Treatment Complete!

Wow! I can't believe I can finally say that my treatments are done! One year and 52 treatments later, I am finished! My last one today was bittersweet. I was elated of course to be finishing, but also sad that my Thursday outings were coming to an end. Not that I will miss the treatments themselves. I am very looking forward to seeing if the tiredness and achy joints will go away now that I have finished. I am, however, going to miss that I have a set Thursday appointment every week to eat lunch by myself, whatever I want, and then have an hour to do nothing but sit, read, watch t.v., listen to my i-pod, or sleep...whatever I prefer! I am seriously tempted to make up an appointment so that I can keep my weekly quiet time. :)

Today when I left my appointment, I called my husband and then got all choked up. I am really going to miss Lori, my nurse. She has made all the difference in the world for me. I have spent an hour, and sometimes more, with her 1 day a week for a year. I started off going every Tuesday, but that got crazy. Sometimes there would be 15 people hooked up to machines getting treatments and twice I could not even find a seat. So, one day I asked if I could switch to Thursdays. I am so glad that I did. The rest of the year, there has never been more than 2 other people getting treatment while I was there and sometimes I was the only one. This has allowed Lori and I to sit and chat, look up stuff on our phones and the internet, and we even ate lunch together today while I got treatment. I can truly say that she is no longer just my nurse, but she has become my friend! A special gift that God has given me as I navigated this difficult journey.

So, now the countdown begins as I head into the downhill stretch. Next week I get a week off and then I hit the ground running. The following week I will have my last echocardiogram, then the next week I will meet one more time before surgery with my plastic surgeon and oncologist, and the following week will be my reconstructive surgery. I am tired and nervous, but ready to finish what was started just over 1 year ago.