Healing Journey: Latest Updates on My Health

This blog is long overdue for some health updates so let’s get into them.

All of our Boston visits continue to bring welcomed good news!! 

First, all of my sutures have been removed. All 80+ of them are gone and that feels really good. All surgical sites are healthy and healing well.  I have now transitioned to post-op checks in Boston on a more sporadic basis.

Second, is that Boston gave the greenlight to start physical therapy on my arm. This was not intended to start until after radiation, but because I am healing so well, and that I advocated for some soft tissue work on my shoulder and wrist, I get to work on the whole arm (yah!!). It is an intense course of physical therapy that I do three times a week.  

Let me tell you guys, getting mobility back in a shoulder, elbow and wrist, all of which have not moved in approximately nine weeks, is not for the weak.  Doing the smallest of movements and exercises feels like I’ve competed in a Strong Man competition on a weekly basis for the past six weeks.  Good thing I love my physical therapist! 

All of that said, I am seeing real improvements with my mobility and range of motion in my arm. I still have LOTS I’ve work to do and will not be done with physical therapy until June 2026.

As for radiation, I have completed 1/3 of my radiation treatments and they have been going well. The hardest part of radiation, if I am being honest, is the waiting room. I feel like I try to bring joy into all aspects of my cancer journey, and a radiation therapy waiting room is where I feel like joy goes to die.   It’s filled with people who I feel like cancer has robbed their joy, and that makes me incredibly sad and mad and angry. Joy, it is the one thing that I refuse to surrender to cancer. So, I just sit in my car until the last possible minute before my treatment session. 🙂

Thank you all for your continuing support! All of your kind words, check-ins, and cheering me on means more than you’ll ever know!

Talk again soon, Natalie