and now for something completely different...

......back to the serious stuff I suppose.
Today I have been back into clinic for blood tests to see how my immune system was holding up. The good news is all is going as expected. I haven't had any sudden crash in my immune system (as yet), my neutrophils are starting to drop which is expected but so far they haven't gone critical. They will probably keep going down over the next 5 days... but it wouldn't be working if it didn't do this. I had my throat checked over (i have been feeling a bit "tonsillitis-y" over the last few days) but there was nothing to worry about and my immune system seems to be keeping things in check still. So I seem to be responding to plan.
The doc also had a quick check over me, and I just have to say that the lady doc did admire my surgery results! she said it looked very good and such a neat job... oh how proud I felt ;-D
I also went over a few of the side effects I had from the first chemo and have come away with even more prescriptions for more drugs to control one thing after another (the drugs to control nausea cause side effects... which then need drugs to control them... which lead onto needing other drugs for their side effects...).

The main thing today was the planning of the Radiotherapy to come at the end of the chemo. It has all hit home a little bit this evening as to just exactly what I have ahead of me. I was a little shocked at the docs reaction to me saying I was planning to keep working as much as I could. She wanted me to realise that I was going to have serious limits as to what I would be able to do and that the majority of people give up work completely for the duration. I was also imagining that the Radiotherapy would easily slip into me being back into working by then... after all its only 10 min a day for 3-4 weeks... but people get into problems when they try to work throughout even radiotherapy apparently. The thought of it taking over so completely is really quite daunting. Anyway, here are the details of the Radiotherapy;
Radiotherapy will come after all the chemo is finished. I will probably be having chemo up to and throughout June (but this may slip later should things "come-up" during chemo treatment). I then will need to give myself 4 weeks to recover from chemo before then having the 4 weeks of radiotherapy treatment and allow 4 weeks to recover from this. This is local treatment to the whole of the effected breast for 10 minutes each treatment given mon-fri for 3 consecutive weeks, followed by something called "boosters" (x5) given onto the scar area - I don't really know what this means.. I will have a leaflet coming through to explain this. The rationale is that without radiotherapy there is a 30-40% chance that the cancer will recur within my breast. With radiotherapy this reduces to 5-7%.... obviously it doesn't completely remove the possibility of it coming back, but it is my best bet. To me that means that although in 100 people - 5-7 of them will have their cancer come back - I could either be one of those or not one of those. Who knows! I think the 5-7% might be about the same success as a mastectomy anyway (there is always going to be some tissue left behind).
Side effects of the radiotherapy are redness and soreness to the area. In some people they are left with breathlessness and chest problems. I will have a chest xray and CT scan before starting to check that I am likely to be ok. I will get 4 permanent tattoos around my chest which allow them to precisely locate where they treat.... they are only tiny dots and I can't choose to have "I love James" or other similar classy tattoo unfortunately. I would be able to drive myself there and back for the treatments but it can take it out of you apparently... but from what I have heard - it's a walk in the park compared to chemo! So this treatment could well take me up to August and I fully plan to book James and I a holiday to celebrate the end of treatment and to have a goal to work towards.

Anyway, it is late and I apologise if this doesn't make much sense. I do think "chemo brain" has set in. Today I was in charge of locking up the back door when we went out.. I did this and put the key away... however, I now have no idea where "away" is!!!!