Getting my groove back
Hi friends and family,
I cannot believe it is November and before we know it, it will be 2022! I can’t say I’ll miss 2021.
I had my ***LaSt*** dose of chemo on October 25th and my final visit while in active treatment to Stanford last Monday. My oncologist was so reassuring by telling me she is very confident that I’m cured of my cancer. But as so many people have told me throughout this journey, there’s no way of knowing I’m cured. There won’t be regular scans or specialized bloodwork. In many ways, I’m entering the most challenging phase: survivorship. As the doctor appointments wind down and I settle into my old routines, only time will tell if I’ve truly beat this disease (I do have an excellent prognosis though). Because of this, I’ve been trying to live it up as much as possible. Here are some of the highlights:
I was able to spend a total of 6 weeks between my June and September visits on the eastern coastline of NC, visiting my family and seeing some dear friends from my childhood. I baked a cake for my nephew Matthew’s 4th birthday and started nearly every morning with an ocean dip.
I made it up to Maine with Nate and we did our usual circuit: Boston >> Lebanon >> Rangeley >> Freedom. We foraged for mushrooms in the backcountry and I discovered I have a knack for spotting porcini. We kayaked, played scrabble, baked, hung out with livestock, and—most importantly—got to see so many friends and family that we hadn’t seen since our wedding in 2019. My heart feels much fuller now.
I spent Halloween in Asheville surrounded by my girlfriends from college and high school. I made a gigantic lobster costume that I intended to wear on the plane but chickened out when I saw it was a full flight. See photos for my lobster costume + the cute lobsterman that accompanies me in all my costume shenanigans.
These last four months have had some tough times too. With a heavy heart, I said goodbye to my brother-in-law’s father, Samir, on September 10th. I was lucky to be able to visit him in the hospital in Greensboro, NC, but it has been tough to let such a great soul leave this world. There’s no doubt his spirit will live on through his son Joe’s laugh and my nephew Mazen’s eyes. Mazen does look strikingly similar to Samir and has his hearty appetite for Lebanese food, too. We miss you so much, Samir. الله يرحمه
The final leg of my treatment will be one more surgery scheduled for December 15th. Here’s to hoping all goes smoothly and I have a quick recovery. My plastic surgeon will be removing my expanders and swapping them for implants. I’ll have about a month to recover before starting back at work full time.
In the meantime, I start back at work part time beginning TODAY! It will be nice to get back into some sort of routine. It feels amazing to get a little bit of my old energy back as the chemo meds trickle away. I’m also in the process of joining the Board of my breast cancer group (the Bay Area Young Survivors) to head up events and other parts of the organization. Im looking forward to giving back to this special group of people because I don’t know where I’d be without my BAYS peeps.
As always, thank you for your support and love throughout these last 14 months. I couldn’t have gotten this far without you.
Much love,
Katie
