It's been a while since my last post. I've been a busy lady with a diary full of appointments! If only I could earn Virgin air miles on all my trips to hospital, the fertility clinic and the doc.
Everything is going well with the IVF treatment so far. All boxes are ticked and I'm having daily injections to stimulate follicles and hopefully have a successful outcome to secure future babies. Thanking all of my gentle fertility drug administrators. Hoping that they aren't enjoying stabbing me with needles too much.
Last time I spoke with my oncologist - Rebecca, she advised that they (the oncologists at RUH) feel that I would benefit from starting Herceptin* earlier in my treatment, so I'm doing a slightly different chemo drug mix than I was previously told. The new drug concoction is called TCH. TCH is an acronym for Docetaxel (Taxotere) Carboplatin (Paraplatin) Herceptin (transtuzumab.
* Remember Herceptin is for those bastard proteins that stimulate cancer cells to divide and grow.
I'm still going to have the same nasty side effects that I listed before. I always knew that chemotherapy interferes with your immune system and you're susceptible to illness, but hearing my chemo nurse say that it can be life-threatening was a little scary. I'm going to have to be careful where I go and who I see (if they're unwell) over the next few months as I don't want any more hospitals stays.
Originally I was due to start my 6 courses of chemotherapy on 7 October, but as it's the first one, they need to give it to me over two days in case I have a bad reaction to any of the drugs. So unfortunately I will need to go in the day before to get started. I mentioned that the 6th is my birthday and the nurse simply agreed. She wasn't having any of my nonsense, so I'm starting chemo on my birthday at 8.30am. Double-whammy with the early start!
So there you go! Schedule in place, I've got a few more tests to go and then it all kicks off. Friday I'll be having a kidney function test to determine the exact dose of drugs they will give me. They'll be injecting me with a radioactive liquid, then I'll have a blood test after 2 hours, then every hour for another 4 hours. I've had a heart scan, and I've got a blood test booked in early Oct for blood count in preparation for the 6th.
I'm feeling a little nervous, but am well-prepared and have a Christmas cottage stay in Devon to look forward to. I've been using all of the great products that people have given me, and the ones I've bought from my wig fund. I will post about my kit later on, but my nails, eyelashes and eyebrows have never looked so good!
I've also got a couple of wigs to start playing with.
Huge thank you to my Lovehoney friends and colleagues and all of you lovely people who donated to my wig fund. You're awesome.
Lots of love,
Sarah xxx
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