Rosanna's Metastatic Breast Cancer Journey

Shortly after writing my last blog post, I had some concerning symptoms that led me to be fearful of a recurrence. Thankfully those symptoms were timed perfectly with my Dana-Farber visit. Dr. Overmoyer listened, agreed that what I was saying could be concerning, and she ordered a skin-punch biopsy of what I perceived to be the worsening redness on my inflammatory breast cancer side. This biopsy was only going to rule out a localized recurrence if it came back negative. Since being on chemo, I had not had a repeat skin biopsy, so there was no way to tell if the cancer cells had ever disappeared. We were fully expecting the biopsy to show cancer cells and then Dr. O was recommending repeat scans. Anyway... after a week of waiting, the results came in... negative for cancer cells! This is very exciting news and prompted Dr. Overmoyer to refer me to the breast surgeon & radiation oncologist at Dana-Farber to see if they think surgery is a good option for me at this point. ...

In the month since my last post, I am pleased to say that I believe my healing path has continued.  I have had three more Taxol infusions (December 13, December 27, and January 3).   I celebrated Christmas and the start of 2020 with family.  I was hit by a Christmas vacation cold, but it didn't turn into anything serious and for this I am very thankful.  Infusion #12 - Good Day Sunshine - Life is Good  Karen, the lady that offered me so much encouragement at Simon's Nursery over the summer, surprised me at Infusion #12.  This was the first time we were able to talk about our cancer diagnoses in person.  Owen telling Santa he wanted a remote control Monster Truck and an airplane.  The mention of an airplane was news to Mommy and Daddy and resulted in an impromptu shopping trip to TJ Maxx the following day... 😂 Letters written to loved ones - these were not good bye letters - just a way to say important things I wanted to say...