The Cape Crusader

Dr P, MRSA swab, Nandos, Chemo, Denosumab, Movie Night

Lower open area clean and not purulent. Slight bony tenderness and effusion around knee. No xray as had so many scans. Able to weightbear and improved since Monday.

Few further days antibs given happt to start Cape tomorrow.


https://www.breastcancercare.org.uk/information-support/facing-breast-cancer/going-through-treatment-breast-cancer/chemotherapy/capecitabine-xeloda

Transthoracic ECG, St Caths, Onc Meeting

Today I had a transthoracic echocardiogram (TTE) at East Surrey. This is to check the fluid around my heart which best case we want to have reduced, next best stayed the same. On the scan, we could see there is definitely some fluid still there. On the last one of these I had, the fluid level had dropped. So fingers crossed the fluid we can see on the scan is even less again. 

Next we had a meeting with Dr H at St Catherine's Hospice in Crawley. She was excellent and can help me with lots of aspects of pain management. St Cath's are able to be a liaison point between the oncologist, my GP, the heart team, the physio team etc which will be very useful.

Dr H looked at my leg with the area that I just cannot move and she believes it is a damaged nerve that we can hopefully restrengthen. She has organised a physio team to come to the house to help me with this. This team will also look at my "living conditions" and see if they can do anything to make things easier.

Dr H also told me that my kidney and liver bloods show their function is now totally normal hooray. This means I can take more painkillers as I was restricted before.

Finally she looked at the skin infection and groin area that has been sore. She thinks it is very strange. She says she does wonder if it is some kind of skin mets combined with an infection. She will let Dr P know her thoughts.

Then we had a meeting with Dr P in Crawley Hospital (Rob has done a lot of driving today!) about my skin infection and if I could start chemo tomorrow as planned. When I saw Dr P on Tuesday, she took a swab of the infection, so we're waiting to see what it actually is. Re whether there are any skin mets... She looked at the scans on her screen and is convinced there are no mets in the area. They have not shown up on an ultrasound of the area, a CT of the area and an MRI of the area. She says there is nothing there to biopsy so she wouldn't even know where to take a biopsy from. So this is good news. 

Then she looked at the skin infection. The erythema present around the area on Tuesday has improved slightly but it has not improved enough for me to start chemo because I cannot start chemo with any sort of infection 😓 She wants me to finish the original course of antibiotics plus a few more so it's totally cleared up. That means all being well chemo has been deferred and will start next Thursday instead.

Finally, Dr P said that means I had to have another blood test because the other bloods I had done through the horrid cannula experience will be too old. She told me to have a quick drink of water to help my veins. I got out my Love Island water bottle (thanks Jem!) and both her and the nurse smiled and told Rob and I they were Love Island fans - hilarious!

That meant we had to zoom to Comet Ward at 16:26 for bloods to be taken from my left risk arm. The reason we had to zoom was that the final blood transportation of the day is 16:30 and if we missed that then the bloods would be for nothing. Rob rally drove me in my wheelchair, the chemo nurse raced to get the bloods. Mercifully the hard, sore veins in the at risk arm gave blood on the first go and we made the transportation with minutes to spare!

So basically no chemo tomorrow, but I will collect it on Thursday 5th July and start it on Friday 6th.

Chemoversary #4

I can hardly believe that today is my 4 year chemoversary! I am definitely "moving on" as it feels like a horrible distant nightmare rather than thinking about it every single moment of every single day.

Given that it's October and Breast Cancer Awareness month (though who isn't aware of breast cancer god only knows....) it's an ideal time to remind you all to do your monthly checks. Young, old, male, female, we can all (unfortunately) get breast cancer.

If you're not sure what you're looking for, there's a handy checklist from the NHS at the following link: Click Me

2 Years On

Two years' ago today I was starting the scariest "journey" of my life. Today, Rob and I went to view some houses and then went to a BBQ to celebrate Steve's birthday. Life is good :-)

But the nearer the dawn the darker the night,
And by going wrong all things come right;
Things have been mended that were worse,

And the worse, the nearer they are to mend.
 Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Tales of a Wayside Inn

Celebrate!

Today is a time for double celebrations.... It's my lovely hubby's birthday, and a year ago today I finished active cancer treatment :-)

Hair Today...

Tomorrow my friend Carrie will be shaving her head to raise money for The Little Princess Trust.

 

This is what her lovely long hair looks like at the moment:

 

 

She even got a write up in the local paper (even though they got the date wrong!)

 

 

So if you can spare any pennies (or pounds) for this amazing charity, please Click Here

 

Chemo Grad - #6 of 6

Today I can say that I am a:

Over the next few days I'll update how chemo 6 has gone, along with my top tips for getting through chemotherapy! but today I'm just bloody pleased to have this part of the journey over with! Jo xxx

I Have A Date

Just taken a call from Crawley Chemo Dept, Thursday 5th July I'll start the chemo. Blimey.