Mission Accomplished

Julie’s 6th and final round of chemo was Nov. 24th. Here is some of the information she got when she saw her doctor that morning:
her blood counts are very good;
she will have a CAT scan and an examination in December and, assuming nothing is found, and the doctor is 95% sure nothing will be and Julie’s sister is 99.99% sure of the same, Julie will officially be in remission/disease free/ in surveillance mode;
she will see her doctor every three months for the next two to three years, then every six months until the five year post-chemo) mark;
it takes at least six months to recover from chemo;
ovarian cancer does not put one at increased risk for other vaginal cancers;
ovarian cancer does carry an increased risk of colon and breast cancers;
Julie’s (useless) abdominal port will be removed in December by her surgeon (it’s an outpatient surgical procedure);
her PICC line will be removed in December; and,
some of the things that help reduce the likelihood of a recurrence of cancer are exercise, sleep, healthful eating including less dairy products and meat, and minimizing stress.
These are the websites that the doctor recommends to get accurate, up to date information about cancer: the American Cancer Society website - http://www.cancer.org/; and http://www.thegcf.org/ .
The rule of thumb post-ovarian cancer as to when to be concerned about a new symptom or symptoms – something that persists or gets worse for longer than two weeks, especially if there is no clear benign reason for the symptoms. For example, a post-ovarian cancer female on a “nothing but cabbage soup” diet for two weeks should expect a lot of gas and bloating, but two weeks of increasing gas/bloating on her usual balanced diet would be a good reason to call the doctor.

Back to the last round of chemo – it went smoothly, and at the end, the nurses played Kool & the Gang’s "Celebrate Good Times,” blew bubbles, and gave Julie a mug, a certificate, and a happy send-off. She has had a few days of discomfort and fatigue so far, but by Saturday at least felt well enough to eat a delayed Thanksgiving dinner and spend a couple of hours with family.

A side note – Julie and sister are fashion forecasting that hats - les chapeaux, in keeping with the spirit of this blog - will soon be very “in,” more so than they have been for 50+ years, due to so many women discovering how cute they are, either through their own hair loss experience, or by observing other women wearing stylish and/or fun hats. And aside from how fashion-forward hats are, it is so much faster to pop on a hat than to wash, blow dry and style a full head of hair. Not that Julie won’t enjoy having her hair back; hats are even more fun when they are an option rather than a necessity. Speaking of which, it will be at least March before she has even a very short hairdo, so she will continue to keep her head warm with hats over the winter, and, given that she has quite a collection, she will probably wear them as a fashion statement even after she has plenty of hair.