Turning tides

May 24th - my grandma Gunn's birthday if she were still here with us.  She would have been so totally annoyed by this latest chapter in my cancer journey but incredibly happy that I am done chemo.  She also would have been thrilled that I am heading to her favourite Hawaiian island in 2 weeks.  She travelled there herself to stay with friends long after she joined us on my first trip there back in 1986.  If she was still around I'd have had her join us.

The past few days  I have enjoyed feeling better than I have in a long time.  Instead of getting chemo Tuesday, I had an appointment at wound care (to monitor my feet issues and neck wound) and then had herceptin infusion (every three weeks - 10 to go).  During Herceptin I chatted with a nurse who had cared for me the first weekend I was diagnosed with leukemia back in 1997.  We chatted about memories from "back in the day" so the IV time (only 1/2 hour) flew by. I see Dr. Stewart tomorrow when the results of my bone density test will determine what medication I'll have to take and how long for - it's really to reduce the risk of recurrence related to estrogen trigger as my tumour was slightly "ER positive".  Outside of that, my next few weeks includes some treatment to try to help my feet neuropathy issues and just exercise to get my heart health back up.  Very small stuff.  Back to maintenance phase.  Surgery for reconstruction is still in consulting mode but moving forward and won't be for a while if it happens.

Overall I had a pretty smooth exit from the grey of round 6 - got my week at work done and lots of awesome visits with family and friends - new and old.   I also got to take in the energy of the "C of Red" at the (sadly) last home Flames playoff game - pretty remarkable thanks to Yvette and her fiancee Andrew for giving me a seat at that.

Tuesday night I decided because Thursday I had no appointments (!) I would see if mom wanted to head to Banff Wednesday night and stay a night at the Rimrock to celebrate my birthday - Dad would babysit Lucy to make it happen! I hadn't been to Banff in the summer for a couple years and the forecast was for true summer weather.  It didn't disappoint.  We had a great time walking, shopping, eating and just staring at the view from our room (the pic that looks like a postcard below).  Also took a rare selfie of mom and I in front of Bow Falls.

Thursday evening I enjoyed a barbeque birthday dinner with Brandon, Jacqui and the boys, with a Facetime call with my goddaughter Mireya and family to celebrate as it is our "joint birthday";)   That was followed by a custom birthday dessert with Tasha, Talyn, Tasha's boyfriend Andrew, and his kids Brodie and Ruby - the five of them managed to create three of my favourite desserts into one delicious combo.  So 41 has started on a high note - hard to imagine the wonderful party mom and dad threw for me was a year ago.  I have hope that my 41st year will bring less excitement than the 40th - of the cancer kind anyway.  As a good friend texted me on Thursday "Tricia's tides are turning."

Cheers