Forty Six

Tuesday, 26 February 2013

Here I am again in my bed. We bought a lovely memory foam mattress just over a year ago and I never dreamt how usefull it would become! My back and legs hurt and my brain has vacated. I have limited feeling in my fingertips and a constantly flicking left eyelid. I know that I will feel better in a few days and at least don't have the chest/throat infection thing to contend with this time.

So, last Wednesday I went for my pre-chemo Oncologists consultation and blood tests. It all went quite smoothly with no big surprises and I had a chance to discuss the next year or so's treatment a bit. Here is a basic outline of the plan, although it will change - they always do.

On March 1st I will meet with the Breast Surgery team to discuss the next surgery which will be a full axillary clearance on my left armpit. Removal of all the lymph nodes. Hopefully this surgery will come through quickly.

On March 20th I will meet with the Oncology team to have my blood tested and discuss any further chemical treatment. I will then have my 3 weekly Herceptin on the same day and will continue with this into 2014.

As soon as the lymph nodes have been tested for cancer they will know how much radiotherapy I will need (obviously more if it's spread further). At the moment they think it will be between 3 and 5 weeks. I will have to visit Guys for treatment every day.

It will take my body a year to recover fully enough from the radiotherapy to have any further surgery. I will keep this 'holding implant' in my left breast until I have recovered enough for further surgery. The 'holding implant' that is there now is not the finished product and is basically there so I have something to put in my bra and to keep the skin envelope alive.

When I am ready for the new implant in the left side I will also have a full mastectomy and matching reconstruction on the right breast. This will be carried out by breast and plastic surgeons ensuring the best cosmetic results, ill get nipples too! There is a good chance that the scar tissue from the radiotherapy will misshape the existing implant, this will be solved by the replacement.

When this has all finished and all being well, I will have a 5-10 year course of Tamoxifen tablets to inhibit my oestrogen levels, the hormone that could trigger more cancer.

And breathe.

I then got a call on Thursday afternoon saying that my neutrophils were too low on Wednesday's blood test to have my chemo on Friday and could I come in early for more tests. I ate black pudding for supper and breakfast, downed all the vitamin supplements I could get my hands on and drank rank spirilina smoothies. By Friday morning I just about scraped it.

We were joined by the shoe fairy who came bearing 'last chemo' gifts! The treatment was delayed due to the extra blood tests but otherwise went without a hitch. After My chemotherapy drugs and then the Herceptin the nurse prepared a third treatment. It was called Zometa. I hadn’t heard of this one before and was told it was for the treatment of bone cancer and that I had been prescribed it on top of my chemo. I questioned why and decided not to have it before discussing it further with the oncologists.

On further research, Zometa is indeed for bone cancer. I have had an uncomfortable few days waiting to see if the prescription was correct or not but have just found out that there had been a mistake. As far as they are concerned I still do NOT have cancer in my bones and the foci and bone islands seen in the scans are not Metastatic. They are now working hard to find out why I had been wrongly offered this treatment.