Last Herceptin!

Thursday, August 8^th is my sister’s birthday.  This year along with the gift I sent her in Colorado I also gave her a better gift. My last day of treatment.  I’m done with surgery, I’m done with Adriamycin, Cytoxan Chemotherapy. I’m done with Taxol Chemotherapy. I’m done with Radiation therapy. I’m now done with a year of Herceptin chemotherapy. It was the last piece in the puzzle and I’m so happy that the last piece of the puzzle is complete!

So August 8th was a true celebration. The only thing that would have made it better was if my daughter, Jaclyn and my sisters could have been here to celebrate with me.

However my husband did an amazing job celebrating with me. He took off work early to go to treatment with me. Even though I’ve been going to treatments alone since finishing Taxol, (Herceptin does not affect my driving), he wanted to go with me. I always become extremely tired after Herceptin. So a restful weekend is always in order.

Kevin and I laughed with the nurses as we all celebrated my final treatment visit. I brought treats as a thank you for being so wonderful! We laughed, hugged and said good-bye. I stopped downstairs to the radiology section to drop treats for those lovely ladies there too. I’ll miss them, but not the treatments. I trust the Lord has removed all the cancer, so visits there will in the future will only be to say hello!  Like my oncologist said last month, “well you’re looking good, and we threw the book at you.” And I smiled and said “thanks, it was a really heavy book.”

Kevin and I left University of Chicago Comprehensive Cancer Center at Silver Cross for home. My son was waiting for me to celebrate with my family. Kevin had invited my mom, brothers and their families over for dinner to celebrate. But he had more up his sleeve.

As Mindy, my sister-in-law, came armed with paper products and flowers, she began preparing veggies, appetizers and desserts. In came Mary and Dominic from Cafe Milan in Frankfort. I have known them for 15 years and they have the best caterers in the area (http://caffemilanfrankfort.com/menu.htm) They brought in more food than my family eats and I started to suspect something was afoot.

Spinach lasagna, chicken pesto, strawberry spinach salad, baked fruit and congratulatory cakes filled my kitchen counter. Then friends started arriving.  I was so thrilled to see so many people who have filled my life the past 18 months celebrating with me!

What an amazing evening!

Thank you Kevin. And Thank you Lord for bringing me through this journey. I know it will never be completely over, but I have reached to top of the mountain and can see the light streaming on my face from heaven! Every day is grace filled!

Grace embraced through every moment of love I have received and I pray that I can share it forward to others in my life through any challenging valleys they may have to travel, while praising with them for all the wonderful moments of mountaintops!

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God
not by works, so that no one can boast. Ephesians 2:7-10