That time of the year...

Hmmm, April first 4 years ago I got the news that was to change my life, and that of my family as well. I found out how small my real posse was, and rely much more on my inner strength and my family.
April 1, 2 years ago my dad passed away from his battle with melanoma. Although we had made our peace after not speaking for many years it was frustrating to have to clean up his estate although most of that fell to my brother. I know I don't want to leave that kind of mess for my family...

So April is a time of testing... Monday was my mammogram, Tuesday was the skin check, Thursday is a bonescan scan to check on the increased pain....next week back to Cabrini for denosumab, so today is also blood test, with a queue a mile long.

So, with the mammo they take the breast, put it on the cold metal plate, with the xray plate underneath and the plastic shelf squishes the boob as flat at possible. That is the pic of my boob in the background. They do a top squish and a side squish... When I told the mammographer that the 7 invasive tumours were not seen on on the mammo or ultrasound in 2010, not even with the stereo core biopsy, it was only when the breast was removed....she was a bit taken aback...

Then the ultrasound... Jell everywhere, the sonographer feels around the scar, the lymph nodes (both where they were under my right arm....just in case, as well as around the left arm, as well as the breast...not invasive or painful, just confusing to try and interpret the fuzz on the screen...

So.... The blood test...my veins are starting to show some wear and tear, and the young girl who tried to take my blood from my elbow vein was struggling.... But this time I spoke up before fainting! And the more experienced vampire tried....this time from my hand...didn't get much blood...but enough for the FBE and EUC tests. And now I have a big ouchie bruise on my wrist bone.

Tomorrow the bone scan.

The Road to healing

Well... ya know I was feeling no pain, feeling fit and healthy and happy until they started to "fix" my cancer... and tomorrow we take the very scary step...the next step in healing, which will make me feel bleagh... Chemo.

Ahhh well first things first... my babies were wonderful to me over the weekend, particularly Sunday - Mother's day. Pity I was in so much pain. I think I knocked the drain bottle sutures, and I know one of my babies accidentally sat on it, pulling it again... so panadol wasn't doing it for me over the weekend.... and then Mic suggested I should cut down on the 4 hourly panadol... hmmmm easy for him to say huh.
I tried... and I cried... and it hurt... and I was miserable...I was tired, but I got out for a walk on Sunday... don't know if that made the owie worse...
I was getting the drain out Monday morning, so no point getting all drastic Sunday night.... Couldn't even stay up to watch Webber win in Spain...but that meant my back was over lying flat by 5.30am

Follow up appt with the surgeon to remove the drain went well... got my doctor's certificate..."when do I want to go back to work... hmmm I dunno"   and he discussed all the tricky bits...
Did the kids know... the nicest kids can go feral
Sex... take time, and intimacy will return... talk, and love and laugh...
Family and work stuff
Wigs... I will be bald pretty soon. etc etc etc
Brilliant... once the drain was taken out (Mic said it was in about 20cm... OMG, no wonder I couldn't move my arm) I had instant relief... still muscular aches around the shoulder from the axillary clearance, but no sharp pain any more... that alone put a spring in my step, the sun was shining....and off to the imaging place to get the gated blood pool scan.
Had a lovely guy, doing the blood taking... he was sooooo gentle, and would be doing the CT and Bone scan on Friday too. Did not feel a thing, he put in a bung thingy in my arm - gave me something, I had to wait half an hour, then he took my blood and added the radioactive stuff to it... had to wait another 15 minutes until he reinjected my live blood, and put me under the big camera to take pics of how it was travelling to my heart. This test is to see how much the chemo affects my heart... what fun.

Reading some blogs of cancer fighters.... the hair thing comes to mind... of course mine is looking fab at the moment..
Hair

but they reckon with this cancer I will lose it within a week... well... I have had a shaved head before.... time to break out the clippers before the drains get totally clogged up with my mop. I offered to let the kids cut it - how often would kids get that opportunity (well I read that on one of the inspirational blogs I have been reading) but they looked at me a bit confused.
We shall get there.....  and now, for a night's sleep without a drain to piss me off or hurt.... yay
Ohhh and have cut back on panadol already. Did some Pilates moves... thinking about getting some stuff to keep me regular... hospital seems to clog me up.