Feeling Blessed Last Chemo

Posted by srobinet @srobinet, 1 day ago

I would like to thank everyone who has provided encouragement, hope and sent prayers for me these last few months. This is such a wonderful group of women/men and the support could not be better.

Today was my last infusion of Chemotherapy I hope I never have to do this again. This was one of my reasons for my decision to have a Bilateral Mastectomy. I found out about my cancer in late December 2025 so it has been a wild ride and many stressful months. Here's hoping that the latter half of 2026 will be much better.

I am very blessed that they found my Triple Negative Cancer very early. This is what my mom passed away from in 2024. My tumor was 1.2 inches at time of surgery. I had wide surgical margins that were clear and the 3 axillary lymph nodes they took out were clear as well. My tumor was a grade 3 aggressive type so I decided to do 4 rounds of Chemo.

After I was first diagnosed I went down the rabbit hole and read everything I could read on the internet, questioned Chat GPT till it probably got sick of me and worried constantly. I worked in a medical office for 15 years so probably knew a little more than some as to what to search for. At some point I finally decided that my diagnosis is what it is and it would no good to worry myself/stress myself out. These days I am trying more to take things as they come one day at a time. I do worry a little about a recurrence, but I can't change what is and I have a great doctor who will do the worrying for me if I let him. I'm getting better at that.

I did have some nasty side effects from the chemo some mouth ulcers and everything tasting weird/bad and the skin toxicity. Overall I feel very blessed that it was not much worse. I know from reading other's posts that I got by pretty easily. My heart goes out to everyone that is still doing chemo.

I tend to push things aside and just do the next thing I am supposed to do. This is what I think helped me get through all of this . Sitting tonight rocking my great grandson who is 14 months old I started crying thinking about all that has been these last 8 months. God willing I will be here to see him grow up.

I am one of those people who do not like attention focused on me in a group, class , meeting etc. I chose to not ring the bell today after my infusion. I probably should have I definitely feel like I earned it. My anxiety just would not let me.

Interested in more discussions like this? Go to the Breast Cancer Support Group.

Cheers for the coming days without chemo.
I didn't ring the bell, either.

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I think it’s important to ring the bell because I feel it gives hope and encouragement to the other people waiting for treatment in the waiting room. It seems like it cheers everybody up a little bit realizing there’s an end in sight for them as well.

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Profile picture for seabright2001 @seabright2001

I think it’s important to ring the bell because I feel it gives hope and encouragement to the other people waiting for treatment in the waiting room. It seems like it cheers everybody up a little bit realizing there’s an end in sight for them as well.

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@seabright2001, while most are unapprised of the naval tradition, almost everyone is familiar with For Whom The Bell Tolls.

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Congrats! Wishing you a long long remission. Hugs.

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Congratulations! You did it! And, you’re already mentally ringing that bell . . . that’s what matters. All the best to you!

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Profile picture for gently @gently

@seabright2001, while most are unapprised of the naval tradition, almost everyone is familiar with For Whom The Bell Tolls.

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@gently The Fire Department also had a long standing tradition of ringing of the bell. Start of a shift, summoning to a fire, end of a shift and the ringing of the bells at a funeral, which they still do. I choose to compare the bell ringing after cancer treatment to the safe ending of a shift.

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Nowadays it seems nearly every cancer facility has bells that patients can ring to mark the end of treatment. But it’s thought that the tradition began at MD Anderson in 1996.
A rear admiral in the U.S. Navy, Irve Le Moyne, was undergoing radiation therapy for head and neck cancer and told his doctor, Kian Ang, M.D., Ph.D., that he planned to follow a Navy tradition of ringing a bell to signify “when the job was done.” He brought a brass bell to his last treatment, rang it several times and left it as a donation. It was mounted on a wall plaque in the Main Building’s Radiation Treatment Center with the inscription:
Ringing Out
Ring this bell
Three times well
Its toll to clearly say,
My treatment’s done
This course is run
And I am on my way!

— Irve Le Moyne

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I’ve just been diagnosed with Triple Negative BC. What a shock at 83. Now facing what you have just completed. Congratulations!
Jingle Mahan

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