An Introduction...

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)

4^th 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.

26^th 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!