SURPRISE :)

Well, my plan was to wrap up radiation on Wednesday with a big "celebration!"  I was doing my countdown dance, and my dad had even carved out time for these last 3 mornings to drive me across town to my treatment.  When I arrived today, the radiation therapist greeted me with a huge smile and asked if I was ready for my graduation.  I was a bit confused.  My doctor had told me that I was scheduled for 5 weeks or 25 treatments, which would have made Wednesday my last day.  And although I was CERTAINLY welcoming an early wrap-up, I was pretty sure there was a mistake.  However, they said that my schedule in the computer had me finishing today at 23 treatments, and that I was all done!

I was still a tiny bit skeptical, wanting to make sure that I did in fact receive all of the necessary treatments that my doctor had ordered.  So I called my radiation oncologist this afternoon, and low and behold, she had put in my plan for 23 treatments.  I'm still not positive of the reasoning for 4 1/2 weeks, rather than 5, but I'm SUPER excited to have now completed radiation!!!!  It was a little unclimactic, but it was a very welcomed surprise :)

So another milestone is complete in this cancer journey!!  I will meet with my radiation oncologist again for a follow-up, and we will discuss the next steps for reconstruction surgery with my plastic surgeon soon.  From what we were told before radiation, my body needed to be fully healed from that step before surgery could be performed, which should be about 3-6 months down the road.  Assuming my body continues to recover well from the combination of expanders and radiation, that surgery should be fairly uneventful.  There will be some recovery involved, but it should be nothing at all like the recovery from the first surgery (praise the Lord!!).

I will also continue my Herceptin infusions every three weeks for the next 5-6 months (tomorrow is my next infusion).  Since I'm still seeing my oncologist through that time, I'm not sure what the follow up care will look like after that.  I believe I will continue to see my surgeon at various intervals and will be under the care of my oncologist for the next several years.  I'm so grateful for wonderful doctors who have cared for me well up through this point, and I am confident will continue to do so.

There is much joy at this point among our family and friends, and we are so grateful to be at this point in the journey!  God has been so good throughout each phase of treatment, even on the darkest of days.  We've been stretched, molded, humbled, and at times, completely spent in suffocating exhaustion.  And yet...

"...this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope.  The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; His mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness." (Lamentations 3:21-23)

We never walk this road alone.  God is just as present in the glorious days of sunshine as He is in the most dreadful of storms, and all of those things work together for the good of those who love Him.  I realize more than ever that I am not promised anything in this life.  Not success or money, not a perfect home with a perfect family, not comfort and ease and a beautiful vacation from difficulty waiting around every corner.  The Bible says that I'm not even promised tomorrow.  We live in a fallen and broken world with tragedies, heartache, and things like cancer.  But in Christ, I am promised EVERYTHING that I need in this life and for eternity.  His grace sustains me, His joy knows no bounds, and His peace cannot compare to anything else in our human understanding.  He truly is enough, and I pray that I will continue to cling to the truths that I've learned, even when the dark clouds of life return.

Our family's next step is to try to schedule a little getaway!!  We could use some uninterrupted time together, and I'm finally feeling good enough to enjoy it :)