Tuesday 18 December 2012
Friday 22 October 2010
The Portacath is in.
After completing my entry about Mt vernon last night, I feel there is more I should add before telling you about the port being fitted.
After a good few hours of blogging I decided to go through to the ward and watch a film (The Girl with a Dragon Tattoo for those of you that want to know). It was a fair sized ward but only 5 ladies were there for the night. Two ladies had chemo treatments that would be going on until just after midnight , Shirley who was having the port in the morning too and Margaret who had been in for a few days.
I didn’t really speak to anyone at this time as I was a bit zoned out after blogging for so long, so just got myself into bed and stuck my headphones on. This was a relief actually as the machines that infuse the chemo make a very monotonous whirring noise and beep a lot, and it’s still a bit close to the end of my treatment for these sounds not to affect me, watching the film drowned out the noises and took my brain somewhere else for a bit.
At about 9pm I decided to stretch my legs and go to the loo, on my way out I met June (one of the ladies having treatment till the early hours). We ended up having a lovely chat and I discovered that while I was in my blog zone earlier I had totally missed her awful allergic reaction to her chemo which was why she was still hooked up to the machine.
I really enjoyed meeting June, she had had Ovarian Cancer 2 years ago and had recently had other tumors discovered in several other areas and was having treatment again. After my comments on my earlier entry about finding it difficult to talk to people in this very situation, I found June so refreshing, she has a very similar outlook to me and is definately not a “victim”. We talked for ages about all sorts of things, illness related and non illness related, all I can say is I can finally understand how people see me as inspiration as I found June to be the same and really enjoyed meeting her. We chatted some more in the morning and all I can say is her family are blessed with a wonderful woman. Thanks for your company June x
So onto the procedure. At 9.30am the Doctor came round with a consent form for me to sign to allow the operation to take place, then straight away I was given a premed and a jab of pethadine in my bum cheek before being whisked over to radiology.
I felt very relaxed and a little bit light headed but didn’t feel at all anxious (the drugs were doing their job well). I was wheeled into the radiology suite and transfered over to the operating table.
They explained once again exactly what would be happening and said they just needed to get prepped before they could begin. They then proceeded to scrub me with iodine and alcohol then covered me up with blue sheets with just my chest area and my face poking out. At this point I was most nervous about the local anathestic injection as I knew that would sting.
The jab wasn’t that bad after all and it definately worked as I had no pain during the procedure at all. There was lots of weird tugging at my flesh and the surgeon kept complaining about the disposable scissors they have to work with not grabbing the thread and not cutting properly!
The staff in there were lovely, chatting about all sorts of things like butterflies being released a friends wedding and of course Pampered Chef (the xray lady had recently bought a food chopper and was singing its praises!).
The whole procedure was done in 40 minutes and I was back on the ward an hour after I left.
I have the feeling of a stiff neck (as if I’ve been laying in a draft all afternoon) and the two sites that have been cut open are tender and I feel a bit bruised and battered, but nothing a paracetamol won’t keep on top of.
So I rang Jay to come and collect me and I was back home by 1.30pm. All ready for my first Herceptin treatment to be administered on Tuesday, 23rd November.
After a good few hours of blogging I decided to go through to the ward and watch a film (The Girl with a Dragon Tattoo for those of you that want to know). It was a fair sized ward but only 5 ladies were there for the night. Two ladies had chemo treatments that would be going on until just after midnight , Shirley who was having the port in the morning too and Margaret who had been in for a few days.
I didn’t really speak to anyone at this time as I was a bit zoned out after blogging for so long, so just got myself into bed and stuck my headphones on. This was a relief actually as the machines that infuse the chemo make a very monotonous whirring noise and beep a lot, and it’s still a bit close to the end of my treatment for these sounds not to affect me, watching the film drowned out the noises and took my brain somewhere else for a bit.
At about 9pm I decided to stretch my legs and go to the loo, on my way out I met June (one of the ladies having treatment till the early hours). We ended up having a lovely chat and I discovered that while I was in my blog zone earlier I had totally missed her awful allergic reaction to her chemo which was why she was still hooked up to the machine.
I really enjoyed meeting June, she had had Ovarian Cancer 2 years ago and had recently had other tumors discovered in several other areas and was having treatment again. After my comments on my earlier entry about finding it difficult to talk to people in this very situation, I found June so refreshing, she has a very similar outlook to me and is definately not a “victim”. We talked for ages about all sorts of things, illness related and non illness related, all I can say is I can finally understand how people see me as inspiration as I found June to be the same and really enjoyed meeting her. We chatted some more in the morning and all I can say is her family are blessed with a wonderful woman. Thanks for your company June x
So onto the procedure. At 9.30am the Doctor came round with a consent form for me to sign to allow the operation to take place, then straight away I was given a premed and a jab of pethadine in my bum cheek before being whisked over to radiology.
I felt very relaxed and a little bit light headed but didn’t feel at all anxious (the drugs were doing their job well). I was wheeled into the radiology suite and transfered over to the operating table.
They explained once again exactly what would be happening and said they just needed to get prepped before they could begin. They then proceeded to scrub me with iodine and alcohol then covered me up with blue sheets with just my chest area and my face poking out. At this point I was most nervous about the local anathestic injection as I knew that would sting.
The jab wasn’t that bad after all and it definately worked as I had no pain during the procedure at all. There was lots of weird tugging at my flesh and the surgeon kept complaining about the disposable scissors they have to work with not grabbing the thread and not cutting properly!
The staff in there were lovely, chatting about all sorts of things like butterflies being released a friends wedding and of course Pampered Chef (the xray lady had recently bought a food chopper and was singing its praises!).
The whole procedure was done in 40 minutes and I was back on the ward an hour after I left.
I have the feeling of a stiff neck (as if I’ve been laying in a draft all afternoon) and the two sites that have been cut open are tender and I feel a bit bruised and battered, but nothing a paracetamol won’t keep on top of.
So I rang Jay to come and collect me and I was back home by 1.30pm. All ready for my first Herceptin treatment to be administered on Tuesday, 23rd November.
Thursday 21 October 2010
Mount Vernon Hospital Trip
Today I have had to come to Mount Vernon (for the first time ever) to have some blood tests prior to having a Portacath fitted.
In the last few sessions of Chemotherapy my veins have started to complain and one has even collapsed completely! This is hardly surprising as the toxicity of the drugs that have been pumped into my body is pretty high. After my second treatment the vein used became hard and sore (bruise kind of pain) and my 5th treatment required 3 attempts to get a needle in and the 6th took 4!
Before I started Chemo it was mentioned to me about getting a portacath fitted, but it was dismissed due to me being young and my veins are strong so there should be no need for me to have one, but it would be re-evaluated as my treatment goes on.
Seemingly even young, strong veins can’t handle it in all cases and after cycle number 4 when my arms were starting to hurt when i roll my sleeves up (from the pressure on my forearms) I decided to bite the bullet and ask for the consultant to refer me to get a port fitted.
They had no problems in referring me for it as I had another 18 treatments of Herceptin to follow after the chemo and my veins would still struggle with them being used every 3 weeks. The only problem was that it had to be done at Mount Vernon and there was a bit of a wait to get it fitted, which may mean it wouldn’t be done in time for any of my chemo treatments (which obviously it wasn’t).
So I arrived at 2pm for my bloods to be taken, they were expecting me (fab) and a nurse even asked if I was having the port fitted and was I planning on staying the night? (Yes and Yes). Nice and organised, “you’re in bed 7, which is all ready for you. Great :)
Mum and Amber were with me at the time so they took us through to the day room, a cute little room with a couple of sofas and dining table and chairs and a tv & dvd player. Mum left pretty much straight away after I reassured her I’d be fine, then after about 10 minutes I was asked to go over to the building where they do the bloods.
There was another lady that was also having a portacath fitted tomorrow and we were both to get our bloods done at the same time. After chatting with her for about 10 seconds we discovered that she was from Letchworth and had also travelled up this afternoon. We chatted while we waited for our bloods to be taken and I found out that she had had stomach and bowel cancer last year and now they have found it has spread so she is having to have chemo for a second time.
I find it really difficult to talk to people in this situation with their Cancer as I feel so lucky to have had such a light brush with it and had a fairly smooth ride. My positive outlook on everything doesn’t come across so well when you’re talking to someone who quite clearly has a tough situation to deal with. I’m not naive to think that everyone should cope with it in the same way I have and I know that many people have it much much worse than me, but I honestly don’t know how else to behave, and this is why I struggle, as I worry that I dont express empathy very well.
Needless to say I had already planned on catching up with my blog while in hospital so pitched myself up at the table in the day room with my laptop and kept myself to myself for the rest of the afternoon.
The nurse that took my blood was the best blood taker I’ve had all year, it didn’t hurt one little bit when she put the needle in. However she put the blood in the wrong pots so an hour later another nurse (who was nowhere near as gentle) had to take some more!
I was given an information sheet on the portacath when I returned to the ward which was extremely straight forward and made it all much clearer to me, so here are some useful bits to help you, the reader understand too.
The implantable port is a thin, soft plastic tube that is put into the chest and has an opening (port) just under the skin. It allows medicines to be given into the vein or blood to be taken from the vein. The operation to fit it requires 2 small incisions to be made in your upper chest, the first is about 3-4 cm long and is where the port is placed, the second incision goes above this, and is usually less than 1-2cm long. The tube goes directly into a vein in your chest and is then tunnelled under the skin and attached to the port, which is fitted into a space created under the skin.
Shirley (the lady from Letchworth) and I had a talk from one of the nurses about the actual procedure for us and got to see the port itself. I was pleasantly surprised to see it was a lot smaller than I imagined it to be (I’d seen a lady with one at Lister and you could see it under her skin and it looked about the size of a pound coin), this was much smaller – the bit that is directly under the skin is smaller than a 5 pence piece and the nurse said you can’t normally see them once they’re in but people that loose quite a bit of weight after having it inserted can sometimes see it. (so with all my recently added pounds mine may well become visible over time!).
We’ve been told that we’ll be given something to relax us in the morning then taken for an xray at about 9am. We’ll have a jab of pethadine in our bottoms and have a local anasthetic just before. The procedure itself takes about 1 hour and we should be free to go home pretty much straight away if we feel ok.
The ward here is so relaxed, if it wasn’t for the typical hospital smell I could almost mistake it for a budget hotel (I’m not expecting much for the comfort of the bed but they gave me ice cream for pudding with dinner so I’m a happy bunny).
In the last few sessions of Chemotherapy my veins have started to complain and one has even collapsed completely! This is hardly surprising as the toxicity of the drugs that have been pumped into my body is pretty high. After my second treatment the vein used became hard and sore (bruise kind of pain) and my 5th treatment required 3 attempts to get a needle in and the 6th took 4!
Before I started Chemo it was mentioned to me about getting a portacath fitted, but it was dismissed due to me being young and my veins are strong so there should be no need for me to have one, but it would be re-evaluated as my treatment goes on.
Seemingly even young, strong veins can’t handle it in all cases and after cycle number 4 when my arms were starting to hurt when i roll my sleeves up (from the pressure on my forearms) I decided to bite the bullet and ask for the consultant to refer me to get a port fitted.
They had no problems in referring me for it as I had another 18 treatments of Herceptin to follow after the chemo and my veins would still struggle with them being used every 3 weeks. The only problem was that it had to be done at Mount Vernon and there was a bit of a wait to get it fitted, which may mean it wouldn’t be done in time for any of my chemo treatments (which obviously it wasn’t).
So I arrived at 2pm for my bloods to be taken, they were expecting me (fab) and a nurse even asked if I was having the port fitted and was I planning on staying the night? (Yes and Yes). Nice and organised, “you’re in bed 7, which is all ready for you. Great :)
Mum and Amber were with me at the time so they took us through to the day room, a cute little room with a couple of sofas and dining table and chairs and a tv & dvd player. Mum left pretty much straight away after I reassured her I’d be fine, then after about 10 minutes I was asked to go over to the building where they do the bloods.
There was another lady that was also having a portacath fitted tomorrow and we were both to get our bloods done at the same time. After chatting with her for about 10 seconds we discovered that she was from Letchworth and had also travelled up this afternoon. We chatted while we waited for our bloods to be taken and I found out that she had had stomach and bowel cancer last year and now they have found it has spread so she is having to have chemo for a second time.
I find it really difficult to talk to people in this situation with their Cancer as I feel so lucky to have had such a light brush with it and had a fairly smooth ride. My positive outlook on everything doesn’t come across so well when you’re talking to someone who quite clearly has a tough situation to deal with. I’m not naive to think that everyone should cope with it in the same way I have and I know that many people have it much much worse than me, but I honestly don’t know how else to behave, and this is why I struggle, as I worry that I dont express empathy very well.
Needless to say I had already planned on catching up with my blog while in hospital so pitched myself up at the table in the day room with my laptop and kept myself to myself for the rest of the afternoon.
The nurse that took my blood was the best blood taker I’ve had all year, it didn’t hurt one little bit when she put the needle in. However she put the blood in the wrong pots so an hour later another nurse (who was nowhere near as gentle) had to take some more!
I was given an information sheet on the portacath when I returned to the ward which was extremely straight forward and made it all much clearer to me, so here are some useful bits to help you, the reader understand too.
The implantable port is a thin, soft plastic tube that is put into the chest and has an opening (port) just under the skin. It allows medicines to be given into the vein or blood to be taken from the vein. The operation to fit it requires 2 small incisions to be made in your upper chest, the first is about 3-4 cm long and is where the port is placed, the second incision goes above this, and is usually less than 1-2cm long. The tube goes directly into a vein in your chest and is then tunnelled under the skin and attached to the port, which is fitted into a space created under the skin.
Shirley (the lady from Letchworth) and I had a talk from one of the nurses about the actual procedure for us and got to see the port itself. I was pleasantly surprised to see it was a lot smaller than I imagined it to be (I’d seen a lady with one at Lister and you could see it under her skin and it looked about the size of a pound coin), this was much smaller – the bit that is directly under the skin is smaller than a 5 pence piece and the nurse said you can’t normally see them once they’re in but people that loose quite a bit of weight after having it inserted can sometimes see it. (so with all my recently added pounds mine may well become visible over time!).
We’ve been told that we’ll be given something to relax us in the morning then taken for an xray at about 9am. We’ll have a jab of pethadine in our bottoms and have a local anasthetic just before. The procedure itself takes about 1 hour and we should be free to go home pretty much straight away if we feel ok.
The ward here is so relaxed, if it wasn’t for the typical hospital smell I could almost mistake it for a budget hotel (I’m not expecting much for the comfort of the bed but they gave me ice cream for pudding with dinner so I’m a happy bunny).
Following the Final Chemo treatment
After the exhaustion of #5 treatment, I was fully prepared to feel rough for at least a week if not longer, so I made sure I had nothing major planned for a couple of weeks afterwards and planned to do a lot of sleeping.
I had finally been given a date for my Portacath to be fitted for the Friday following treatment (22nd October) so knew I would be staying overnight at Mount Vernon hospital on Thursday night as I had to have bloods taken on Thursday afternoon and my theatre time for Friday was booked in for 8am so I thought it would make sense to have an afternoon to myself to relax, but apart from that I didn’t really have anything planned.
Anyway, I felt the usual disdain from the lack of ability to taste anything, which doesn’t sound like a hugely terrible side effect, but actually its the one that has bothered me the most. I’m considered a fussy eater, I don’t like a lot of foods and I won’t drink tap water. This isn’t usually a problem in my day to day life as I always eat enough (if not the healthiest of diets) and live on Perfectly Clear flavoured water. The problem arises when my flavoured water tastes nasty, because then I get dehydrated, this I’ve decided is the route of all my chemo side effects.
The “hangover belly” that I’ve referred to before has be the same symptom as a hangover because that is dehydration too. Normally I would just drink a lot, but when the only drinks that are even slightly veasible to drink are Orange Juice (too acidic in large quantities) and Fanta (my holiday abroad favourite when I can’t drink anything else) is so gassy and impractical to drink all day long. It just isn’t possible.
I’ve found that Lucozade Sport helps A LOT, but can be quite expensive and sickly if you drink too much of it. However it does help me out of the desperate days after treatment.
Basically, I haven’t been able to enjoy food for 5 whole days following this treatment and the most annoying part is that the lack of taste is not accompanied by lack of desire for food. I swear I must have put on at least half a stone this week as the only things i enjoy eating at this time are high calorie, high flavour foods, such as chocolate, cakes, sweets, mature cheddar etc.
As before there is always a day when the taste buds start coming back – usually day 5, this time it fell on day 6 – Cath’s baby shower. I sat and ate practically a whole (large) bag of cheesy balls and crispy sticks, plus 3 home made cupcakes, while everyone else sat there politely picking at a single cupcake and maybe a couple of crisps and bitesized snacks. I also managed to polish off 2 cans of Cherry Coke (delightful), then went home and had a big pasta dinner. (I had also eaten a massive full english Breakfast – cooked by my wonderful husband and a bowl of cereal before arriving at the baby shower). As I’m typing this even I’m thinking 7lbs is far too low an estimate of how much weight I’ve put on.
In terms of tiredness, I have had a sleep when Amber has napped every day this week (Wednesday - Saturday, with a short nap on Sunday between shovelling food into my mouth!).
I’ve been going to bed in the evenings between 7 and 8.30 all week with a late one on Saturday when the parents came round for a take away. We are now on the second Thursday after treatment and I feel absolutely fine again. Yey! That means I won’t feel chemo yuk again, hooray!
I had finally been given a date for my Portacath to be fitted for the Friday following treatment (22nd October) so knew I would be staying overnight at Mount Vernon hospital on Thursday night as I had to have bloods taken on Thursday afternoon and my theatre time for Friday was booked in for 8am so I thought it would make sense to have an afternoon to myself to relax, but apart from that I didn’t really have anything planned.
Anyway, I felt the usual disdain from the lack of ability to taste anything, which doesn’t sound like a hugely terrible side effect, but actually its the one that has bothered me the most. I’m considered a fussy eater, I don’t like a lot of foods and I won’t drink tap water. This isn’t usually a problem in my day to day life as I always eat enough (if not the healthiest of diets) and live on Perfectly Clear flavoured water. The problem arises when my flavoured water tastes nasty, because then I get dehydrated, this I’ve decided is the route of all my chemo side effects.
The “hangover belly” that I’ve referred to before has be the same symptom as a hangover because that is dehydration too. Normally I would just drink a lot, but when the only drinks that are even slightly veasible to drink are Orange Juice (too acidic in large quantities) and Fanta (my holiday abroad favourite when I can’t drink anything else) is so gassy and impractical to drink all day long. It just isn’t possible.
I’ve found that Lucozade Sport helps A LOT, but can be quite expensive and sickly if you drink too much of it. However it does help me out of the desperate days after treatment.
Basically, I haven’t been able to enjoy food for 5 whole days following this treatment and the most annoying part is that the lack of taste is not accompanied by lack of desire for food. I swear I must have put on at least half a stone this week as the only things i enjoy eating at this time are high calorie, high flavour foods, such as chocolate, cakes, sweets, mature cheddar etc.
As before there is always a day when the taste buds start coming back – usually day 5, this time it fell on day 6 – Cath’s baby shower. I sat and ate practically a whole (large) bag of cheesy balls and crispy sticks, plus 3 home made cupcakes, while everyone else sat there politely picking at a single cupcake and maybe a couple of crisps and bitesized snacks. I also managed to polish off 2 cans of Cherry Coke (delightful), then went home and had a big pasta dinner. (I had also eaten a massive full english Breakfast – cooked by my wonderful husband and a bowl of cereal before arriving at the baby shower). As I’m typing this even I’m thinking 7lbs is far too low an estimate of how much weight I’ve put on.
In terms of tiredness, I have had a sleep when Amber has napped every day this week (Wednesday - Saturday, with a short nap on Sunday between shovelling food into my mouth!).
I’ve been going to bed in the evenings between 7 and 8.30 all week with a late one on Saturday when the parents came round for a take away. We are now on the second Thursday after treatment and I feel absolutely fine again. Yey! That means I won’t feel chemo yuk again, hooray!
Tuesday 12 October 2010
The Final Chemo
So here it is the final day of Chemo; it seems to have come round surprisingly quickly actually although I definately am ready for it to finish now.
For the first time I’m having psysiological symptoms where I’m starting to feel queasy and nauseus in preparation for the treatment which I haven’t experienced before . My body seems better able to remember what to expect this time and it isn’t looking forward to it.
After feeling so knackered last session I’m not shocked by this.
As usual I went down on my own, my friend Nicky was going to come along again but had to cancel at the last minute. Which was a shame as we had a lovely catch up last time but at the same time I was looking forward to just chilling and doing nothing during my treatment.
As before I had to be there an hour before as I have to take my Emend, in my pre-chemo visit yesterday I mentioned to the nurses and they said it would be sorted and ready for me as before.
It wasn’t.
I had to go down to the pharmacy and wait 30 minutes for it to be prepared for me. But no worry, it wasn’t like I was in any kind of hurry to get to the end of my LAST TREATMENT or anything! I was a bit annoyed, anyway I came back up to the ward and waited another 20 minutes or so before being called through to the treatment room to take my bloods.
Today I had Sally and she got me ready for taking my bloods, the first needle went in ok, but no blood came back, the second needle went in ok but wasn’t having any of it either, the third needle went in ok but no blood came back (even with lots of sweet talking to the vein and lots of wiggling of the needle in my arm).
So then Sally called Harry over to have a go – I was feeling really queasy by this point and she did suggest I could come back next Friday if I wanted to after my portacath was fitted, but I obviously declined – there was absolutely no way I wanted this treatment delayed any longer.
Harry started all over again – arm back in warm water to heat up the veins, then tried a hidden vein in the back of my hand. Hey Presto! We had blood coming back this time, finally they could take my bloods to check I was able to actually have my treatment today. The time was now 3.30pm, I had arrived at the hospital at 1.30pm!
Fortunately my bloods were fine and we had the go ahead for the treatment to begin.
Since my last treatment I had been quite lethargic (more so than I had before after treatment) so much so that over a week after my treatment I was still feeling pretty poo and in the last week of the cycle (week 3 –which is normally my feeling good week) I was quite exhausted.
I said to Harry that I would try and sleep during this treatment if that was ok and shut my eyes.
Then the nurses opened a box of chocolates! The lovely people that they are offered me some too and I’m far too polite to decline. I don’t think this helped me fall asleep though and found I could only sit with my eyes shut and listen to the nurses calling out names and regimens in a very rhythmical and monotone way. I must have dozed for a bit as the treatment itself did seem to go quite quickly. By this time I was the only patient left in the treatment room and it was lovely and peaceful.
So that was that, come 5 ‘o’clock I was done! I wanted to do a little dance and jump around - I was finished at last. The nurses were all at the end of their shift and although I’m sure could appreciate to some degree how I was feeling didn’t have the right level of enthusiasm for my liking.
So I left the hospital with a really bizarre combination of disappointment and happiness.
For the first time I’m having psysiological symptoms where I’m starting to feel queasy and nauseus in preparation for the treatment which I haven’t experienced before . My body seems better able to remember what to expect this time and it isn’t looking forward to it.
After feeling so knackered last session I’m not shocked by this.
As usual I went down on my own, my friend Nicky was going to come along again but had to cancel at the last minute. Which was a shame as we had a lovely catch up last time but at the same time I was looking forward to just chilling and doing nothing during my treatment.
As before I had to be there an hour before as I have to take my Emend, in my pre-chemo visit yesterday I mentioned to the nurses and they said it would be sorted and ready for me as before.
It wasn’t.
I had to go down to the pharmacy and wait 30 minutes for it to be prepared for me. But no worry, it wasn’t like I was in any kind of hurry to get to the end of my LAST TREATMENT or anything! I was a bit annoyed, anyway I came back up to the ward and waited another 20 minutes or so before being called through to the treatment room to take my bloods.
Today I had Sally and she got me ready for taking my bloods, the first needle went in ok, but no blood came back, the second needle went in ok but wasn’t having any of it either, the third needle went in ok but no blood came back (even with lots of sweet talking to the vein and lots of wiggling of the needle in my arm).
So then Sally called Harry over to have a go – I was feeling really queasy by this point and she did suggest I could come back next Friday if I wanted to after my portacath was fitted, but I obviously declined – there was absolutely no way I wanted this treatment delayed any longer.
Harry started all over again – arm back in warm water to heat up the veins, then tried a hidden vein in the back of my hand. Hey Presto! We had blood coming back this time, finally they could take my bloods to check I was able to actually have my treatment today. The time was now 3.30pm, I had arrived at the hospital at 1.30pm!
Fortunately my bloods were fine and we had the go ahead for the treatment to begin.
Since my last treatment I had been quite lethargic (more so than I had before after treatment) so much so that over a week after my treatment I was still feeling pretty poo and in the last week of the cycle (week 3 –which is normally my feeling good week) I was quite exhausted.
I said to Harry that I would try and sleep during this treatment if that was ok and shut my eyes.
Then the nurses opened a box of chocolates! The lovely people that they are offered me some too and I’m far too polite to decline. I don’t think this helped me fall asleep though and found I could only sit with my eyes shut and listen to the nurses calling out names and regimens in a very rhythmical and monotone way. I must have dozed for a bit as the treatment itself did seem to go quite quickly. By this time I was the only patient left in the treatment room and it was lovely and peaceful.
So that was that, come 5 ‘o’clock I was done! I wanted to do a little dance and jump around - I was finished at last. The nurses were all at the end of their shift and although I’m sure could appreciate to some degree how I was feeling didn’t have the right level of enthusiasm for my liking.
So I left the hospital with a really bizarre combination of disappointment and happiness.
Monday 4 October 2010
The Initial Tests
On January 4th 2010 I went to Lister to meet with the consultant as per my referal from the GP.
He could not get any conclusive results from his examination and referred me to the QEII for an ultrasound and potential biopsy of the lump.
On February 1st I went to the Vicki Adkins unit in the QEII Hospital and had an ultrasound which showed 2 areas in the breast tissue that were unclear. The nurse decided it would be necessary to do a core biopsy test on both areas (i.e. 2 samples from each lump).
This was fairly painless (until the local anasthetic wore off) but was uncomfortable. I bruise like a peach anyway so had a rather tasty green bruise afterwards.
Then it was a 2 week wait until my results.
I was relatively unconcerned at this stage to be honest and almost completely forgot about the more serious implications this could have.
He could not get any conclusive results from his examination and referred me to the QEII for an ultrasound and potential biopsy of the lump.
On February 1st I went to the Vicki Adkins unit in the QEII Hospital and had an ultrasound which showed 2 areas in the breast tissue that were unclear. The nurse decided it would be necessary to do a core biopsy test on both areas (i.e. 2 samples from each lump).
This was fairly painless (until the local anasthetic wore off) but was uncomfortable. I bruise like a peach anyway so had a rather tasty green bruise afterwards.
Then it was a 2 week wait until my results.
I was relatively unconcerned at this stage to be honest and almost completely forgot about the more serious implications this could have.
Monday 26 July 2010
2nd Chemo Cycle
Tuesday, 20th July, 2nd bout of Chemotherapy.
Just as a round up of how the first cycle went here's some bullet points of the good and bad things I experienced.
- Days 2,3 and 4 felt really nauseus had to eat constantly
- Day 5 - Poppy's 2nd birthday party, ate my body weight in crisps and dips
- Day 7 - Nasty, painful acne like break out on face - predominantly chin(s)
- Day 8 - got medicated moisturiser for skin
- Day 14 - skin calming down and not sore anymore
- Napping most afternoons while Amber sleeps
- Days 7-21 apart from skin issues felt pretty damn normal thank you very much.
2nd Cycle
- Day 1 - took medication as prescribed, felt a bit fragile but not too sicky
- Day 2 - felt wiped out, didn't feel up to doing very much, slept for about an hour at 4 then went to bed at 8.30pm for 11 hours
- Day 3 - Oh my God I feel like death warmed up, had to go to hospital for routine Physio appointment but didn't feel well enough even to drive myself the 5 minute car journey to the hospital. Went up to Forster Suite (the Chemo ward) while I was at the hospital just to check what I was feeling was normal, they checked my BP and heart and all was fine, they just told me to rest.
Slept for an hour when I got home, then had my sister come and be with Amber so I could rest some more. Felt the worst I have ever felt since being diagnosed, couldn't get comfortable sitting, standing, lying down, too hot, too cold. Horrible.
- Day 4 - Had to get out of the house, went on a family day trip to Woburn Safari Park. Best thing we could have done, had an amazing day, don't know if I would have been feeling any better if I'd just been at home anyway but regardless I felt a million percent better than the day before.
- Day 5 - Tea party at the In-laws - ate my body weight in prawn sandwiches, cakes and sugary treats (I think day five could be my favourite day!)
- Night 5 - woke at 11pm with sharp pain in stomach, just made to toilet - too many prawn sandwiches :(
- Day 6 - Feeling back to normal again
- Evening 6 - Back on toilet, think I'm going to actually die - really shouldn't have eaten so many prawn sandwiches. Phoned chemo emergency helpline incase I needed to be admitted to hospital - I didn't, just got told to take some immodium!
So now I'm back to the normal stage again hopefully until cycle 3. My only concern is the one thing that is meant to get worse is the fatigue and that really knocked me back this time. I don't know how I'll cope if it multiplies at the rate it did between cycle 1 and 2 for the next four cycles as I really struggled this time. Although I think the worst part was for me that I didn't know how long it would last for, next time I know I need to right off days 2 and 3 get some help with Amber and relax. Hopefully that will be enough, we shall see.
Just as a round up of how the first cycle went here's some bullet points of the good and bad things I experienced.
- Days 2,3 and 4 felt really nauseus had to eat constantly
- Day 5 - Poppy's 2nd birthday party, ate my body weight in crisps and dips
- Day 7 - Nasty, painful acne like break out on face - predominantly chin(s)
- Day 8 - got medicated moisturiser for skin
- Day 14 - skin calming down and not sore anymore
- Napping most afternoons while Amber sleeps
- Days 7-21 apart from skin issues felt pretty damn normal thank you very much.
2nd Cycle
- Day 1 - took medication as prescribed, felt a bit fragile but not too sicky
- Day 2 - felt wiped out, didn't feel up to doing very much, slept for about an hour at 4 then went to bed at 8.30pm for 11 hours
- Day 3 - Oh my God I feel like death warmed up, had to go to hospital for routine Physio appointment but didn't feel well enough even to drive myself the 5 minute car journey to the hospital. Went up to Forster Suite (the Chemo ward) while I was at the hospital just to check what I was feeling was normal, they checked my BP and heart and all was fine, they just told me to rest.
Slept for an hour when I got home, then had my sister come and be with Amber so I could rest some more. Felt the worst I have ever felt since being diagnosed, couldn't get comfortable sitting, standing, lying down, too hot, too cold. Horrible.
- Day 4 - Had to get out of the house, went on a family day trip to Woburn Safari Park. Best thing we could have done, had an amazing day, don't know if I would have been feeling any better if I'd just been at home anyway but regardless I felt a million percent better than the day before.
- Day 5 - Tea party at the In-laws - ate my body weight in prawn sandwiches, cakes and sugary treats (I think day five could be my favourite day!)
- Night 5 - woke at 11pm with sharp pain in stomach, just made to toilet - too many prawn sandwiches :(
- Day 6 - Feeling back to normal again
- Evening 6 - Back on toilet, think I'm going to actually die - really shouldn't have eaten so many prawn sandwiches. Phoned chemo emergency helpline incase I needed to be admitted to hospital - I didn't, just got told to take some immodium!
So now I'm back to the normal stage again hopefully until cycle 3. My only concern is the one thing that is meant to get worse is the fatigue and that really knocked me back this time. I don't know how I'll cope if it multiplies at the rate it did between cycle 1 and 2 for the next four cycles as I really struggled this time. Although I think the worst part was for me that I didn't know how long it would last for, next time I know I need to right off days 2 and 3 get some help with Amber and relax. Hopefully that will be enough, we shall see.
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