So I gradually went from slowly
shuffling round the block a couple of times a day, to reaching tescos (5 mins
away) before I reached the heady heights of walking into Greenwich itself (10
mins walk). This has now become my
marker of how good I’m feeling, whether I can get to Greenwich and back.
Sadly I did miss out on going to
my 1 year old niece’s naming day down in Bournemouth as I just wasn’t up to
sitting in the car for the 3 hour journey down.
This was unfortunate as Will and I had been asked to be godparents. Not a good look to be missing from the big
day. Oh well, we wrote a little poem for
Chloe which was read out at the ceremony, and I’m sure she will understand the
reason for our absence when she’s old enough.
With perfect timing, our very
good friends from Australia visited as part of a European tour and bloody hell
it was good to see them. We’d been apart
for more than 3 years and as they’d more or less been our family during our
twelve years in Australia, this was a long time to be apart. We had 3 great days with them in London, visiting
the sights and generally just hanging out.
I was so happy to be feeling well enough to enjoy it and it just felt so
normal to have them around. Thanks Ben,
Lou, Alfie and Lola, we love you and miss you xx
Although the doctors had some
idea of my type of tumour from the initial biopsy, they needed to test the
mass when it was removed in order to fully identify its characteristics. Also, as they’d found at least one lymph node
in my right armpit affected by the cancer, they’d had to remove the whole lot
(15) in order to test them and see how far it extended.
The good news was that it was
just the one lymph node. I felt a bit
miffed that they’d had to remove all 15 in order to find this out. It has left me with a numb upper arm which
will probably always remain that way, and I will now always be at risk of
lymphedema. This is swelling of the arm
due to the lymph fluid no longer being able to drain away, and can be
chronic. Realistically, I know this is a
small price to pay for getting rid of the cancer but its just another thing to
worry about, amongst the long list of worries.
The doctor didn’t make a big deal
of my results as he gave them to us, and I have to admit I did do a bit of googling afterwards just to
find out what it all meant. Forgive me
if I get a bit technical for a minute, you can bypass this stuff if you
like!
The tumour was
· hormone receptive (apparently good as this can
be treated with hormones to stop it returning),
· Herceptin positive (not so good as is fast
growing, BUT there is now a wonder drug available which I will take for a year,
again, to stop the b**stard coming back
· 3.5mm in size and grade 3 (again, fast growing)
Since finding out about my cancer
I have been one of those that has listened to the doctors but not really sought
any further information myself. To my
mind it’s just too easy to scare yourself by looking into things out of
context, so I just trust that they will tell me what I need to know, in order
for me to make the decisions that I need to.
Some may call it blind faith but its just the way I feel happiest
dealing with it.
The doctor laid out the rough
details of my treatment plan. I would
have 6 sessions of chemo with 3 weeks in between each to recover. I would then get a month off before starting daily
radiotherapy for 3 weeks. Then there was
just the small matter of 5 years of hormone therapy. Oh, and not forgetting the Herceptin injections,
currently only offered via intravenous injection which need to be given every 3
weeks for a year. Great. There went mine and Will’s plans for buggering
off on a 3 month trip next spring!
As I started to feel better, I
was keen once again to get on with things.
Everyone has heard the horror stories about chemo and I knew that this
was definitely going to be the hardest part of the whole treatment. I didn’t feel particularly scared of it (ignorance can be a wonderful thing!), but
I wanted to get stuck in and get it done.
No comments:
Post a Comment