Even though I am done with my treatments, I am still recovering. I plan on having a celebration party, but it will be in January, and I will do it on my birthday since it is a Saturday and easier to plan. I think I will be more energetic by then, hopefully.

This month I have been finishing up paying off my medical bills and getting my paperwork stuff done before the end of the year to have my medical expenses covered. Next year will be starting over on my deductible and all when I get ready for my reconstruction surgery which won’t be until the middle of next year. My plastic surgeon wants me to recover for six months before we even plan anything.

In the meantime, all the other doctors like my medical oncologist, radiology oncologist, and probably my surgeon want follow up appointments to check me in two to three months. I guess that will be what I have to do for the rest of my life. Once you have cancer, they check you forever. More often at first, and then annually. I have not gotten the clear yet. I don’t know how they determine that part, but I will just go with the flow. I need my reconstruction surgery to feel like I am past all this first, so I have a while yet. This expander does not feel normal, so I am hoping when I finally get my implant, things will feel closer to normal. Maybe there is no normal anymore. It is what it is.

For the last couple weeks I have been struggling with low back pain, and haven’t been able to determine the cause. The doctor had me take a week off from the estrogen suppressant to see if I started feeling better, and also to have an xray to make sure I didn’t break anything when I had my fall. My back was still hurting after a week, so it didn’t seem to make any difference with holding the medication, so I resumed it. My xrays didn’t really show a break, although there are changes. Probably from aging. Ha. Arthritis is present as well which I was aware of. Today, my back is actually just starting to feel better, so I am guessing that I jarred my back with the fall, and it just took this long to recover. I will resume my exercises more slowly, and concentrate on core exercises to strengthen my back and stomach muscles to prevent pain like that again.

Pete and I decided not to go to family at Christmas to allow myself to help more after radiation, and I am sort of glad we didn’t go, because it gave my back time to heal too. I don’t think my low back would have tolerated the drive. I am feeling better now, just a little soreness, so I think when we do go to visit family next week, I will tolerate the drive much better. This is a time of healing for me, and I have to listen to my body.

This week, we had several dog clients and it has actually been fun for me. If I am missing out on seeing my family during the holidays, at least I can have fun to make up for it. The dogs are definitely my therapy, and we spent extra time with our clients to enjoy them and to make them feel happy even though their owners were gone. We were a big hit with our dog clients. I created a fun retirement job and love it immensely.