Notes from treatment today 12/29, and next surgery 1/22

Hi all,
I went for another infusion of herceptin today and, no wonder I was feeling fatigued. They drew my blood and my red blood cell count was low. Even two months after my final chemo my body is still trying to recover. It is somewhat possible that the herceptin infusion might have something to do with it, but it's more likely to cause a more rapid heartbeat (as it did today) than a drop in counts. It's probably due to my body still trying to recover from the surgery and the chemo onslaught of the past several months.
I went to physical therapy today and I'm so glad tat I can go becuase each time, it really helps. I'm going to visit my family so I"ll have to skip a week but I'll be looking forward to getting back into it.
On the plastic front...
Next Friday I have one more saline fill so that the pockets on either side can be overexpanded prior to the surgery date. On January 22nd I'll go back to USC/Norris to have surgery to put the implants in. Please pray that it doesn't cause lymphedema. Because I'm missing a lot of lymph nodes on my right side I'd like prayer support so that the lymph fluid drains out of the area. I'll discuss the details of the upcoming surgery and ask them about where they plan to do the incision so that we can try to avoid this possibility. However, it does exist.
How does my hair look now?
Well, you know how you have those bushes and they kind of grow out in all directions, but not necessarily symmetrically? My hair is growing back and, like a lawn that needs manicuring I kind of need someone to take a weed wacker to the back of my neck. It's growing out kind of unevenly so it's not the same length all the way around. The nape, sides and very top of my head seemed to grow faster. Not to mention that I acutally have some gray hair now. We'll see what color I eventually change it to...i'l l probably have my hair genius friend Joanna at Mane Attraction in Palm Springs do it when I come back from visiting my parents. She's is really fantastic and we all weeped together when we buzzed my hair during the time it was falling out in clumps. I'm sure she'll get a kick out of how it's coming in coarse and straight and inconsistent in color. For now, I'm pretty much not doing the wig anymore, although when it's cold I definitely consider it and sometimes do it becuase it's just warmer and I look pretty silly in most hats (I have a small head) but the eyebrows are coming in more full now and I can see that the eyelashes are as well which is encouraging. My weight has come up and my parents would say that they like the healthy look that I have.
Hormone therapy....
I start Tamoxifen, which is a hormonal therapy that blocks estrogen receptors in the breast tissue (the cancer I had is somewhat fed by estrogen) but can act like it in other tissues so we'll see how that goes. I'll let you know. I realized that I hadn't had a hot flash in about two weeks and now and that was kind of nice to have a break from those. Taking tamoxifen, I could have them again since its one of the possible side effects but they're more amusing than anything else. There are other side effects, too but hey, a small price to pay for the miracle of being cancer free!!!
Happy New Year!

Julie