the beginning

let me begin by apologising for the manner in which most of you found out about my diagnosis. I had hoped to tell all if not most of you in person myself or know that my parents, sister or brother may have. It ended up my feeling it as right a time as any to post it to facebook at the end of the Relay For Life festivities.

So we jump to the nitty gritty now, I want to use this blog as a way to keep anyone who is interested in being kept up to date with my progress without having an endless stream of texts, private messages and phone calls. I have realised this weekend that it can be very exhausting physically and emotionally to have to explain things dozens of times. I'm sorry if this comes across as a bit rough but that's just the way I am feeling at the moment.

Back to the update, tomorrow morning at 6.30 I will check in at Royal Perth for breast conserving surgery (lumpectomy) and node removal. This means they will remove the lump in my breast along with some 'clean' tissue that surrounds it (they remove the clean tissue for testing to see exactly how far the cancer might be moving, if its in what they believe is clean tissue they will go back in and remove more) and as many lymph nodes from my armpit that they deem necessary. It's only an overnight stay in hospital so I will be back home Wednesday albeit with a lovely drain bag to accessorise with for about a week.

They will send the tissues and nodes they remove off for testing to learn what stage the cancer is at to determine what type of further treatment I will need. As I am having breast conserving surgery I will need to have radiotherapy to kill any remaining cancer cells. I wont know if I will need chemotherapy until my follow up appointment on the 22nd.

That's about all there is to know at the moment. But I will keep updating the blog and letting people know when it is updated.

At the moment I am still pretty upset but staying positive about it all.

Should also let everyone know the Relay went great, our team managed to raise over $16000 and we were the 3rd highest funds raised team. Overall more than $260,000 was raised for the Cancer Council with more money still coming in from the items teams were selling at the event. Sadly it felt like there was less public attendance for the candlelight ceremony than last year.

Their perpetual tropy for the team that raises the most money is named the 'Kylie Fissioli Memorial Trophy' which makes me very happy that her lagacy in helping others is recognised and that she meant a lot to so many.

 my sisters, brother and I after a long night of walking

from left Carrie, Renae, me and Lee

 Chris and I with the giant Daffodil Kylie started and I finished. This was our baton for the relay

All of our team, the Fissiolis and Salters minus Mum and Rachel