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I'm Not Dead
Thursday, 20 March 2008 01:37 amSo it's been a while since I posted in my own journal, and it was pointed out to me (about nine months ago, but who's counting?) that various folks might want to know how I'm doing and, you know, that I'm not dead.
Well, as you can see, I'm still here. As noted in my first LiveJournal post, my doctors think they got all the cancer during surgery, so the chemo and radiation were just to make extra sure that there weren't any little rogue cancer cells floating about anywhere. I had my last of six chemo sessions a little over a year ago (1 Feb 2007) and then finished six and a half weeks of radiation the week after Easter (13 Apr 2007). I started Tamoxifen in June, and I'll be on that either for about five years or until I'm declared officially post-menopausal (at which point I'll get switched to an aromatase inhibitor).
So what have I been up to over the last year? Mainly working on putting my life back together -- or rather, putting a new, better life together. I'm not quite there yet, but I've made a lot of progress. The first big step was to finally get around to finding a therapist to help me deal with all my adventures. Thanks to Dr. E., I found (Mrs.) Dr. B. She's in practice with her husband, (Mr.) Dr. B., an oncologist, and she specializes in women who have/had breast cancer. The Good Lord was really looking out for me on this one, as (Mrs.) Dr. B. is just the sort of psychologist I need, and, as an added bonus, the practice has an office baby -- and I get to play with him, even on days I don't have an appointment!
Another big milestone, in December, was starting a six-month, half-time internship at (hmm, what shall I call my employer? I think I'll lift a description I used on UseNet last time I worked for them...) a Young, Upstart University**. There are many cool things about this job, especially the people I work with, the project I'm working on, my job title ("Coordinator", rather than "Intern" :-), and, unexpectedly, I'm actually getting paid! I had volunteered to volunteer, and it wasn't until a week or two after I started that I learned I was getting a stipend. It's not much (I would earn more per hour working for In-N-Out), but it's a heck of a lot more than I thought I was getting!
So life is really looking up!
**(Hey, at a bit over a century old, it's only a little more than a fifth of the age of my previous university...)
Well, as you can see, I'm still here. As noted in my first LiveJournal post, my doctors think they got all the cancer during surgery, so the chemo and radiation were just to make extra sure that there weren't any little rogue cancer cells floating about anywhere. I had my last of six chemo sessions a little over a year ago (1 Feb 2007) and then finished six and a half weeks of radiation the week after Easter (13 Apr 2007). I started Tamoxifen in June, and I'll be on that either for about five years or until I'm declared officially post-menopausal (at which point I'll get switched to an aromatase inhibitor).
So what have I been up to over the last year? Mainly working on putting my life back together -- or rather, putting a new, better life together. I'm not quite there yet, but I've made a lot of progress. The first big step was to finally get around to finding a therapist to help me deal with all my adventures. Thanks to Dr. E., I found (Mrs.) Dr. B. She's in practice with her husband, (Mr.) Dr. B., an oncologist, and she specializes in women who have/had breast cancer. The Good Lord was really looking out for me on this one, as (Mrs.) Dr. B. is just the sort of psychologist I need, and, as an added bonus, the practice has an office baby -- and I get to play with him, even on days I don't have an appointment!
Another big milestone, in December, was starting a six-month, half-time internship at (hmm, what shall I call my employer? I think I'll lift a description I used on UseNet last time I worked for them...) a Young, Upstart University**. There are many cool things about this job, especially the people I work with, the project I'm working on, my job title ("Coordinator", rather than "Intern" :-), and, unexpectedly, I'm actually getting paid! I had volunteered to volunteer, and it wasn't until a week or two after I started that I learned I was getting a stipend. It's not much (I would earn more per hour working for In-N-Out), but it's a heck of a lot more than I thought I was getting!
So life is really looking up!
**(Hey, at a bit over a century old, it's only a little more than a fifth of the age of my previous university...)
