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Re: Will you share how you "live your legacy," with me?
Hi Vicky -
You are getting some great and useful replies here.
Perhaps my legacy is remaining here on this site and carrying on what Joe and Christine started and are not here being able to participate. I do know how much they put into this site and how important it has been to so many over the years.
One thing that has been driven home to me is that I can't afford to sit back on my haunches if I want to get anything done. I have only so much "life energy" to spend each day and I need to prioritize what is important to me, my family and my circle of friends.
Thus, I have have projects unfinished because I want to take the time to think about whatever it is when I am relatively free of other "immediate" tasks, and I tend to do a little of this and a little of that until I can get that looked for chunk of time to feel I am doing something right. I found I would rather have some things unfinished than have to do them over again, as this is not how I want to spend my remaining "life energy."
Multi-tasking is not a thing of my past, but I know that I need to take on only what I can manage. The need for order in my life has taken on a different meaning that it had prior to my getting and having to fight cancer several times. It is hard enough to keep things at all simple as the ubiquitous "speed bumps" appear whether we want them or not. This I have learned - something WILL come up to slow me down or divert my path.
A cancer diagnosis made me more jealous of time taken away from me/wasted by others for any reason.
__________________
"When I hear music, I fear no danger. I am invulnerable. I see no foe. I am related to the earliest times, and to the latest." H.D. Thoreau
Live in the moment.
MY STORY SO FAR ~~~~
Found suspicious lump 9/2000
Lumpectomy, then node dissection and port placement
Stage IIB, 8 pos nodes of 18, Grade 3, ER & PR -
Adriamycin 12 weekly, taxotere 4 rounds
36 rads - very little burning
3 mos after rads liver full of tumors, Stage IV Jan 2002, one spot on sternum
Weekly Taxol, Navelbine, Herceptin for 27 rounds to NED!
2003 & 2004 no active disease - 3 weekly Herceptin + Zometa
Jan 2005 two mets to brain - Gamma Knife on Jan 18
All clear until treated cerebellum spot showing activity on Jan 2006 brain MRI & brain PET
Brain surgery on Feb 9, 2006 - no cancer, 100% radiation necrosis - tumor was still dying
Continue as NED while on Herceptin & quarterly Zometa
Fall-2006 - off Zometa - watching one small brain spot (scar?)
2007 - spot/scar in brain stable - finished anticoagulation therapy for clot along my port-a-catheter - 3 angioplasties to unblock vena cava
2008 - Brain and body still NED! Port removed and scans in Dec.
Dec 2008 - stop Herceptin - Vaccine Trial at U of W begun in Oct. of 2011
STILL NED everywhere in Feb 2014 - on wing & prayer
7/14 - Started twice yearly Zometa for my bones
Jan. 2015 checkup still shows NED
2015 Neuropathy in feet - otherwise all OK - still NED.
Same news for 2016 and all of 2017.
Nov of 2017 - had small skin cancer removed from my face. Will have Zometa end of Jan. 2018.
Last edited by StephN; 08-20-2014 at 11:26 PM..
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Hybrid Mode
