Oh my God

Just reading through my mails and a friend of mine has just been diagnosed, again, with breast cancer. She declined herceptin and tamoxifen, the things which help prevent it from coming back, and now she has it back - in the same breast, in almost exactly the same place. Says she is having surgery on the 16th. Think she had a lympectomy before, this must be a mastectomy. Writing this before I phone her.

this is a very important day for me

Had my final herceptin treatment today. And it wasn't too bad. Got a vein which worked after only one abortive attempt (veins are messed, always been bad and now post chemo which burns your veins it's even worse and, with the threat of lymphedema in my left hand, can only use my right hand).

Anyway.....had the day off work cos worked the late shift on Saturday so said I would come in early. So arrived at 12. Bought cakes - little ones - for the nurses and other staff at the oncology centre, but had thought of waiting for all my tests. But then decided it was worth celebrating every milestone. And finally reaching July 4 2010, the day of my 17th and last herceptin, the preventative treatment.

Now just have to pray that it worked, that, as The Yoga Man said today, "Let's hope it all becomes a distant memory".

On August 10, I am scheduled to have a chest and abdominal scan, a muga scan , which is done in nuclear medicine and tests the rate at which the heart emits and is being done to see if the herceptin has affected my heart. The other scans are to see if it has affected my lungs, and if it has affected my abdominal area, ie, if it has spread. And I need to have blood tests.

I am amazed to say that I thought I had not had an abdominal scan prior to starting treatment. Well, I had. The receptionist today showed me the results of my tests - everything was clear. I remember reading that but didn't register that it was the abdominal area. That was on January 21 2009.

Anyway, then on August 11 I see The Tango Man. At 14.45pm. Then, although I will have opened all the envelopes to read the results, I will find out if I am ok.

PS: The nurses said one client was so excited to have finished her herceptin treatment that she sang the national anthem. I guess it is a prayer, the anthem, God Bless Africa.

a taste like a leaking filling

Scheduled to have my last of 17 herceptin treatments on Monday, so it's nearly three weeks since I had the previous one, yet got that yucky taste in my mouth last night. Not as intense as in the past but tasted like I would imagine a leaking filling would taste like, if there were such a thing. A metal taste. Enough to lead to my eating too many Chinese ginger chewy sweets but I always feel desperate to get rid of the taste.

Anyway, all gone by morning.

Like what Julie Goodale had to say in her latest blog posting,Fitness for survivors:"We didn't control whether we got cancer; we can't control how our treatments affect our bodies. But we can control what we eat and if we go for a walk, or ride a bike, or run, or lift weights, or dance...."

Here's to dancing, and having fun!