Rosanna's Metastatic Breast Cancer Journey

I had my final round of red sunshine today. 🌞  My oncologist was on vacation so I saw a different oncologist.  He was very amazed by how well I am doing and said I could be a poster child for the toughest chemo treatment there is.  I'm feeling very blessed that I have responded to and tolerated this treatment so well.  I also met with palliative care.  Apparently I was referred back in May when I was in a lot of pain and the referral got lost in the system.  They insisted I meet with them, but the doctor quickly realized there was no need to meet because I am not in any pain and I am experiencing very few side effects.  My 60 minute appointment turned into a 15 minute visit. Forever thankful for my beautiful sister. In the next few weeks I will have a PET scan and MRI to look at how much progress has been made. I'm excited for these results.  We are still waiting to hear what the next treatment will be.  The tumor tissue is still...

Last week was a busy week.  My mom, Jason, and I went to Dana-Farber on Monday to see Dr. Overmoyer.  While waiting for my appointment, I had the opportunity to visit with three of my former co-workers.  It was nice to see familiar faces in a not so familiar place.   Dr. Overmoyer was impressed with the improvements that you can see/that I can feel.  She felt it was time for a CT scan and set up a schedule of treatment/imaging to get me through the summer and into the fall.  She also gave me the week off from chemo because she wanted the CT scan before I had any more chemo. When she was getting ready to leave the room, I thanked her for giving me hope in this journey.   She turned around and said, "Thank you for getting well."  The words brought tears to my eyes.  I felt I was getting better, but to hear a doctor say it was so encouraging.  I am getting well.  Almost to the point that I can remove the word "getting" from that sent...

Music has always been something that I valued and appreciated.  Lyrics speak to my soul and I listen for the message in every song.  When my cancer journey began, my sister asked me if I had picked a "battle" song yet.  I'm still working on finding the perfect song, and I can't imagine picking just one song. As I was thinking about this last night, it dawned on me that one has been staring me in my face my whole life and I had never really thought about it as a cancer fight song.  In a way it could be considered my family's theme song: Dream On. More than 40 years ago, my dad set out to be a full-time lobsterman.  He had a boat and a dream to go fishing the way his father and brother had done.  He chose to name the boat "Dream On" after Aerosmith's hit, "Dream On."  This boat is still the boat my father fishes on.  In an industry where most fishermen go for newer, faster, and bigger boats, my dad has had the same trusty boat for over 40 y...