Yea, I know... it's been ages... sorry - kinda lost my appetite for writing about the stuff for a while... not gonna dwell on it but apologies to anyone who's been waiting for updates...
So, what's happened during the last month or so? Well, the chemo has continued - 3 sessions, the last of which was yesterday. The previous two were noteable for increasing sickness - specificly during the treatment actually at the Marsden.
During the earliest one I was actually sick at the Marsden for the first time, which wasn't much fun, but then again it seemed to get it out of my system so I wasn't quite as bad as usual at home, which was good. Also that week, my white counts came back a little low (specificly my neutrafil count - which I think are the white cells most important for fighting infection). They reduced the dose of two of the 4 drugs by 50%, and also I had to go to my local nurse to have a hormone injection the following day, which was fine appart from giving me rather achey legs for the next couple of days.
The next session I was really sick at the Marsden. That was unpleasant, but had the advantage that they had a new nurse in that day who recommended a new anti-sickness drug that she'd been using at her previous job - I'll get to that in a minute. Other than that I was ok once I got home and had some rest. Had a busy next few days after that (due to it being my Lovely Lady's birthday), which I got through pretty well, although I did run out of energy and feel a bit sick on the Saturday evening, which I think was just from doing a bit too much too soon (totally worth it though!)
Which brings us up to date and this week's session. Incidently this is session 1 of cycle 4 for those keeping up, which means I'm just past half way if everything continues to progress as expected - yey! So, this week I had the new anti-sickness drug (called Aprepitant). It's in the form of 3 pills, one to be taken an hour or so before the treatment, and one a day for the next couple of days... and good news - it seems to work! Basicly I just fell asleep during the treatment, woke up near the end, and it was all done and I felt ok. Still felt a little queasy last night and this morning as usual, but not actually sick, which is a big improvement, have still been tired as always, but have been eating ok, so that's good!
My white counts were a little low again, so I have to get hormone injections again. The doctor I saw this time was of a different opinion to the last one on the best way to do it, so this time I have to have 3 smaller ones, tomorrow (Friday) and two days next week, which is a bit inconvenient, but I guess if it helps, so be it.
And that's it for chemo news - the only other thing is that I'm booked for a CT scan on June 10th, which will be used to see how well the treatment has actually worked. It was a bit annoying - the doc I saw yesterday suggested it might be a PET scan, which, if it detected no cancer activity, could've meant an instant end to the chemo, so I got all excited for about 2 minutes until another doc came in and told him that they don't do it that way, it's just a CT after cycle 4, and then a PET after cycle 6. No idea why it has to be that way, but that's the way it is , oh well.
Other than chemo what else have I been up to? Loads! Saw the Lion King musical (great costumes!), Wolverine (great action!) and Star Trek (great Spock!). Am also rewatching Battlestar Galactica with Lex (her first time) - so very, very good - I reccomend it to everyone - weather you love or loathe sci-fi, you'll love BSG!
Also got a new bike (which I have named 'Homer'). He's very cool. And shiny. Looking forward to many a good ride with him in the future.
Think that's about it for now, sorry again for the crazy wait for news, I'll try to be better!
peace & love
b x