Nearing the end!

Hello all! It has been a while since my last post. I was hoping the title of this post would be "My Journey is now Complete!" But unfortunately it's not quite over. The good news is I am done with chemo! After 15 months I am finally done. I want to thank everyone who was able to join me for a drink to toast this milestone! If you missed out don't worry. We plan to host a BBQ this summer to celebrate! I had my surgery the week after chemo was complete and it was a relatively easy surgery. Checked in by 6:15am and was home by 10:30! The surgeon removed my tissue expanders (aka softballs), put in my permanent implants and removed my port-a-cath. My surgeon was very surprised at the small amount of damage done to my chest by the radiation so he was able to use both previous incisions. One less scar! Although I guess I was grumpy when I woke up from the surgery. Apparently I didn't think my surgeon had been generous enough with my new tatas! I actually think I was just done. I am tired of being the patient! The surgery was on Holy Thursday. The weekend was wonderful with lots of family around to celebrate both Easter and 2 members of the Bellerive family joining the church. My parents were here along with my sister and her family as well as some dear family friends and of course 40+ Bellerive's. It was a wonderful celebration. On Monday my mother suggested I call my surgeon as one breast was rather red. He of course wanted to see me. My intention was to get a pill and go on my way. Crate & Barrel was having a sale and I wanted to stop by. Well, of course things never quite go according to plan. After a quick exam he decided I had cellulitis, an infection in the breast. So off to the hospital we went. I was admitted and administered IV antibiotics. The antibiotics are very strong and can only be administered IV. I stayed the night Monday night. The antibiotics have to be administered every 12 hours so in between the doses I just sat. As you can imagine I got a little grumpy. This was just not supposed to be part of the plan! On Tuesday, Regan's 15th birthday, they decided that with the help of home healthcare I could go home and administer the IV myself. Unfortunately I had removed my port-a-cath during surgery so they had to insert a different central line. It's called a PICC line, or a "Peripherally Inserted Central Catheter". They did this at the hospital on Tuesday. It goes in through my upper right arm with a catheter directly to my heart. As most of you know I never do things the easy way so they had a little trouble getting the catheter in the right place. My veins are pretty much shot from all the chemo so they collapsed. They were able to get it in with the help of nitroglycerin. So now both my chest and my arm are sore! Dr. Bellerive (James) and Alex have been doing a wonderful job administering my antibiotics 2x per day. Hopefully the drugs work their magic and we can save the implant. The alternative is more surgery so this damn well better work! To me it looks much better.

In the meantime, Regan injured her ankle in a soccer game the Tuesday before my surgery so she has been in a boot. She is very bummed out about not being able to play. In addition cheerleading try-outs are tonight so she has been rather stressed. I am sure she has pushed herself way too hard this week. This morning she fell down the stairs :( She says she saved the ankle and only put a little pressure on it. Of course the fall came before she put on the boot! She plans to go all out at try-outs today and hopefully be ready to play soccer next week. Not to be discouraging but I think that is overly optimistic.

Thank you to everyone for the food and all your thoughts and prayers! As I tell my children God has a reason for everything. If a door closes go look for the window, you never know what wonderful things you may find along the way!

Peace to all!