Tracie Fights Back

The surge is winding down and I’m both excited and nervous.

Since war metaphors are used to describe the battle against cancer, I’m rapidly coming to The Stand Down.

Since May we’ve been throwing the big guns at the terrorists invading my body: three types of chemotherapy, a double mastectomy and radiation. We’ve thrown in diet changes, attitude changes and detoxifications to support me in the battle.

I have felt confident that we put the terrorist cells on the run and made them feel like the body they invaded was not a hospitable place.

Now what? With the big guns that have been protecting me now holstered, how am I to feel?

Will the peacekeepers – the antibody Herceptin and the hormone-suppressor Tamoxifen – be enough to keep the invaders away?

As much as I’ve hated what my body has had to endure for the past eight months, I knew it was killing cancer (while stopping short of killing me).

Now I feel as if I’m handing over the battle to the United Nations and hoping a peace accord has been struck. I’ve got to have faith they’ll do the job.

Just last night Michelle and I were marveling that we’ve just about made it. From May 3 until now has seemed impossibly long. Now just three more short blasts of radiation and I’m done. Literally.

Already cancer is fading into 2010. The fuzzy baby hair on my head is starting to fill in and I have a few hairs emerging where my eyebrows used to be.

One day soon I’ll look like my old self with only my missing breasts and my new attitude of gratitude to remind me where I’ve been.

2 Responses to “The Surge Nears Its End”