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One Life Live It

  • Zometa #2

    Irishgirl16
    I successfully fitted in treatment and travel this week. Bloods on Monday, then trips to London and Belgium, coming back late last night on the Eurostar just in time for Friday treatment! The private healthcare is a huge benefit in that I can be pret...

  • Radiotherapy Late Effects Team

    Irishgirl16
    Well, I've reached 50-something years old without knowing there's such a things as a radiotherapy late effects team. I was greeted today at my referral by a lovely radiotherapist who reminded me that she'd spoken to me at least twice on t...

  • Our Amazing NHS

    Irishgirl16
    Saturday - Covid symptoms start to show, test negative. Sunday - test positive, call 111 and advise them I am CEV and also not at home but at my daughter’s house. Monday morning - hospital local to my daughter's house calls, checks a few de...

  • Seriously? And now I have Covid?

    Irishgirl16
    2 years since the start of the pandemic and, maybe more by luck than judgement sometimes, I managed to avoid Covid, until yesterday.  I waken with a slight sore throat. It's only a cold. I've no other symptoms. I test negative. Life...

  • Nobody talks about hair regrowth

    Irishgirl16
    Ok, so I've been enjoying my wig for about a year now. It's shoulder length, blonde and I absolutely love wearing it.  But……my real hair is growing back, and is now at the stage where it's too long for the wig to be com...

  • One year on….

    Irishgirl16
    Exactly a year ago today I didn't sleep, I felt sick, I cried, I hugged my husband and I didn't know what to do. I'd just been for my check up (having found a lump) and the consultant called to tell me he was pretty certain I had breast c...

  • The days are getting longer, summer's coming

    Irishgirl16
    It's a strange thing, living with cancer. On one hand, I feel like life is normal (well, apart from the dodgy hair regrowth, but that's another story) yet on the other hand, the treatment never stops. I feel fully fit, back at work with a vengeance a...

  • A little less wise

    Irishgirl16
    Toothache….you know, you try to ignore it, but it niggles away, wakes you in the night and eventually the painkillers don't help and you end up at the dentist. I shouldn't have toothache. I'm on bisphosphonates and I had my dental check up 4 m...

  • Radiotherapy 10 weeks on

    Irishgirl16
    Radiotherapy finished almost 11 weeks ago and my boob is still lumpy, swollen and tender. Occasionally there's a tingling sensation, not painful but certainly some discomfort from time to time. Depending on who you ask, apparently this can go on ...

  • Chemo: the gift that keeps on giving

    Irishgirl16
    I finished chemo in June. Even with my brain fog, I know that’s almost 6 months ago, but the chemo side effects are pretty persistent at hanging around. My nails were fine all the way through chemo, then a few weeks after it ended, my fingernai...

  • Halfway through Phesgo

    Irishgirl16
    Truly it was a surprise today to realise this was cycle 12.  That's 6 chemo plus hormone, followed by 6 Phesgo injections, so I “only” have 6 more to go.  I think I have gotten so used to this routine every 3 weeks I stopped...

  • Holiday, an actual real holiday, somewhere warm!

    Irishgirl16
    Every November our global team meets for a week.It's alway the same week, always my birthday and can be anywhere in the world. Given we haven't actually seen each other as a team for precisely 2 years, the boss decides Florida is the perfect team mee...

  • Post radiotherapy check up

    Irishgirl16
    Radiotherapy finished 3 weeks ago now and I am still a bit swollen, a bit uncomfortable and a bit worried. There was a tender lump area which was bothering me and today I had an ultrasound, as the oncologist put it, for peace of mind. Yep, it's a bui...

  • Zometa - bone infusions

    Irishgirl16
    Bone infusion sounds a heck of a lot more painful that it actually is, but I have to say now, that's the only good news. Zoledronic acid is given by IV drip, so here we go again with trying to find a vein in my hand. After four attempts, two burs...

  • Radiotherapy - One Week Later

    Irishgirl16
    It's been a week since the daily trek to the hospital and I'm reflecting on the side effects of radiotherapy. On the plus side, the skin has coped well and isn't red or sore, no fatigue (yet) and I have been working normally, in fact it&#...

  • Have You Had Your Mammogram Yet?

    Irishgirl16
    I work in HR and am quite well known across our organisation as I've been there a long time and have lived and worked in a few countries.  I've been very open about my diagnosis since the start, but decided a few months ago to speak openly at ou...

  • Flexible Bone scans

    Irishgirl16
    Not that my bones are very flexible these days, but I had a great experience today at the hospital, Musgrove in Taunton in case anyone is interested. Daily radiotherapy (6 of 10) was 9am. As luck would have it I was early, they were ready and I ...

  • Daily radiotherapy

    Irishgirl16
    Trekking to the hospital every day, at slightly differing appointment times, avoiding the road closures in the village, reversing down single track lanes past trucks that really shouldn’t be there, squeezing into ridiculously small parking...

  • Painted Nails

    Irishgirl16
    My finger nails seem to have been getting weaker snd not stronger since chemo ended. I patiently, and against everything thst's normal for me, paint them each week or so, but they remained stubbornly bruised and battered but still there. This evening...

  • Hormone Treatment - how long???

    Irishgirl16
    Picked up my prescription today for my hormone treatment, Letrozole. The label on the box says it all really - one to be taken each day, for ten years until Sept 2031. TEN YEARS!!!! In a weird and strange way, I am actually more worried about this th...

  • And back to work

    Irishgirl16
    I took 5 weeks off post surgery, the first time since maternity leave (and that was certainly not a holiday either) that I have had such a long time off and I've just had my first week back and I am absolutely knackered! Alarm clock wakening was ...

  • Dentists

    Irishgirl16
    Why do dentists stick something into your mouth and then immediately ask you a question? Every time….. I had my pre-bisphosphonate dentist check up today.  Apparently the bisphosphonate can do something to the jaw bone that makes some den...

  • 25 days since surgery

    Irishgirl16
    25 days since surgery and I can finally say that the wound is really beginning to heal. It's taken much longer than I thought, although to be fair, I didn't give it a lot of thought. In my usual style, I just got on with it, with a little bit of info...

  • Seroma = Delay

    Irishgirl16
    I have developed a seroma, which for the uneducated out there (like me last week) is a fluid build up around the wound, so basically a large swelling, which is tender and uncomfortable and explains why I am only able to sleep on my back right now. Ap...

  • The cancer has gone…..what's next?

    Irishgirl16
    Having met with both my breast surgeon and oncologist this week, I now have a good (ish) understanding of what's going on. First up, there were no active cancer cells in my breast by the time I had surgery, all that was left was scar tissue. Even...
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