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1year since chemotherapy

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I can’t believe that it has been a year since I had my last chemotherapy. A double whammy of paclitaxol and carboplatin. 1 year.  In May it will be 1 year since my radiotherapy ended! But I’ll come to that later!  I haven’t been on here much. A lot has happened since I last wrote. I have mainly been trying to recover mentally and physically from all my treatments and trying to get a new normal back. Being back to work and living in our own house that we purchased in October! But with COVID lurking around every corner, I don’t know how you are coping but it’s hard. One minute I get back to work in a routine and then I’m put on furlough because I’m classed as clinically extremely vulnerable. And repeat and repeat and repeat. Periods So safe to say, that my body is back to normal. Like clockwork since summer last year. I have heard that some people have not had a single period since coming off chemotherapy.  It still feels good to have periods, but I don’t know how ‘working’...
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23 weeks post chemotherapy!

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I can’t believe it’s been 23weeks ago I have finished chemotherapy! My radiotherapy is all finished too! So currently no active treatment! I also got fitted for my proper prosthesis. Was an experience. So I’ll introduce you to Phyllis to start with!  Phyllis Meet Phyllis. She is my prosthetic boob. The hospital originally gave me some soft cushion ones to use as a stand by until I had my proper fitting. I’ll show a pic of my cushioned ones before I  show you the real deal!  Phyllis 1 The size difference is insane between these two! And the weight difference! Phyllis 1 weighs like 0g and Phyllis 2 weighs 100g I swear haha! I might actually weigh them both!  Phyllis 2 The good thing with these is they slot in the bra so easily! The bra I have are from Marks & Spencer! The range they have for post surgery bras are brilliant! Also in the UK you don’t pay VAT on them!  Periods So since my last post. I have had quite a few periods. They have be...
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Radiotherapy

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The deal with radiotherapy is currently this.  Normally I would be given 20 sessions.  These are spread daily Monday - Friday over 4 weeks. There are new trials that show the same sessions can be done in 5 days worth of treatment. As a result, it’s less time spent at the hospital which is good given current Coronavirus guidelines and me self shielding. The recovery, is all the same, However the dosage is much more stronger. It’s been trialled elsewhere and apparently there is scientific proof the results are the same. However in my hospital it hasn’t been done this way, so I appear to be a guinea pig.  From the previous post about my tattooing and the specific ness of the positioning of me, and the degrees of my body etc is basically done again before the actual zapping. So here’s a video of my session. It is 15mins long I appreciate that, but up until 9:15 is the radiographers aligning me up. They then have to leave the room. From about 11:35 is when the machine...
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Not quite the tattoo I wanted

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The last hurdle So  today I had my radiotherapy consultation!  Was a bit different. As soon as I entered the hospital I got a thermometer stuck in my ear, and a mask tried to put on my face before I could even point out that I had one on!  The whole purpose of this appointment was to go through the basics of what to expect. I had briefly spoken to someone on the phone about radiotherapy over the last few weeks and to which I gave my consent but I needed to physically go in the hospital today. They wanted to check my wound from my mastectomy and then also do some tattoo for reference points.  So apparently, they are changing the duration of treatment for breast cancer patients. Originally you would have between 15 and 20 sessions spread out over 3/4 weeks on Monday-Friday. But they want to condense it down into smaller sessions. The pros of that are it’s done quicker, less time at the hospital especially in this Coronavirus situation. The cons, are it i...
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14 weeks post chemotherapy!

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It’s been 14 weeks since my last chemotherapy. I know I’m a bit late to the party, but I have been trying to heal and recover from my last surgery. I can’t believe that during this Coronavirus ‘lockdown’ how quick time is actually going. It’s already been 3 weeks since my emergency mastectomy surgery.  Periods So since my last post. I still haven’t had a period. I truly wonder how long it will take until my body gets back to normal. Not that I’m rushing to have my period again, but I’m generally interested when it will happen again. Due to the BRCA gene I have, that leaves me a high risk for both Breast & Ovarian cancer. So they have recommended that I do have an oophorectomy to remove my ovaries once I have finished my family. Removing the ovaries the biggest side effect is menopause. Early menopause. At not even 30. Usually menopause happens between the ages of 45-55.  Side effects of the menopause : hot flushes  Night sweats Difficulty sleeping Reduced...
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Then there was one

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Sometimes life just kicks you back down when you get better and start to climb that hill.  It all started on Tuesday 24th March. I woke up feeling okay. Not brilliant. But okay. Erin and I had breakfast and then we did some dancing around the front room like Zumba style. Nothing exciting, but embracing this lockdown. She then went up for her morning nap. I went for a lay down and was doing my puzzle. Woke up a few hours later, and felt like my head had been squashed in a vice.  That night the chills started, I felt nauseous and sick and I felt cold, but my core was warm. Feet and hands like ice. No other symptoms. I started panicking that I had the Coronavirus, but was reassured that I didn’t. I went to bed at 7 and woke up at 9:30pm. Took some paracetamol and then went back to sleep.  Wednesday 25th March  Today I felt awful, my body hurt. I felt sick and kept trying to be sick but nothing was coming up. I had some plain toast, but that didn’t last lon...
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Pathology Results

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Complete  Pathological  response.  Aka The disappearance of all signs of cancer in response to treatment. Chemotherapy shrunk the cancer lump I found.  The purpose of the surgery was to remove every bit of breast tissue that was left and there was no sign of any cancer.  She removed a big chunk of lymph nodes as precaution and only 1 out of 12 of them had cancer which was the one we knew about.  Aka I kicked cancers arse. Where’s the cider?
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