On the home straight!

Another 3 chemo sessions are done and dusted (not that I'd particularly know much about them as I've slept through them all haha!) and I'm now down to my last 3! Whoooop! Strangely enough I does actually seem like these weeks are flying by which I bet anybody who's ever had chemo or is on it now will be thinking who the F is this crazy bitch! But I think with having it weekly at the moment and having a pattern to how my week goes it seem to be chemo day again quite quickly. What I mean is: So Tuesday is chemo day so the whole day is more or less wrote off, then Wednesday is then my good day cos I'm buzzing off the steroids from the day before, Thursday I start getting a bit tired and just tend mooch about abit, Friday & Saturday are my worst days in terms of side effects so these tend to be sofa days as I'm aching and knackered etc and then Sunday and Monday tend to be better and then it all starts again. In general - I am doing okay but every week I can feel myself been that bit more tired, that bit more achey but I suppose its to be expected really as the chemo is accumulating every week it goes on. My eyebrows and eyelashes have started falling out, I feel like I've got about 3 eyelashes left on my left eye! One thing I have realised is, is that we most definitely take our eyelashes and nosehairs for granted! Vaseline is helping my nose but the amount of things that seem to end up in my eyes is crazy. You can't see it much on the photos but I've got a little fuzz/fluff growing back on my head, its very light and a bit like baby hair - deffo curious when my hair will start growing back properly! One other thing that I've noticed is getting worse is the B-R-A-I-N F-O-G! . Sometimes I literally can't remember what I've done, where I've been or communicate what I mean. So, seriously I apologise if you have seen me and I've not remembered a conversation we have had or where I know you from (I know that sounds like a massively tw*ty thing to say) but I am finding it hard to make links between things at the moment or even make sense sometimes and it is a known side effect of treatment. Don't get me wrong, it can be funny sometimes and Ryan has often asked me something for me to reply with something totally random and unrelated.

There's about a week between these photo's - you can really see how many have dropped out! It's also really hard to take pictures of your eyelashes! Apologies for the freaky eye pictures!!

A bit about Chemo

As you all know, I'm a lover of allll things geeky and sciencey and so I thought I would post a little bit about what chemo actually is and explain the chemo regime that I've been on because tbh, its flippin confusing and when people ask me where I'm at in terms of my treatment etc I find it hard to explain and so thought I'd draw it out.

Generally, Oncologists (Cancer Docs) follow NICE (National Institute of Clinical Excellence) guidelines when deciding what regiments to put people on for their specific Cancer, for example, for people with Invasive Breast Cancer having chemo after surgery (some people have chemo before surgery - stuff like this depends of the type of tumour, its size, hormone receptors etc) the recommendation is that chemotherapy treatment involves an Anthracycline drug which stops cell growth and leads to cell death and a Taxane Drug which affects microtubule formation meaning it inhibits cell division. Sounds scary but basically what it means is that they stop the Cancer cells (and unfortunately the healthy other cells in the body - hence the side effects) from dividing and growing which is what shrinks tumours as generally a characteristic of Cancer cells is that they are faster growing and dividing in comparison to our normal body cells as they have bypassed the normal checkpoints that our cells have when they reach a certain age and pop their clogs.

Sometimes adjustments will be made based on what is deemed best in each situation so not everyone will have exactly the same treatment. All this is a very personal thing and people also make different choices along the way about what treatments they do and don't want. What I've also been told (and seen on the chemo ward) is that there is no way of telling who will get what side effects and to what extend so often its a game of starting treatment and adjusting on the way depending how people cope as ultimately its all about balancing the benefit of chemotherapy in treating the Cancer/reducing the risk of recurrence vs the risks and health of the patient.

So, initially this was my original plan and is generally the plan for most people with hormone receptor (Oestrogen & Progesterone) positive Invasive Breast Cancer:

EC (An anthracylcine anticancer drug)

Epirubicin + Cyclophospamide aka "The Red Devil"
Given steroids and anti-sickness before the IV chemo infusion
Then given steroid tablets to take at home for 3 days
I was given anti-sickness tablets to take at home as I suffered with nausea

Docetaxel (Taxane Drug)

also known as Taxotere

However, if you have read any of my previous blogs you will know that after my second round of EC I felt so ill/broken to the point of not wanting to continue treatment and so after discussion with my Oncologist we decided that continuing with the original plan was not in my best interest. Instead I had an extra weeks break and would skip the 3rd EC as I had not tolerated the last one well so the chance of my tolerating another one was slim. So we decided would move straight onto the next type of drug (Taxane type drug). My options were to go ahead with Docetaxel every 3 weeks but as I had not tolerated the last 3 weekly dose of EC very well, weekly doses of Paclitaxel (I like to think of it as Docetaxel's kinder little sister) were suggested as they have found to be generally better tolerated as the doses as smaller instead of been given in one big whack every 3 weeks.

Paclitaxel

also known as Taxol
Given steroids and antihistamines 30 mins before IV chemo infusion

So far, I've found Paclitaxel a lot better than the EC chemo but from speaking to others on the chemo ward when I go in, people really do have varying experiences! I have no sickness or nausea with this one but felt really nauseous with EC. Some people really struggle with their white blood cell levels on Taxane drugs (especially Neutrophils - the type of white blood cells that are most abundant and help fight infections) but I've been absolutely fine so far (touch wood!!!).

Some pictures to brighten your week:

I couldn't NOT share the photo of me dressed up as Uncle Fester for Halloween. The kids (and my whole family to be fair!) call me all sorts of bald related names so for Halloween I though, Bugger ya in gonna dress up as Uncle Fester seen as though you call me it! #humourbeatscancer

Also thought I'd post some pictures of my crazy night out to the Bingo the other night to celebrate one of our relatives upcoming 50th birthdays. It was an eventful do with a false call, a phone going off and lots of dibber dabber action! We got lots of evils on the way out for our lack of bingo finesse and lots of giggles!