An Interesting 24 Hours

So, its been a fun-filled 24 hours since my last post. First off, I got so annoyed with my hair falling out that I shaved it all off. It turned out that I had quite a lot of hair left, but in patches, so even though it's down to a grade 1, it looks somewhat patchy. Simon and little sis Kate both commented that it looks a bit like I have mange. So now the wig and the beanie hat are being used in earnest. My scalp is quite tender, so the wig is uncomfortable for long periods as I discovered today, but I'm hoping it'll get better.


Next up, first thing this morning we (Kate and I) were off to Wexham Park Hospital in Slough for an urgent blood test to see if my potassium levels were back to normal. We managed to get there by 20 past 9, but they was already a queue of about 30 people waiting for tests. However, because of the urgency of the results required, I was able to jump the queue, which was a relief - I get super paranoid about sitting in waiting rooms in case I pick up a bug.


Then it was back off to Windsor (via Simon's office for my parking pass and Wokingham for provisions) for my chemo appointment. The first piece of news was that my potassium levels were back to normal, so that once I'd seen the oncologist I was OK to go ahead with treatment. Once the usual vitals were recorded I went over to see Dr Adams, who was able to see me pretty quickly.

My MRI scan threw up some interesting results. While the lymph nodes have shrunk nicely, the breast tumour is not shrinking as much as they would like (although this may be a timing issue also - normal hormonal changes affect the appearance of the breast quite significantly, so this could be why it doesn't look as good as maybe it should). So we have a new plan - rather than having the last of my FEC treatments, I've been moved on to the doxetalal. This works in a very different way to the FEC, so hopefully there will be a better response to this treatment. I'll have 2 cycles of this and then a further MRI scan. Depending on the results of that we may then continue with 2 further chemos, or they may move up surgery.

So, while it's not good news, I'm not sure that it's bad news either (apparently it's not unusual, and the lymph node progress in many ways is more important), so it's just news. It also means that my timings will change somewhat - I'll now have a maximum of 7 chemos rather than 8. There is still no news on my general prognosis - this will have to wait until after surgery.

There was some debate over if I would be able to have treatment today, as their general procedure for the doextaxil is to give steroids the day before, but as the decision to switch was only taken this morning, that obviously wasn't possible, and they'd ordered the original set of drugs from the pharmacy. After a few phone calls it was decided that we could go ahead, but with a super steroid dose before the chemo drugs went in, but it would take a few hours to get the new drugs prepared.

So off Kate and I popped to eat our lunch, and then wandered into Windsor and did a little shopping before heading back in for treatment. My veins are getting increasingly difficult, it took the nurse 3 attempts (hand, wrist and finally elbow) to get the needle into a decent vein. It wasn't as painful as on the second treatment, but it was no fun at all. However, once we were in and going there were no further problems.

Hopefully there will be a better response to this treatment, and that the side-effects will be as minimal as with the FEC. One new thing is that I have to have 5 days of injections from this Friday to boost my immune system. These will be administered by a district nurse who will come over to my house to dose me up, which does tie me to the house somewhat. I will be going down to Essex still, as luckily my Mum's next door neighbours are a surgeon and a nurse. This treatment is worse for infection, so the injections are designed to boost white blood cells. It can also cause joint pain, so I'll need to keep on top of that with painkillers. On the plus side, it causes less nausea and less vein pain, so I;m hoping my veins will now recover.

Feeling pretty tired after all of that, so I'm looking forward to a restful week.