Feeling Blessed Last Chemo

Posted by srobinet @srobinet, 4 days 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.

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Great news! congratulations on your strength in fighting your cancer.
That last day of treatment is significant! I never heard of "ringing the bell", but understand what a wonderful feeling it can be to end the pain and stress, and might provide inspiration and joy for others. Enjoy rocking your rocking your great grandson and all the days to follow with him and the others that give you joy and something to be thankful for.

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Best wishes I am on a similar journey and am thinking positively

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Profile picture for jinglem @jinglem

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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Best wishes as your begin your journey, I was diagnosed at 74 with Triple negative BC so I may understand some of what you are going through. We got to stay fighting and positive. Cheering for you and wishing you well, sending thoughts prayers and love ❤️ stay blessed

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Congrats. Having my last of 15 chemo infusions for TNBC stage 2. Next is my mri to assess the size of the tumor prior to surgery. Surgery is in August and I’ll be having a lumpectomy which has the same reoccurrence rate as a mastectomy in my case (no genetic involvement). I will have radiation post surgery for a month and continue my Keytruda (immunotherapy) infusions every 3 weeks to the end of this year (I began them Feb 5, 2026).

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Profile picture for seabright2001 @seabright2001

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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@seabright2001
Thank you for the bell info.
I did 13 rounds of chemo from August 2021 to late October 2021. I was hospitalized and did not get my last 3 infusions. I got the pill Lynparza instead and Herceptin and Perjeta. That said NO bell for me. Until, July 2024, as i was exiting Floor 6 at City of Hope following my bone marrow transplant. My chariot young lady taking me outside in my wheelchair stopped at the bell. She said i think you need to ring it!!! I told her then that i had never got to ring it. She showed me how they suggest you do it and she filmed me ringing it.
That made my day. I was going to my friend's house for 70 days and the hardest part was done!!

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