Leaving the poison behind....

Well, I have made it through the slump of Thursday and I am oh so close to making it through the aches of Friday. If I am honest, if that hadn't been the last one I am not sure I could have taken many more - boy how they had built up.

But, I can now say;
Goodbye achy back
Goodbye achy tingly big toe and numb feet
Goodbye sore shoulder blade muscles (you don't realise how many muscles your body has till they individually ache ;-D)
Goodbye sore nails
Goodbye yucky icky chemo feeling - "the fuggyness"
Goodbye to eating lots (well, OK that one is likely to stay put for some time yet)

Hello to the joys of washing my hair
Hello to the chore of shaving my legs
Hello to having energy in my tired-old bones once more

And finally .... a big hello to resuming my champagne habit!

I am off to spend a week of full-on recuperation at my folks, so I will be back here in time for the start of my Radiotherapy.

CHEMO DAY : The Last One!

YIPPPEEeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

The hair close up...

The hair is coming on, eyebrows and eyelashes are not faring so well - I have never completely lost them but they have thinned lots and I only have short invisible baby eyelashes.... roll on the day I can wear mascara again and I can start to look like me once more!

A long slog which has flown by.

Oh so nearly there... I am slowly crawling my way through the days until I can say I am out the other side of the chemo drugs. My body is struggling slightly but I will get there :-D By this time in a week-or-so things should hopefully be on the up.

I am quite looking forward to the milestone of having my last chemo dose on Tuesday (just shy of 6 months worth). Another side of me is slightly apprehensive to finish treatment because I like the idea that I am nuke-ing any cancer cells that might be out there in my body at the moment and I don't really want to leave them to their own devices. I will also miss all the lovely chemo staff too - I have got quite used to seeing them every week.

It is so strange to reach this point - it seemed such a far and distant point when I set out at the start and I could hardly contemplate getting to the end. But in a weird way it has flown by!

I think it is also about time I get a photo of my new hair growth, so I will get onto that for posting pronto :-D I think a little bit of a wave is starting to set in... it certainly has reached the length where it can stick up if I sleep on it the wrong way and often has a crazy mind of it's own (as much as a cm or so of hair can).

I'm enjoying this Thursday!

Well, this Thursday seems to be a little more bearable than most Thursdays... perhaps it has something to do with the hoard of birthday cards I had to open this morning :-D

The next bits....

Radiotherapy
Today I have been for my Radiotherapy planning and check out my new permanent tattoo (can you see it??). I have 4 dots strategically placed; one down my cleavage, one just under my ribs and one either side of my body.
The whole planning took an hour or so including talking thru side effects with nurses and docs (fatigue and skin reactions [sunburn like redness, pain and peeling]) and being measured up for the tattoos and getting CT scans so they could plan my treatment.
I am due to get 15 treatments to my right boob and then 5 treatments called "Boosters" which are just given locally on my scar area. I have been given aqueous cream to rub in to try and help prevent the sore skin and advised about washing and bra-wearing precautions which I will need to adapt to during my treatment and for up to 6 weeks afterwards. So I am all ready to go now :-D

Hormone Treatment
After the hard-core treatments are out of the way I then will need to start on the hormonal therapies. It has been recommended that I go onto Tamoxifen tablets for 5 years and also they are recommending combining this with Zoladex injections too.
These therapies are aimed at blocking the estrogen responsiveness of my Cancer. Tamoxifen is aimed at targeting the estrogen receptors on the cancer cells and blocking estrogen stimulating them. Zoladex essentially shuts down my ovaries, putting them to sleep and switching off the production of estrogen in my body.
I am only weekly responsive to estrogen (score 3/8 on some of my biopsies only - others are negative) so the relative benefit of these treatments isn't clear. It might not really give me any significant benefit, however, I am willing to take any small chance that I can to improve my survival. There is a high chance of recurrance in the first 2 years in patients whom are "Negative" for hormone receptors.. as after the chemo and radio are done, that's it for treatment. So I am latching onto my Estrogen positive status and am happy to get further treatments that might help. I am quite impressed that despite the fact that its borderline whether I will benefit from these treatments they are still recommending we try them. Every little helps! Now I am going to go off and look up what side-effects I could have to look forward to with these drugs.

CHEMO DAY: 8 down, 1 to go!

All went well and nothing eventful to report. I have now sat in that chemo chair and been hooked up to the drip 15 times, one more will make 16. Seeing as the original plan was to do it a mere 8 times - I now feel an old pro.
Looking forward to next week :-D

grrrr, just another Thursday

blurgh.... it's another Thursday crash again and I have felt pants today. I just have no desire to do anything. Really lethargic and a "just can't be bothered" attitude has taken hold. My body is aching and my muscles are sore. I also have been really good recently trying to avoid the pigging out, that was until today and I have had a relapse and have eaten non-stop.

I know that tomorrow will be an entirely different day and I can pick up really quickly. I have exciting weekend plans to look forward to which are cheering me on and I know this is just a one-day blip to be endured. So, back to the endurance test.

CHEMO DAY : 7 down, 2 to go!

Well, it must be my impending 30th Birthday but yesterday in chemo apparently I had unbelievably tough skin! I must be a tough old bird now :-D
This meant Martin had a problem in getting me first stab and I had a pretty painful stabbing. But success was had on the second vein tried.

All was pretty uneventful and as usual left me just a little tired. I am now sporting my post-chemo, Aunt Sally-esque rosy red cheeks which will be with me for the next few days.

We've made it!

Finally, we have made it to our first wedding of the year after missing out on several due to my "illness". I made the most of the opportunity and had several wig-outfit changes during the day. Plus I stayed up till 12:30 - ooooh "rock and roll".

The chemo cycles are still going OK with not much to report. They all follow a pretty predictable routine with an initial "high" Wednesday morning followed by a "crash" which means not much happens on Thursday or Friday (apart from napping). Things get a bit better and are pretty normal over the weekend - ready to do it all over again.

CHEMO DAY : 6 down, 3 to go!

Hip Hip Hooray.
Time in: 2pm
First Stabbing
No allergic reactions
Time out: 6pm (I was the last person left hooked up at the end of the day, although they are usually finishing up the last person around 7pm so I was not too late).

Left me feeling tired but fine :)

Radio Ga Ga

Not only is the end of chemo now in sight, but so is the next stage. I have a date to start my Radiotherapy. I don't know all that much about it or what I am getting because up till now I have been concentrating on getting through the chemo first.

What I do know is that I am due to go for a 2 hour planning session on June 20th where they will "size me up" and give me my dot tattoos which will be used to line up the machine for the X-rays to be given in the correct place each time. I will then start my first session on the 9th July. I will need to go for 10min of Zapping every weekday (I have weekends off) for 4 weeks. I am not looking forward to this as I have an hours drive there and back in order to do this each day.

So at least now I can have some idea of how my summer will pan out. So I expect to be finishing the Radiotherapy mid-August I guess. (I've then just got 2-5 years of hormone therapy and I will be done!). So I am going to have the biggest end of treatment party in September because if getting through 6 months of chemo and 1 month of Radio isn't going to be something to celebrate, then I don't know what is.