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Old 12-06-2012, 09:13 AM   #1
Kellennea
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Join Date: Sep 2011
Location: Mt. Prospect, IL
Posts: 177
What do we do now?

Hi - Ive never posted on this particular board but I am looking for advice and thought this would be the best place to find it.

My AMAZING husband was my primary caregiver while I was going through surgery, treatment and everything that goes along with it. He gave up a lot to go through everything with me. He never missed any appointments, chemo days or surgeries.

I am 2 years out and seem to be doing well (I just graduated to 4 month check-ins with my oncologist ) I want our life to go back to how it was before (and I know that isnt 100% possible because this has turned us into 2 different people) but trying to get some kind of normalcy back is important to me. I feel like I owe that to him. The problem is that we seem to have grown apart in some small way. I asked him about it and he said " Things are different, you want to bounce back to the life we had before and I am standing here thinking, what just happened? I can't just turn off the fear and anxiety".

Whoa. I guess shame on me, because I didnt take into consideration ALL the feelings he would be feeling. Now I feel like crap and maybe a little selfish to want to move on and try and put this behind us.

Any caregivers advice? Please?

Some history: we were married in 2009, we miscarried in 2010 and then I was diagnosed 2 months later, 9 days before our first year anniversary... and for the rest of our marriage we've been fighting cancer. Not your storybook newlywed story. Now that I am better, I really want to give him those years back but I feel like he doesnt want them and he is perfectly comfortable where we are right now.
__________________
10/01/10 - Dx at age 44. Found lump after miscarrying & was told it was "probably a clogged milk duct" not so much:
stage II - invasive ductal carcinoma ER/PR+ HER2+
10/01/10 - BRCA test - Negative
11/3/10 -2.5cm tumor removed via lumpectomy, clear margins. sentinal node biopsy - nodes clear!
12/2/10 - port placement
12/2/10 to 3/17/11 - 6 rounds of taxotere, carboplatin & herceptin every 3rd week.
04/20/11 - 6/6/11 - 33 rounds of radiation
4/6/11 to 11/2/11 - 11 additional rounds of herceptin every 3rd week
7/15/11 - port removal
7/5/11 started my 5 year journey on Tamoxifen
9/4/11 -1 yr Chest MRI - CLEAN!!!!
9/5/12 -2 yr Chest MRI - CLEAN!!!!
8/29/12 - Started spotting after being in chemopause 1.5 years. Ultra sound detected 6cm ovary mass & very thick lining. YIKES! Taken off Tamoxifen
9/6/12 - Full abdominal hysterectomy. Pathology report came back clean... thank you baby Jesus!!
9/28/12 - Started Anastrozole
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