Little update of between chemo and surgery first:
So my last chemo was 3/3/22 (I had 6 in total), I got some scans on 16/3/22 to check how chemo had done and got told similar results to my half way they thought maybe only 2 lymph nodes involved now (originally 5) and that the lump in my breast had reduced significantly, they called it a total response to chemo, I was super excited when I got told these results that day and had assumed that because only 2 lymph nodes were affected they wouldn’t want to take them all, I told everyone the good news and the next day I got told that they still wanted to take all of them from my arm pit (I think as a precaution) and that because I didn’t need a full mastectomy they would now like to do 25 rounds of radio (which got reduced to 15 in the end) so was pretty disappointed and didn’t end up telling anyone this news as I had only just told everyone my good news the day before and didn’t want to bring anyone else down.. along with me
22/3/22 I had my pre op assessment just to check my heart etc was fine and it was super easy just a lot of questions and an ecg etc nothing scary, all was well but just got told they would monitor me more as I’d never had an anaesthetic before
26/3/22 I finally went to look at wigs, no idea why it took me so long, I guess because I wasn’t going out much during chemo and I had a lot on but I picked one and got it a couple weeks later, it’s now been 4 months and I’ve only worn it once, I actually quite like the short hair it suits me and the wig makes me pretty hot and along with the hot flushes zoladex gives me and now Herceptin too I don’t need any extra layers
28/3/22 I got covid.. I managed to avoid it for 2 years and I get it a few weeks before my scheduled surgery! Which was super nerve racking as the originally said they would need to delay surgery by about 20 weeks and probably give me an extra chemo or two in the mean time because they aren’t sure how covid interacts with the anaesthetic and didn’t want to take any risks but thankfully and I’m not 100% sure why the date didn’t move much maybe just a week or two because I had missed some appointments when I was testing positive, I think they left it because I didn’t take badly to covid was just like a bad cold really.. again thankfully! I had to cancel a few plans I’d made with friends I hadn’t seen since I got diagnosed which was disappointing but I started to freak myself out thinking of I got it again it would be delayed even more
12/4/22 I got an incursion device implanted into my breast, because my tumour had reduced so much the surgery wanted to be able to know exactly what to cut out so the ultrasound person spend about 20 minutes finding the perfect spot then inserted the device, felt similar to the tags they had put in 10/9/21 when I first found out I had cancer and got biopsy’s it was probably double the size but I don’t think it was too sore just a bit nippy and a bit tender for a couple days afterwards. They also showed me the device the surgeon would have and it was almost like a metal detector so they held it close to my breast and it beeped so that he knew where to cut and how much as they always take an extra bit as a margin to make sure they get it all and don’t have to do extra surgery’s etc
18/4/22 slightly unrelated, had to go to podiatrist for ingrown toenails, had them before but I think chemo brought them back and was scared of getting an infection just before surgery
well that was a long one, I felt ok during this time.. besides covid of course. I found I still didn’t feel very fit and would get tired after very little Excercise etc but that has since gotten waaaaay better which I’m sure I’ll post about in the next couple of days. The sickness and pain from the chemo had all went away, I still couldn’t eat spicy food :( and my appetite atill wasn’t the same I just didn’t fancy food but I can say that has also came back.. (I want everything now I can takes it) although I am still a bit fussy
