner that they may have something more serious than a breast infection. Planting a seed per say. I will need some help from you of course because now you are an expert on the disease. Love Ya!

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