As I was finishing up my first round of chemotherapy, I was scheduled for a mid-chemo MRI to see if the chemo was working or not. Back into the MRI machine I go, laying supine, naked, boobs hanging into thin air squeezed between little slits- modesty out the window. Let’s see if these last 11 weeks of poisoning my body worked…

My last chemotherapy infusion was spent with one of my best friends, Mariette. We had our “coffee date” and chatted about how this was my last session of chemotherapy before I finally got a break! My birthday was coming up and we talked about what I was planning on doing for that. We ended up having a bonfire the next night to celebrate being done with my first round of chemo and turning 29! It was a great celebration and turns out we were celebrating more than being done with my “first round” of chemo. We were celebrating being completely DONE with chemo! On my birthday the following week I received a call from my oncologist. “We are reviewing your mid-chemo MRI results, and we aren’t finding any evidence of cancer cells. I will talk with your surgeon, but I think we can skip your second round of chemotherapy and send you straight into surgery. Oh and by the way… HAPPY BIRTHDAY!”

I remember exactly where I was during this phone call, exactly how I felt and the effects it still has on me today. I spent the evening of my birthday with a group of people at a local brewery. It ended up being trivia night and I had my first beer and burger since starting all of this (about 4 months). I shared the news about my MRI results and we had a great night celebrating.

As the first round of chemotherapy was coming to an end… I spent my 11th chemo infusion with both of my parents. While Austin (my husband) worked from his laptop in the lobby, my parents and I had our “coffee date” and chatted about being almost done with my first round of chemotherapy. If you have been following along, I was originally scheduled for 12 chemotherapy infusions with the first chemotherapy drug (1x per week). I was then scheduled to have a 2 week break before beginning my second round of chemotherapy. So at this point I was just really looking forward to my 2 week break, however at the same time just wanted to rally through and get the second round over with…

By chemo #11 my hair was VERY thin, I was feeling pretty fatigued and I began to notice the side effects of the steroids. I was starting to get “puffy” or swollen looking and my skin was white and dry. This is when I began to notice that chemotherapy is really just poison and you hope to God that it kills the cancer before it kills you.

The second round of chemotherapy was supposed to be even worse. They call it A/C- with worst side effects and more complaints from patients who have been through both. So something to look forward to…

After chemo #11 I stuck with my plan to keep my life as normal as possible, so this week we ice skated on the lake and went up to the mountains to snow board. The fresh air and activity did me good.

Now, one more to go….

Chemo #10 was spent with one of my life long friends Sophie. We played soccer together growing up and have stayed close ever since! Again, I was calling my chemo sessions “coffee dates” because it put a better vibe on the day. I get to spend my day with one of my best friends and get caught up over coffee vs I have to sit in the damn recliner chair for the 10th time and get infused with poison. Well “coffee date” just sounds a hell of a lot better. So coffee date it is. I think half of the battle of getting through cancer treatment is mentality. You can either let chemo take over your life and break you under the stress of poisoning your body OR think of it as a place of healing and killing the cancer before it kills you. Either way, it has got to be done, so might as well be positive about it right?

There is something about getting diagnosed with cancer… “why me?” Is probably the first thing everyone thinks. Well, I now know why… it has made me a stronger, better version of myself. It has made me fear less and love more. To go through a journey like this makes you realize what is important and what is not. I have an entirely new perspective on life and I thank cancer for that.

“You can be a victim of cancer, or a survivor of cancer. It’s a mindset.” – Dave Pelzer

If you have been following along, you might remember the port I had placed the day before I started chemotherapy due to insurance authorization delays. It did not seem like a big deal at the time. I was able to get chemotherapy through the port and continue on without any issues for the first few treatments, however as the chemotherapy went on, the port incision (just above the actual port) never healed… it kept busting open, bleeding and leaking and eventually I brought it up to one of the nurses at a chemotherapy infusion. She looked at the incision and told me the incision was so thin that she could actually see the port wire. She did say that there was a stitch that needed to be removed to help the incision come together, so she was able to do that right from my chemotherapy chair! It did help over the next couple of weeks, the incision came together a bit more, however that thin skin was very sensitive and did end up opening up many more times, especially when I would do any extreme lifting or reaching (mostly when I was rock climbing). BUT of course I couldn’t stop doing what I love!

With the port being placed the day before my first chemo session, it did not allow the incision to heal. Let’s do a procedure and then inject poison into your body less than 24 hours later. The chemotherapy immediately begins killing all of your fast growing cells and the human body is already working overtime to protect itself. So advice to all cancer patients and the medical field- get the port placed in advance, allow time to heal the incision before chemotherapy infusion, and stop allowing insurance companies to dictate the timeline of healthcare!!

After chemo #8 the side effects began to have a cumulative effect. The fatigue began to set in and I would get more anxious than usual. Started to really lose my eyebrows which made me feel self conscious…. Continuing to take the white blood cell shots 3 days after chemotherapy and beginning to get somewhat achy from those. However, I will continue to preach that exercise and a healthy diet kept these symptoms at bay (besides the eyebrows… those were a lost cause).

Chemo #9 was spent with my friend Megan, yes same Megan who did the hat fundraiser for me! We chatted, discussed maybe going up to the mountain to ski that weekend… laughed, had our coffee date and boom #9 done. I found I did not get as drowsy this time around, but I did debate on going snowboarding that weekend- what if I get too tired and can’t keep up? Get sick? Or have a reaction that I wasn’t anticipating!? Well I packed up my bag of side effect medication (an entire gallon zip lock bag of “just in case” meds), put it in my backpack and we did end up going to Schweitzer Mountain 2 days after chemo. I snowboarded all day! Yes, I was exhausted, but it was the best day I had in a long time. Like I have said before, I think continuing to do my hobbies even when I was tired or not feeling super great, kept me going! Like a reset. Made me feel that my life was still somewhat normal…

3 more chemotherapy sessions to go. I got this.

Back to chemo talk. Chemotherapy #8 was spent with friends who are basically family- Kelsey and Lindsay. I remember this chemo day as the day the “pre-meds” hit me extra hard. As I mentioned in my prior posts, before they administer the chemotherapy drugs they infuse your pre-chemo medications (Benadryl, Pepcid, and steroids). I always did intermittent fasting, especially on my chemo days, so the pre-meds always hit me a little extra hard, and made me feel a bit woozy. On chemo day #8 they knocked me out. I actually fell asleep for the first time in the chemo suite. As the 30 minute break between the pre-meds and the chemo came to an end, Kelsey and Lindsay showed up to join me with a coffee. I remember Lindsay said, “dude, if you wanna sleep we will just sit here with you!” I of course have FOMO (fear of missing out) with anything, so I woke my ass up and had the best conversation over our “coffee date”. Again, I could only have two visitors so my husband, Austin, sat in the lobby and worked from his laptop. He came in to get my cold mitts out of the freezer (only put them in the freezer overnight this time) and helped me get them on. The conversation lasted the duration of my infusion and it made the time go by so fast. Chemo #8 DONE.

I think one of the hardest parts about going through cancer treatment was accepting help from others. If you know me, you know that I am a very independent, stubborn person who likes to do things on my own. Well, this experience pushed me to become a better version of myself. I think I was stubborn enough to get through treatment, work and continue to exercise however I did not go through it alone. Like I have said, I had SO MUCH support, I didn’t really know what to do with it. But I am proud of myself for doing what I could and felt I had control over and accepting help when I needed it.

One of my closest friends, Megan, offered to do another fundraiser. While I was going through treatment she was one person who consistently worked out with me. When I started to lose my hair, I began to wear beanies to cover up the bald spots on my head. And yes, I even wore the beanies to workout in! So Megan came up with the idea to sell beanies as a fundraiser to help cover the incoming medical bills and future bills not covered by insurance.

My nickname growing up was and still is “Mina”. My sister couldn’t pronounce my name when she was little and it just stuck. So the beanies stated “Mina Mighty”. We sold quite a few and repped them the rest of the Winter. The beanies also kept my balding head warm and gave me something to think about other than chemotherapy treatments. So Megan, hats off to you my friend. ♥️

As the chemotherapy sessions went by, I continued my workout regimen and keto diet. One of the biggest reasons I started this blog was to hopefully get knowledge out there on how much this helped me through treatment. I had the best support system- two of my best friends would come over every morning, Monday-Friday, and workout with me. Thursdays were my chemotherapy days and we would take the workout to Gas House Gym, right next to CCNW and I would get my workout in before getting the infusion. This kept me going, held me accountable and got my ass out of bed in the mornings. Even the days after chemotherapy, I would wake up feeling more groggy, maybe a little “hungover”but I would go workout anyways. I ALWAYS felt better after. My grogginess faded, I no longer felt hungover and I would be ready for the day. Exercise, specifically weight training, kept my body MOVING, allowed me to SWEAT, and gave me something else to think about besides my side effects. The combination of exercise, diet and intermittent fasting limited my side effects. Again, everyone is different and everyone’s treatment plan is different, BUT if you continue to move your body and fuel it with what it needs to keep fighting I almost guarantee it will make you feel better and allow the chemotherapy to work in ways it’s supposed to without bringing you down with it. Remember that list of possible side effects from chemotherapy? I can go back through that list and pick maybe 5 that I experienced, but not once did I vomit or have nausea. From my experience, this is the advice I have:

1. Keep MOVING

2. Keep a normal routine

3. Keep doing the things you LOVE to do

4. CHANGE your diet (only fuel your body with what it NEEDS)

5. KICK CANCER’S ASS

So while my chemotherapy sessions go by, more work is being done behind the scenes. So many people reached out to me asking, “What do you need? What can we do to help?” My answer was always, “nothing, I am doing okay, just hanging in there.” Which in my mind, I was! I was still working 4 days a week, rock climbing, snowboarding and working out every day. My life seemed pretty “normal”. I felt guilty accepting any help at all. However, one thing that many people around me wanted to do was help fundraise more money to help with the future medical expenses and the second half of the IVF process we would have to do later on if we want to have children. So my friends and coworkers got creative… my friend/coworker (also named Amanda) came up with an idea to sell bracelets. They would say “Breeden Brave” on a pink band to help relieve any lingering medical bills and to help with the daunting expenses of future IVF. She was selling them for $25 a piece and they went FAST. She ended up having to order more and even those went fast! Coworkers at the hospital I worked at were buying them, family, friends and people I didn’t even know. SUPPORT. Everywhere I turned. It was always hard for me to accept money or gifts…I was working! I was fine, right?

Well, looking back. I am very grateful for all of the fundraising and help because now my husband and I are looking to start that second half of the IVF process this year to prevent passing along this genetic mutation to our future children and it will cost an additional $15,000, not including the medication (unknown cost).

So grateful doesn’t even touch how I feel.

Chemotherapy session number seven was spent with my lifelong friend Brooke. We played soccer together as young kids and then went on to middle school and high school together. She lives in Seattle and drove all the way over to spend a day in the life of chemotherapy with me. It was just like every other chemo session until it wasn’t. The ice packs I had for my hands and feet to prevent neuropathy were put in the freezer all week instead of just overnight. I didn’t think it was a big deal until I tried to wear them for the duration of the infusion and it became so painful I was almost in tears. What the heck!? I powered through because I felt that being in pain for 30 more minutes vs having neuropathy for the rest of my life was worth it. Well, made it through that and won’t put the cold mitts in the freezer all week again…

We went to cafe rio for lunch afterwards and I got a big keto salad. Appetite was back to normal. We said our goodbyes and Brooke was back to Seattle. It was a bittersweet visit, but again the support I had was EVERYTHING. It got me through more than I think I realized at the time.

Side effects noticed after chemotherapy treatment number seven were dry skin and the beginning of nose bleeds… my fingernail beds were peeling and bleeding, almost felt like my nails were going to fall off. The nose bleeds were intermittent and sporadic. But all of a sudden I would get a nose bleed. Same nostril every time. I looked like the actress from stranger things with a single drop of blood running from my nose. Weird. Chemo number 7 ✅