Author Archives: Kim Delfino

If I were tech savvy, I would have figured out how to make confetti explode over this blog post once you opened it up.  Instead, you will just have to trust me when I say that as I write this, I am celebrating.  Yes, I just finished 20 rounds of some form of chemotherapy/immunotherapy.  IContinue reading “Celebrating Endings & Beginnings”

As I type up this long overdue blog post, I am getting my 10th round of Kadcyla.  This is a momentous occasion as my oncologist told me at the start of my Kadcyla treatment that while the regime is to take 14 rounds – one round every three weeks — the goal is to makeContinue reading “Living the Silver Linings”

As Randy Quaid said when he flew the fighter jet into the alien space craft in Independence Day: “Hello boys, I’m back!”  Yes, it has been two months since my last posting and I am back feeling a lot like my old self.  After some gloomy postings in which I vented about how crappy IContinue reading ““Hello boys, I’m Back!””

“The secret of life, though, is to fall seven times and to get up eight times.” — Paulo Coelho, “The Alchemist” I know it has been awhile since I did a new blog post on how things are going.  I am sorry it has taken me so long to let you all know what isContinue reading “The Long(er) Road to Recovery”

Well, here I am writing this post about my 5th round of chemo while I am getting my 6th infusion at the UCD Comprehensive Cancer Center. I will start off by noting that this 6th infusion is my last round of chemo. No more Taxotere and Carboplatin! I am NOT sorry to say goodbye to theseContinue reading “Round 5: I’m sick and tired of being sick and tired (but still looking for the silver linings).”

If there is one thing I can rely on as I march through chemotherapy, it is that each round is different.  No one round has been the same with new side effects joining the party and ongoing side effects that are sometimes better and sometimes worse.  Round 4 was reliably different from Rounds 1-3. IContinue reading “Round 4: The Home Stretch”

[NOTE: I am going to warn you that I get into politics at the end of this post.] Round 3 was not that bad for me.  I think that I am getting used to the side effects.  Do not get me wrong.  It still sucks.  I feel crappy for about a week or so.  TheContinue reading “Round 3: I am doing fine, but I am not so sure about the rest of the world.”

Let me start with some great news: I do not have Stage 4 cancer. OK, that may seem a little shocking to say because I have not really talked about the fact that the possibility of this dire diagnosis has been lingering out there for about a month.  I mentioned in an earlier blog thatContinue reading “Round 2: The Rollercoaster”

I am not sure what I expected when I started my chemotherapy. The classic line you hear is: Everyone’s experience is different. Not too surprisingly given my need to plan everything, I had a “chemo recovery schedule” in my head that dictated that the following would occur: Day 1 of Chemo (get through it andContinue reading “Round 1 Down, 5 To Go”

After my diagnosis, I had a dilemma. Do I tell people? Who do I tell? When should I tell them? How do I tell them? These are hard questions because this is not your “run of the mill” news that you can drop on people easily. For example, you are taking a walk down theContinue reading ““Welcome to the Sisterhood You Never Wanted to Join””