Time is flying – I can’t believe it’s been so long since I wrote a blog post. I’d like to officially welcome all the readers from around the world that I’ve gained through the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute Insight Blog.  I can see people reading my previous posts and hope it helps them as much as it helped me to write them!

As we spent New Year’s Eve last night hanging out with good friends, I couldn’t help but remember our night 5 years ago, in the midst of chemo.  I posted the following picture and wrote in my post (Happy New Year…) – “I had Greg take this picture of me just after midnight so next year we could look back and see how far we’d come…”

Well, far we have come!  Life is great!  I am happy, strong & healthy.  This fall I passed my 5 year mammogram and check-up with flying colors – no cancer!  Thankfully my docs take good care of me, are good about dealing with issues as they come up, and I still take my daily Tamoxifen pill to keep that nasty estrogen at bay.  So, life is back to normal, even with the constant hot flashes, which actually feel normal at this point.

I am never going back to work full-time, so done with that.  I do business & marketing strategy consulting from home, but it’s on my schedule and on my terms.  I go to the gym everyday and am officially one of the women I used to hate.  (It’s Official…)  I ran another half marathon this October and felt strong – back to my pre-cancer times!  I help others going through breast cancer as much as I can.  Most importantly, I don’t take life for granted, I do my best to live it to the fullest.  We travel, spend time with friends & family, and we laugh.  And sometimes we laugh, and laugh, and laugh…

I was texting recently with a woman with triple-positive breast cancer like me who just finished her 12 weeks of Taxol/Herception – she asked “Will I ever feel normal again?”  The answer: Absolutely YES!  It’s gradual and takes time, but rest assured it happens.

Will life be normal again after cancer?  That’s up to you, I recommend making it better! Here we are – me and my Chemo Buddy – in NYC just before Christmas.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!  It’s 2018, the year we’ll celebrate 50 years of my life! (But not until November, don’t rush it!)