Sunday was pretty much a ‘normal’ day, lay-in, laundry, food shop, snooze, TV and bed. The only small difference being that I can’t carry anything heavy so didn’t help with loading the bags in the car or bringing them indoors or getting the clean sheets back on our bed.

Overall, I am having the most problems with my right side, it is more painful, has Seroma issues, has a large area of numb skin surrounding the site where the tumour was removed, tingles and has moments of stabbing pain. By contrast, the left side, still has areas of blue dye, has more remaining bruising as the tumour was deeper within the breast, and is obviously still tender, but not as much as the right.

As my appointment is at 8:45 am, Monday morning was the same as a normal work day. My friend Jenny drove me there and back as Ray needs to be home to speak to the kitchen and bathroom fitters. I am so grateful for her being able to do this for me as I wouldn’t have managed to drive so far myself. Last week I did three short drives on the same day and had to take myself off to bed early as I felt so rough. I have fantasies about having a bed like this one 🙂

Jenny and I were surprised that the traffic was reasonably light, we arrived with 15 minutes to spare. I must have had the first appointment, when I gave my name to the receptionist, the Doctor, who was standing behind me heard and called me in.

All the healthcare professionals I have seen since beginning this journey have been wonderful, really kind, caring and patient and Dr Makepeace was no exception.

He explained that my breast cancer cells are Herceptin Negative, meaning that they are less likely to grow and spread than Herceptin Positive cancers. This means that I do not need to have Chemotherapy which is excellent news!

So, within the next four weeks I will have a Treatment Planning appointment at Mount Vernon Hospital. At this appointment I will have a CT scan on my upper body to measure the exact locations of my heart, lungs etc. so that the Radiotherapy can be targeted to the required locations and minimise any adverse effects elsewhere in the area. I will be given all the information about minimising side effects during and after treatment.

I will have 18 Radiotherapy Treatments of 10 minutes each, this will be given in blocks of five treatment days and two days break.

I asked about the prognosis for my type of cancer, the Doctor used a web site ‘Predict’ to estimate for me, these were the results:

The survival rates 10 years post-diagnosis, for every 100 cases:

91 women not taking Tamoxifen will have survived

93 women taking Tamoxifen will have survived

I asked about how many Lymph Nodes had been removed as I was unclear about this, after checking through my notes Dr Makepeace said that two had been removed from my left side and three from my right. This is more than I thought, and may explain having Seroma problems under my right arm.

After the appointment, Jenny and I had coffee and scones at John Lewis and then came home.

After the journey I felt wiped out so had a quick catch up with Ray, and went for a lay down for a couple of hours.

And in other news, our kitchen re-fit is coming along nicely, we have some units and worktops in now, it is looking good so far 🙂

These are from last Friday:

   

And these are today: