Curve ball- when something comes your way that is unexpected.  Up until this point the cards I had been dealt with this whole diagnosis I knew what the outcome would be.  December 30th would be my last day of chemo and I would prepare for surgery and then put all this behind us.

My last chemo session on December 2nd I had my second round of Taxol.  It started just like a normal session blood work, meet with my oncologist and then start my infusion.  After I was given my pre-meds of Pepcid, Benadryl and dexamethasone I was about to enter into my snooze fest.  The nurse comes in with my drug Taxol and is about to start the drip but informs me that she will sit with me for 30 minutes after she starts it to make sure I don’t have an allergic reaction.  While she is explaining this to me my throat starts to close up and I am having trouble breathing.  I signal this to her and she states that the drug has not even started yet.  Regardless she acts quick on her feet and administers yet another steroid, solucortef.  She said this is common to happen at the second session and is not concerned.  Because of this reaction my chemo gets pushed by an hour and keeps us there until 3pm.  This was something I was of course not expecting since my body has been responding to everything else so amazing.  Little bumps in the road happen and this was mine.

I have this personality that when something is going on in my life I can not focus or put my energy towards anything else until the issue at hand is resolved.  With this diagnosis being at the forefront of my daily life everything else has been put on the back burner. My husband, Bar on the other hand is amazing when it comes to solving multiple issues all at once.  One thing we had wanted to do after Kiaan was born was to decide on getting a more family friendly car.  I knew that this was the last thing on my mind right now and wanted to think about it after all this was behind us.  My husband had other plans.  Last week he calls me on his way home from work and says that we are going to stop at the Acura dealership on our way to dinner that night to at least test drive some cars.  I agree and that night we ended up purchasing our Acura MDX SUV.  This was a reminder to me that life goes on and decisions need to be made.

This past Thursday December 15th we met with my surgeon Dr. Hansen.   Since its getting close to the end of Chemo and my tumor is gone my Oncologist suggested we meet with her to discuss surgical options and any imaging she needs prior to surgery.  Upon meeting with her she confirmed that in fact on palpation my tumor is gone (WAHOO!)  and that I would be getting a lumpectomy scheduled for February 10th, 2017.  What she also stated was that after surgery I would need radiation therapy 5 days per week for a month!!! I was taken aback by this as was Bar because we had thought since I had such a great response to chemo that our only other thing would be surgery and then I would be done.  It seems as the more plans I make to put all this behind me its a lot easier said than done.  Things are coming up that are beyond our control and the best we can handle it is to accept it and move on.  I have learned to keep on living life regardless of the cards I am dealt.

With that being said I had my 7th out of 8th chemo session this past Friday the 16th and it went flawless! It was a quick infusion (no allergic reactions) and my sweet cousin Rashmi even came for a visit.  I can not wait to be done next week on December 30th and end 2016 with a bang.  To end this weekend off I baked a bunch of Christmas cookies with Kiaan to give to our security staff in our buildings to take my mind of my health and to start traditions with my son.  We also started Kiaan on solids.  Lots of firsts for him this weekend 🙂  The one thing to always remember is when life throws you a curve ball is to hit a home run and celebrate.