Hello
there,
This
may be considered by most people to be a very strange topic to actively blog
about but a problem shared is a problem halved... no? Well either way I
have set up this blog to help my mother and mostly me however if one other
person reads this and finds a piece of information useful then it will be worth
it in my opinion.
Now
I want to introduce myself first before I get into the nitty gritty part of why
I have set up this blog, so here we go. I am a young healthy 25 year old woman
working for the Royal Navy now shore based and I live at home with my parent's
Pamela (Mother) and John (Step Dad)
(yes, I know I need to move out but life choices
have put me here and I am very grateful that I have a home and a room to come
back to no questions asked) I also have a sister
who is older than me (just in
actual age though) and we are all going through this together so It may
be just me who writes on this or I may be able to get the other's to do so
also. Although Pamela and John are not very tech savvy so we shall see.
Right
lets get down to it. This journey actually starts 15 years ago when trackie
bottoms where the in thing and I had no cares in the world except if I was getting
that Spice Girls CD for christmas! My Mum was diagnosed with Breast Cancer
after she found a small lump in her left breast, which was dismissed initially
by the first doctor, who actually called her neurotic. However she insisted she
wanted a second opinion and luckily she did. After a biopsy we discovered it
was a grade 2 malignant tumour. The options at the time back then were far more
cut throat and it was more of a case of we either take it out or we take them
off!!! The decision was made to have a lumpectomy and remove the lymph nodes on
the left side. This was followed by a 6 week course of radiotherapy and taking
Tamoxifen for 5 years as well as yearly mammogram's. This then went to
every other year and she was given the all clear by the Radiographer and was
told she would never have cancer in that breast ever again.
This
now brings us to 2012 and I think I will lay this section out in more of a
diary to try and show you the progression of how things have panned out so
far....
23rd March
Routine
3 yearly mammogram - standard at this point.
27th March
Letter
from the hospital requesting a second Mammogram (to be honest we knew this wasn't a good sign but no one really wanted
to say that out loud)
4th April
Second
Mammogram
At
this point Mum said to the nurse and doctor that that wasn’t a cyst, was it?
And they confirmed no I’m sorry it’s not.
19th April
Appointment
with the surgeon regarding removing the cancer.
She
confirmed that this was cancer and it was malignant and gave Mum the option on
what she could do at this point we were advised to think on it.
26th April
Appointment
to see the breast care nurse.
Decision was made to have the Diep
reconstruction which could only be done at Salisbury hospital which meant that
we had to wait for another appointment. Pamela also had to have a full body CT
scan to make sure that the cancer had not spread elsewhere this was after this
appointment but we cant recall the exact date. This told us that there was
fluid around the lungs which explained the breathing problems Mum had
complained about after coming back from holiday in early March after 7 weeks
away.
9th May
Consultation
with the "Lung man" to establish what this fluid was and why it was
happening. A biopsy of the fluid was taken at this point.
10th May
Appointment
at Salisbury Hospital regarding the reconstruction surgery
16th May
Follow
up appointment with the lung man where he told us the Tumour was causing the
fluid on the lungs and that there was also fluid around the heart. The fluid
needed to be drained before anything could be addressed regarding the cancer
removal. So this was booked for that friday.
18th May-22nd May
Admitted
into Shawford ward in WInchester Hospital for the drain to be put in and she
was going to be in for the whole weekend and it would be looked at on the
Tuesday by the Lung Man to make sure he was happy. This was not a fun five days
at all. Mother's comment as I write "It hurt"
22nd May
Still
in hospital, saw the Lung man and 2.3 litres had been removed in total. He was
happy for the drain to be taken out and for mum to be discharged.
29th May
Appointment
to see the Oncologist - It was then realised that this fluid wasn't going to go
away on it's own it was a secondary cause by the cancer in the Breast. This
then changed the plan of action massively and the cancer would have to be
shrunk first before they would remove it and do the reconstruction. So
Chemotherapy would be the next step.
4th June
Not
Planned - John took Mum to A&E early in the morning as she had complained
of a chest pain that wasn't going away. She was Admitted to the McGill ward for
observation and they wanted to establish she wasn't having a heart attack - She
wasn't it was the fluid on the heart cause the pain.
5th June
Talk
with the Nurse at the Chemotherapy ward in Winchester. Addressing what would
happen, the treatment, how it worked, the side effects and the Cancer drug which
she would be going on also.
6th June
Another
appointment to see the Lung Man again and he was surprised how much fluid had
re accumulated on the lungs so it was decided that he would drain them again
the Friday.
7th June
Echocardiogram
to check the functionality of the heart - All OK :)
8th June
Second
drain of the Lung 1.2 Litres taken this time. This was done as a out patient
and was completed within an hour if that! A much better experience than the
first time!
12th June
The
first appointment for the Chemotherapy (Docetaxel is the Chemo and the wonder drug is Herceprin which
is to follow with the next treatment)
#ChemoTuesday
as Natasha and I refer to it now on Twitter!
And
that brings us up to date. I have just left is as facts for the appointments
this year to give you a layout of how it has panned out. With regards the to
First Chemotherapy treatment, this will be a blogpost on its own so that we can
sit down together, Mother and I and go throughout everything in a longwinded
manner! We wanted to go through all of the high's and the lo's with you as
there isn't much information about personal experience of Chemotherapy so we
thought we would start the conversation and you can join in as and when you
wish.
So
that’s our story. Thanks for listening xxxx
P.S.
If you read this whole thing you deserve a medal!
