round 1

well first round of chemo is done and dusted. I'm pretty up and down this afternoon/evening mood and body wise.

It was a super long day, rocked up early for a blood test that I didn't actually have to have or end up having, had to wait an hour past my appointment time to actually see the oncologist so by the time we actually got to the treatment room we'd already been there 2 hours. I obviously wasn't in the best of moods at this point.

Anywho slight wait for the cocktail to be prepared (stirred not shaken) and we were in; but wait there's more! Naturally my veins sucked today and it took nearly an hour of heat packs, 2 attempts and me almost fainting before the 3rd nurse (yeah you read right 3rd) actually got the needle into a vein they could use.

So I get the lovely red drugs first (about 220ml of a drug that makes my pee go pink for a day or 2); all 5 syringes of them then they switch on my goon bag. All up the drugs only took like 2 hours so we were out of the hospital just after 2pm. Not fantastic but we now know for next time to be well hydrated and take snacks. Oh and also sit in a comfier chair or get the bed. Was hoping to swap the chemo to Rockingham so we wont have to spend so much time and money on travel and parking but it looks like the doc forgot from last time I saw him and the nurse will likely forget to bring it up with him (or I might call and remind next week after Christmas).

Glad I've finished 95% of the Christmas shopping now, was getting down to the wire and I didnt want to have to worry about going out if I wasn't feeling up to it. The nurse suggested wearing a medical face mask if I go to shopping centres to minimise the risk of infection but seriously unless it's a Hello Kitty or bedazzled one I doubt that's gonna happen.

The fundraising has been going great guns, I hadn't expected so much support considering the time of year so I really do appreciate all that everyone has done. I am really looking forward to the head shave and catching up with people I haven't seen in a while and debuting my new 'do'.

Starting to feel crap as I write this so that's all for now, might post more later in the week depending on how I am feeling.

Peace out

amazeballs

been a little while since I've updated, not much has been happening. All the appointments finally slowed down to the point of actually having a full week without any.

Had a very up and down time emotionally in that week but it certainly wasn't the worst I've had so far. Just having periods of meloncholy not for any particular reason for the most part though I have been keeping pretty well.

I have had a load of stress taken off my shoulders by deciding to take a few months off from work, will suck financially for a while but work is just a tad too hectic and considering how many infections etc I've had lately being around dozens of people all day doesn't really appeal.

So for the amazeballs part of the post - most of you (and by most I mean like 95% of you) know that I am doing a fundraising head shave on the 6th January. http://www.mycause.com.au/page/kirbyscloseshave

We've already raised over $2000 in online and offline donations!!! I have been absolutely thrilled with how quickly the amounts went up and how many people have donated money, I know it's not a great time of year to be asking for money but it really does make me feel so loved to see what's coming in. Chris sent the link and an email around his work explaining the situation and they have been amazing, had so many super online donations come in and people giving us cash donations. There is a collection bucket up on site and some of the staff in Melbourne have even organised a raffle.

I asked Chris if he could write a post on my blog for me and he actually went and created his own, http://itsdrabz.blogspot.com.au/  naturally I cried.

Well it's less than a week until chemo starts and I'm starting to feel nervous. No idea why, I sort of know what to expect and I know it wont be painful. More the how I'll feel after is whats eating at me.

I finally hit 25kg lost the other day and I'd like to say I'm feeling better for it but I can't really say that because I know I would probably feel better if it weren't for the cancer. Get rid of one problem to gain another and unfortunately the new one is a lot more serious.

I'm looking forward to Christmas even though my sisters and parents are staying in Kalgoorlie this year (I think it's about time my sisters travelled to Perth for once :P ).

Looking at life like it might be the last time I see that date which I know is a little depressing but when you think about it anything could happen to anyone anytime/anyday so don't wait for something like cancer or illness to come along before you start to live and experience life.

hey all, new update here.

This weeks been a pretty tough week emotionally/mentally. Had bad news with our fertility stuff and we wont be able to try again now so all our eggs are still in my basket and at a slight risk of going off before we get a chance to use them.

I start chemo on the 18th of this month and have to do it once every 3 weeks for 6 cycles. Once thats all done I move onto radio therapy and start a 5 year plan of tamoxifen. Not too happy about the 5 year treatment but I guess I gotta do what the doctors think is best to minimise the risk of recurrence. After all the treatments are done he said the risk should drop to just below 25% which to me still seems pretty damn high. But I'm not the doctor so I have to trust in them.

I'm sorry if I seem to be cutting people out, just sometimes I feel like being around people and sometimes I just like to be by myself.

My arm is slowly but surely getting better, the pain is minimising and I think the sensation is returning is small bits. I've ended up with a slight infection in my axillary incision (2 for 2 on post surgery infections yay me).

More tests coming up next week a PET scan on Monday, a gated heart scan and blood tests on Tuesday and more blood tests on Wednesday. Starting to think I look like a bloody junkie for all the needle marks in my elbow lol.

Weight loss has slowed cause as before the sleeve I am an emotional eater (something I really should get sorted) and since I haven't worked since the 7th November I've been pretty sedentary. Gotta get my butt into gear and start doing some light exercise.

Maybe doing Christmas shopping would help ;)