Chemo 6

And, most importantly, the last chemo of them all!! Whoop whoop!

It’s a bit of a weird one to be honest. While it’s absolutely brilliant to have got to the end of the chemo and ticked that box and know that the worst of the side effects will (in a couple of weeks) be over and done with, it’s also brought home more than ever how much more there is left to do. That said, although what’s left are things that will take time, at least my hair can grow back (it’d better be better than my old hair…), and the days of living in fear of peach slices for breakfast and feeling like bits of broken glass are shearing into my spine will hopefully be over.

First things first, the portacath is coming out on April 19^th, back in the capable hands of Mr W (I have no idea what the women of North London are going to do when he retires…). There was talk about this being done under a local so I’d be able to see the great man in action, but they’ve scuppered that plan and I’ll be having a full on sedation (how dull). Clearly they’ve realized that I’d be far too distracting to him if I had even half of my normal wits about me… Rumour has it the drugs they give you for a sedation are pretty squiffy though, so at least I’ll have something to cheer me up…

Then, the following week and into UCLH for my planning meeting for radiotherapy –a CT scan to see if there are any glaring bits left over from what they’ve attacked me with so far, then they tattoo me up so they get the precise co-ordinates of where they’re going to fry me (heaven forbid I should be in anyway cool and have a proper tattoo – just some random dots on my chest for me thanks…). Two weeks later and I’ll be in every day for three weeks for a 15 minute session of sunburn. That should be over by the end of May and just in time for the Queen’s Jubilee weekend (I’m hoping it will be at LEAST as fun as the Royal Wedding – one of my favourite days EVER for the uninitiated…).

And then back on the Herceptin until this time next year – a session on the drip every three weeks. Hence the dawning realization that the chemo is but one little bit…

But, as we all know, a silver lining is MOST important, so……

-       The chemo is DONE! And that is definitely the worst bit.

-       I get even more Mr Wilson time, and that CANNOT be a bad thing.

-       None of this is still a patch on anything Hitler did (even to his niece who we’ve now established he wasn’t actually that nice to).

-       A year on Herceptin means a year of Ivy bringing me tea and biscuits on the ward. Ivy is MENTAL. And lovely. But also a bit mental.