Wednesday, September 13, 2023

the D day

Today was the day I finally had my first post-radiation doctor's appointment, and let me tell you, it felt like the grand finale of a dramatic medical drama. Cue the suspenseful music! After all, I'm a bona fide cancer survivor now, and who doesn't love a good survivor-turned-superstar story?

"Congratulations," the doctor says with a grin that could rival a Cheshire cat's. "You're officially a cancer survivor now!" I half expected confetti to rain down from the ceiling and a marching band to burst through the door, but alas, it was just me and the doc.

According to the all-knowing Dr. Google a bit of cancer survivor statistics: 

Apparently, as of January 2022, there are a whopping 18.1 million cancer survivors in the United States, which is approximately 5.4% of the population

So officially I am in remission and if all signs and symptoms of cancer vanish into thin air, doctors might start throwing around words like "cured" after you've been symptom-free for five years.  So starting the count down...

So there you have it — today's appointment was the grand finale of my cancer saga,  and an much expected happy ending. 






No comments:

Post a Comment

Labels

chemotherapy (29) chemo side effects (24) friends (12) radiation (12) cancer (10) fun (10) keytruda (9) food (7) biopsy (6) fatigue (6) insurance (6) port (6) testing (6) hell (5) iv (5) recharge (5) scan (5) test results (5) MRI (4) celebration (4) chemo (4) doctor (4) hair loss (4) hospital (4) mammogram (4) side effects (4) support (4) surgery (4) taxol (4) acupuncture (3) benadryl (3) carboplatin (3) diagnosis (3) operation (3) protocol (3) radiology (3) wig (3) Clark Museum (2) Dana Farber (2) allergic reaction (2) arthritis (2) ct scan (2) cytoxan (2) emotianl state (2) emotional state (2) everyday life (2) family (2) funny (2) genetic testing (2) hair (2) nurse (2) preparation for chemotherapy (2) second opinion (2) treatment (2) trip (2) triple negative (2) tumor (2) turban (2) zofran (2) 1st chemo (1) Faulkner hospital (1) HER2 (1) Lahey (1) MassMoca (1) RSL (1) accupuncture (1) adriamycin (1) adriamycinche (1) birthday (1) blood work (1) blue cross blue shield (1) bone scan (1) brain fog (1) cravings (1) daughter (1) depression (1) diarrhea (1) discovery (1) dressing (1) drugs (1) estrogen receptor (1) halfway (1) hospitals (1) how to tell you have cancer (1) hugs (1) infusion room (1) invasive carcinoma (1) lessons learned (1) low white cells (1) music (1) mutations (1) nausea (1) new year (1) pathology (1) pepcid (1) pink (1) plans (1) pneumonitis (1) progesterone receptor (1) reduction (1) referral (1) respite (1) response (1) results (1) rides (1) samples (1) scheduling (1) self-diagnostic (1) seroma (1) soups (1) statistics (1) suppliments (1) survival (1) tissues (1) tokens (1) travel (1) treatment regiment (1) ultrasound (1)