1year since chemotherapy

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’ the periods are. Like if I remain fertile or not. In my local breast cancer support group, a few younger people have spread some news that even though being told the likelihood of them conceiving again is slim to none, they have given birth to healthy babies. There is still hope then! i did have Zoladex injections to help with protecting my ovaries from Chemotherapy damage, but I don’t know the % rate of it being successful. Until I am ready, I will let you know! 

Fatigue

Fatigue is still sometimes present. I am definitely a ‘head hits the pillow im gone’ kind of girl but I am not sure as to how or when the fatigue gets easier. I am focusing on much healthier eating and exercising more, so maybe the exercise is helping me and my fatigue as it is not as much about. 

Hair Growth 

So my hair is all sorts of crazy! There is 3 hairstyles I can carry off. 

1) hair in a small ‘toddler’ ponytail on top of my head 

2) kind of two bunches 

3) just down and a mop mess

My fiancé and his mother brought me a gift of getting hair extensions and a colour done as they know how much my hair or lack of bothers me. I can’t wait to get my appointment! 

But guys. There is hope! 

Nails

So my finger nails have completely healed! Keeping up with the cuticle oil and keeping them short as possible to stop further damage seems to work wonders! And patience! A lot of patience!

My toenails are kind of getting there, unfortunately they are not coming back as they should in my opinion. They seem to be growing a bit lumpy and bumpy. But as soon as I get paid I am booking an appointment at the foot clinic. My GP won’t do anything about them, as they say it’s classed as self care, but the concern I have is I don’t want a fungal nail infection or anything nasty going on, I just want my toes to get back to a nice condition. Especially for our wedding (if it happens this year.)

Radiotherapy 

So even now, I am experiencing pain and discomfort from The radiotherapy, more so than I had before. I had spoken to my breast consultant about pain along my chest and under my arm. She did an examination and then referred me for a bone scan. This caused me Undoubtedly so much worth as I was concerned and panicked that the cancer had spread or something. I had to have a full bone scan done at hospital. They injected some radioactive dye into me and I was left to wait for 3hours then had a full body scan. 

The results came back clear. The understanding was that it is all tissue damage from the radiotherapy and it should ease up. They prescribed me some ibuprofen gel and told me to keep an eye out on it. But the damage is still very evident. The pain falls in all the redness and you can see the darker skin area that was ‘zapped.’ 

Also I guess with the mastectomy they had to scrape everything away so every little knock/hit/lean it is going to aggravate it. I have lost count how many times Erin has knocked it! 

COVID-19 

Feels weird that there still has to be discussion/conversation about COVID. 1 year on? I mean you can see the news and the deaths that have been happening non stop. Cases rise, new variants and more deaths. Funny, the news doesn’t seem to cover the recoveries or the positives, if there are any.. 

I had a conversation with my oncologist who advised me that 2 years after chemotherapy I am susceptible to viruses and infections. Although your white blood cells increase and get better then what they were like whilst undergoing treatment, it’s still a risk! 

So here I am. Unable to work as I am classed as clinically extremely vulnerable. My job is patient facing and even with PPE it’s a risk. Luckily my employer allows me to be furloughed, but with the lack of pay and taking a mortgage on the stress is unreal. Financially it’s tight, with food, bills, petrol etc you got it. We are having to use our wedding savings, but if it continues that I cannot get back to work, then we will be having to postpone our wedding again. I’m thankful that we have savings, but we also have work that needs doing in the house! It all cannot come at a worse time! 

With the uncertainty of weddings at the moment, I’m sure Boris will announce next week 22nd about his phase out of lockdown which includes weddings, tier systems and what means for us CEV people going forward.

I was lucky enough to have my first COVID vaccination at the end of January. I had the Pfizer one and didn’t have any side effects, but did have a very painful/dead/numb arm for a few days. My other half had the Oxford one and his symptoms were a lot worse than mine. So should be due my second dose, middle of April. After the first dose you are 46% protected after 2 weeks, then 65% protected after 3/4 weeks. Then after your 2nd jab, you are 95% protected. Ok, granted the side effects of fertility being an issue did raise some concerns with me, but I hope it’s not a long term issue as my fertility could of been damaged from chemotherapy. 

So for now, just have to wait and see what happens going forward. The cases seem to be dropping and seem to be having less deaths, so let’s hope Boris doesn’t fuck up his next decision and eases us out of lockdown safely and sensibly! Doubt it!

But that’s where we are at. 1 year on.