Remember remember the 5th of... er... January

Yesterday I was off to see my surgeon to schedule my surgery, and I'm due to go in on the 5th January, which means I should have a fairly healthy few weeks over Christmas and New Year.

I've decided to go for an implant based reconstruction, which means that I should only be in hospital overnight and be mostly recovered within a month. In the initial op a temporary saline implant will go in, and be replaced later with silicone. The reason for this is that radiotherapy can distort the skin and damage an implant, so a better cosmetic result is achieved by going back after all the treatment is complete, but means that most of the skin is preserved. During the gap, I can change my mind and go for a flesh based reconstruction.

When I spoke to the surgeon (who is based in Essex rather than Berkshire) he was very surprised that the plan was to give more chemo after surgery. He rang his oncologist colleague who gave the opinion that it wouldn't be necessary, especially if I'd had a good response to the previous treatment. I don't need to take a decision on further chemo for a while yet, and I suppose it will be informed by the result of the tumour analysis, but it's very confusing to have 2 such contradictory opinions. Hopefully once the 2 sets of doctors have spoken after these results they will come to a mutual opinion.

I drove myself over to Essex yesterday and have stayed today. Glad I decided to have a rest day before heading home as for some reason I'm especially tired today. I may have been over doing it again!

All Change

I'm now just about recovered from the last treatment, and it has been noticably harder this time around. More tiredness, more achiness, more sore feet and hands. It's also taken longer to start feeling better. I have at least managed to make it out to the office Christmas party and a leaving do, although I was only able to stay a little while at each. It was nice to get out of the house and dress up though.
Last Wednesday I was back to the hospital to meet the oncologist to discuss the biopsy findings. Not unexpectedly, the biopsies were not able to yield enough cancer cells to be able to do an HER2 test. In fact, they didn't get any cancer cells, only pre-cancerous ones. This means that my treatment regime is being changed, and by quite a lot more than I expected. So here is the new plan of action:

• Surgery will be next, probably within a few weeks - most likely straight after the New Year, but earlier is also a possibility. I'm going to see my surgeon tomorrow evening to get it set up, so I'll know then when I'll be going in.
• After I'm recovered from surgery, the plan is to give me another 3 chemotherapy treatments, Taxotere only. The reason being that the FEC had no effect, and 3 effective chemos is not really enough. As they know that the Taxotere is effective, and given my age, it is better to over treat than under treat.
• After the 3 chemos is still a bit vague, and will depend on the outcome of surgery. If the HER2 test is positive, then I'll have herceptin (some of which may be given in cobmination with the chemo). Herceptin is usally a 6 or 12 month long treatment - given as an injection once a month. My understanding is that the side effects are not too bad, so wouldn't stop me from working.
• Radiotherapy is still likely to happen, after the second round of chemo. Again this will be decided on based on what happens when I have surgery.

So, I'm obviously very happy that the treatment now seems to be going very well, but a little dissapointed that the treatment will be going on longer than I thought. It means I probably won't be back to normal until April rather than March. Most depressing is the though of another 3 chemos (although its really only 1 more in total than were originally planned) to go, and that they'll be post surgery when I'll be feeling quite ill already (with my Mum there was a 3 week gap between surgery and start of chemo, they may give me a little longer as I've already had some).

I'm also starting to get worried about the surgery, it being moved up and the fact that time seems to have flown by means that its snuck up on me. It's not just a physically tough experience, but a psychologically tough one, and I'm starting to get anxious about it. I also have a fear of general anaesthetic, I find the concept of being chemically knocked out quite terrifying. Still, I've had 2 so far and woken up from both...

More Hospital Time

The blood tests I had for blood clotting came back before I'd even finished receiveing my chemo treatemtn, despite the fact that they had to be sent over to a different hospital. The results were borderling, so it was decided to send me for a CT scan in case of a pulmonary embolism. Apparently there was some debate on whether to send me over to Slough immeadiatly, or if it could wait until morning, but in the end it was decided to be OK to wait, and I was given an appointment for 10:30am yesterday.

I was a little worried about this, but the oncologist reassured me that it was most likely nothing, they just wanted to be certain. I was also worried about spending another day in hospital, but as it turned out I was in and out of Heatherwood hospital in just over half an hour. And within an hour, I had my result - no indication of any blood clots. The tightness in my chest is most likely a low level infection or a result of lower heamoglobin levels, so just something to keep an eye on.

So rather than a day in hospital, I spent the day in Reading with Kate having a girly afternoon, we went to see Twlight - not exaclty the greatest movie ever, but a nice few hours of escapism.