Monday, October 5, 2015

Done

I am done with cancer.

Kind of.

I guess once you've had cancer you're never really done with it. I'm in remission now, which is as "done" with cancer as it gets, I guess. Two months after my last chemo (which was June 23), I had a scan done to make sure that all of the cancer is gone. I'm almost totally clean, with just a little warm spot on part of my neck. That means there's a tiny chance that the chemo didn't get all of the cancer, but that is still not super likely. It probably is just some of the cells hanging out in that spot or something like that. So we'll watch that spot.

For the next forever I'll be periodically visiting my doctor to make sure I'm staying in remission and the cancer doesn't come back. For the next year, which is the most common time for cancer to return, I'll have a scan every 3 months just to make sure nothing is growing anywhere. After a year, I'll have a scan every 6 months for a few years, and then yearly after that.

But the amazing news is that I am done with cancer for right now! I am healthier than I've been in a long time. I feel so so SO great. Life is amazing and I feel like I'm savoring every moment that I can. I celebrated when I was strong enough to do our laundry by myself—for the first time since we've been married! I take so much joy in making delicious food, and most food still tastes wonderful! Every now and then I'll eat a food and it'll remind me of going through chemo, so I'm still careful about eating things like mint-flavored stuff and jolly ranchers.

I'm enrolled in school right now (just taking 2 classes) and working part time at my old job. Derek is deep in his schoolwork and sometimes I'm amazed at how nice "normal" is. How great it is to be healthy. I thank God every day for my health, for Derek's health, for my friends and family and their health. It really is an amazing blessing to feel good.

Also, as a celebration Derek and I went on a 12 day roadtrip all over the Pacific Northwest and northern California. If you want to see more pics of that check out my Instagram or search the hashtag #millersaroundtheworld on Instagram.