A long long awaited update

Oh my, I feel horrible about not posting in such a long long time. Where to begin.... Yes, the infection did clear up, but it left some nice scars on my chest. I saw my plastic surgeon last month and he wants to perform clean up surgery in February. I may put it off to early March when my travel schedule is not so hectic. I met with my oncologist the day after Christmas. She ordered a MUGA for me the end of January. If it comes back with a good ejection rate they will start Herceptin again on February 1st. Of course, paying for the treatment is a whole other story. We currently owe Hopkins about $30,000 and this will rise as I get more treatments. Ugh.... In spite if that, I can honestly say that I feel fantastic. The chemo brain has lifted, I am power walking at least 2.5 miles every day and I have lost 8 pounds since November 1st. My doctor is also finally switching me to an aromatase inhibitor instead of Tamoxifan. This drug is designed to prevent the cancer from coming back. You have to be post menopausal to take it. That is why my ovaries were removed back in February. This drug is slightly more effective than Tamoxifan and even slightly better is good enough for me. However, the drug has two possible side effects; bone loss and cognitive loss. Thus, I am taking a bone density test for a baseline before I start the drug and then I decided to participated in a study at Hopkins to see if there are cognitive impairments associated with taking the medication. I go to Hopkin on the 14th for a battery of neurological and cognitive tests. Wow.. This is a long post. Thanks for reading to the bottom. I will try and be better. I guess you can see from the infrequent posting that life is returning to our hectic normal.