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Thanks Rob, that's very helpful. Good luck with your treatment.
J.
So for the first time since I started the self-injections, I slept through the night without any major side effects (normally I can't sleep at all due to fever, chills, panic attacks, pain.) But now today I'm having horrible back and shoulder pain to the point I'm all hunched over and can't stand without having spasms :( No fun... Had a bath and that sort of helped, praying it gets better!!
Due to start either radiotherapy or chemo in Feb. Very apprehensive as I've heard all sorts about after effects, etc. Specialists have said as it will be a low dose I shouldn't worry about this or hair loss, but I've read about people getting rashes, red skin, and other issues. Anyone got any experience, good as well as not so good, to share??? Very concerned...
Today feels distinctly better. I managed to talk to MP yesterday about the imminent surgery and generally and about what is almost certain to happen and how distressed I feel about it.
Catharsis! (The process of releasing, and thereby providing relief from, strong or repressed emotions). He was really supportive and let me know he loves me and will be there for me whatever happens.
+ A couple of people contacted me and I've joined a facebook group for people affected by melanoma. It's good...
Back to hospital today to discover that without a morphine buffer IT chemo is quite an unpleasant process… still only two more to go.
Intrathecal chemotherapy is an intra lumbar injection, which in my case is a preventative measure (as the usual IV chemo doesn’t make the leap over to the nervous system, so should my cancer come back there would be a chance of it occuring there and , there is a far nastier place to have it than wrapped around my colon as it is now).
Anyway...
January 9th. I saw a Plastic Surgeon who looked up the CTscan notes and was able to tell me the scan had found nothing else. That was a huge relief although I was aware of being jittery during the whole interview.
He said the biopsy showed a depth of 0.8cm which identifies the melanoma as Stage 1, but after examination that he thought it might be thicker than that.
I am to have surgery within the next two weeks to remove the tumour (note the change in terms from melanoma to tumour) taking 1cm...
I've created this timeline retrospectively; I wish I had known more and done more about getting it checked a LOT earlier.
It was probably about 2009 I noticed a weird black squiggle thing just under the skin on my labia, about the same time my partner asked me how I managed to get bruised 'there'. Checking every now and then it seemed like there was a dark patch, but looking in the mirror while using clippers on my pubic hair, it wasn't much different to small patches of slightly thicker...
1OFT = one of those days! Yesterday was a frustrating day as I was AGAIN tired and had problems with the tummy as it struggles to cope. It left me breathless and bedridden for a while but i got over it in the end. And it allowed me the chance to think of the acronym 1OFT which sadly happens too often but I want to look at them lightly so I hope this new word helps. Well it certainly helped me to find a smile.So I hope these words help to inspire a smile to anyone reading them because I aont giving...
Someone sent me a note of slight concern today as I’ve not been blogging… they were worried about me being bogged down by my chemo.
Actually its quite the contrary… the last few days (maybe as much as a week – lucky me)! I’ve felt pretty much normal… the urge to try and fit three weeks worth of life into a weeks worth of having muchos energy has been almost over-whelming.
But no…. I know to try and conserve my energy… as I start to run up stairs...
