Aftermath update

This coming week I get to do a trial of only wearing the compression stocking when I'm working or working out. I'm VERY excited but also a bit nervous as I hope the lymphedema doesn't flare up again. My leg is still half an inch bigger than the other but it no longer hurts and that's most important to me. I don't know that my right leg will ever be the same size as my left leg, I'm accepting that for the most part.
Sleep is still a big issue, I continue to battle hot flashes at night. I don't think doctors really know how to manage all my menopause symptoms as I'm not the typical case. I've come off the clonidine (bp med) and tried a mini trial without my sleeping pill, it seems I can go a night without the sleeping med but that's it. My hot flashes seem to be more noticeable without the clonidine but here's the deal, I'm not adding the effexor to all my other pills! Either the effexor will decrease my hot flashes or it won't and if it doesn't, I'm going on estrogen. So, I've increased the effexor to the normal dose (I was taking half of a normal dose) and giving it another month. I would like to make it to the one year mark before taking estrogen but again, quality of life will dictate things.

We have got to take a picture of my hair so I can post it. I'm in that wild stage where it pretty much has a mind of its own (my hair always has!) and I look like I have a mohawk most of the time. There's not much I can do with it but I'm using mousse to simply try and have it not stick up. My hair color came back much darker than Mark or I am used to so we decided to try and color it back to my original color, light ash blonde. Lets just say it didn't work, it's definitely lighter but it's not light ash blonde. I'm going to go a bit lighter next time and see what happens. The great thing about starting over after chemo is that my hair now has some curl to it and I love that as my hair used to be stick straight! :) The other thing I'm finding is that I lose eyebrow and eyelashes all at the same time, so sometimes I have more than other times. Usually these hairs are on a different life cycle but because I lost mine all at the same time, they are all on the same cycle. Not sure I really enjoy that, when I start losing them I feel like I'm back on chemo....temporarily.

My follow-up appointment with Dr P is a month away and I have days where I'm a bit nervous. The further I get away from treatment, the more I want to be cancer free!