New game - hunt the veins.

Well that's 6.5 out of 8 done. Or should I say 9 out of 12? Hey, who's counting?(well...me...) My veins had gone into hiding today. It took 4 attempts to get the cannula in. My hand is a bit sore. Now I swear if they hadn't got it in on the 4th attempt I don't know if I could have sat there much longer. Ouch ouch ouch. I just hope my veins are more co-operative next Friday. Not good.

Chemo Number 7

Hi ho, hi ho, it's off to the hospital I go...

It's the first infusion of chemo number 7 today. Only one more cycle to go after this. I can hardly believe it. And it's snowing...

Where do I start??

Thought it was about time I had a go at this. I've had a rough couple of years and feel like I need to offload some of it in the hope that it will help me move on, or something like that...

Well, 2005 was a bad year for me. I should have known when I spent New Years Eve in bed, full of cold it wasn't going to be a good one... I'll try and keep this short, but here is a quick summary of my breast cancer journey in 2005.

• Mid March 2005 - I discovered a lump while showering - the lump that would change my life forever.
• April 18th - plucked up courage to see GP about the lump and was referred to breast clinic.
• April 29th - went to breast clinic. Got prodded, poked, squashed and scared.
• Friday 13th May 2005 - a date I will never forget because I was diagnosed with breast cancer, at the age of 33. So, I went to the pub and got very drunk.
• June 6th - The day of operation number one, my first ever hospital stay. A lumpectomy and axillary clearance, and not very much sleep... Hospitals are not a good place for sleeping!
• June 17th - A bad day cos I got post op results and they weren't very good. Here's the science bit... My cancer was Grade 2, 23mm, 6 lymph nodes involved, er+ and pr+ (and since found out HER2-). No clear margins (spread up to 60mm). So, I was told I had to have a mastectomy. I cried a lot that day and felt really defeated. I was also told I was going to have CT and bone scans. A very scary time!
• July 4th - had bone scan.
• July 12th - had CT scan.
• July 19th - had mastectomy. I found out the results of both scans literally just before op - both clear!! Hurrah, some "good" news at last!
• July 29th - got post op results. No nasty surprises this time. Told I had to have chemo (E/CMF), radiotherapy and tamoxifen.
• Aug 5th - started chemo.
• Aug 26th - shaved hair off, sick of finding it everywhere...

And so it went on... trips to the hospital every few weeks, needles, no hair and feeling crap.