About Me

When I began this blog, I was a 35 mother of two young girls whom I breast fed. I have no family history of cancer. I eat well, don't smoke and I exercise. I live as healthily as I can. I still managed to get breast cancer.

Background

I was diagnosed with breast cancer in April 2010. At that point, it was what is called DCIS (Ductal Carcinoma In Situ) which is a non-invasive type of breast cancer. It is not life threatening if it doesn't spread outside of the milk ducts, so it's probably a 'good' type of cancer to get. However, it was everywhere in the breast meaning that I had to have a mastectomy. The consultant also told me that they would have to remove a few of my lymph glands and test for invasive cancer. If they found any, I would have to go on for further treatment, including chemotherapy.

I had the mastectomy in May 2010. About a week later, I was told that the cancer had spread from the milk glands and was considered invasive. Therefore, I needed further treatment.

A consultation with the oncologist revealed that, at the least, I would need 6 rounds of chemo 3 weeks apart and hormone treatment for the next 5 years. I also had a bout of radiotherapy, to target the most problematic areas and was given hormone tablets to keep one version of the cancer at bay.

So I started chemo in July 2010 and kept a diary of the symptoms and experiences of that abysmal set of treatments. I intended to keep going, with experiences of the radiotherapy and beyond, but stopped after the final chemo treatment. I think it all became too much by that point.

The Cancer Returned

However, once everything was finished, with radiotherapy out of the way and my being cleared, things started to get back to normal.  I was enjoying life, home, family, friends, work - everything was great.  And then it started to go wrong in early 2013, as detailed by this post. The cancer has metastasised into (or developed into secondary) bone and liver cancer and it's incurable but the symptoms are manageable indefinitely. I think it;s until my liver gives out. So I am living with cancer and I intend to live for my husband and children and I intend to live for my whole family and friends. And I intend to live as long as possible.

The symptoms are bad and the worst is that, mainly due to the bone cancer and poor immune system, I am fairly immobile and pretty much housebound. Things aren't easy. I decided to restart this blog again to help me keep track of how it's going and maybe, just maybe, it can help others.