Chemo Round 1/6

My first chemo day I wasn't nervous, I was excited. Excited to start killing this bastard disease. I had a nice day actually, considering what I was doing and where I was. I was assigned a lovely nurse who I will have for the rest of the time. It's nice to have consistency where I can.

Chemo days makes you feel lucky, there is always someone worse off than you. The nurses are so kind and fun. You get lunch and you have a nice seat to sit in and having the portocath makes the infusion much less traumatic for your veins. During chemo I got my first hormone shot to suppress my ovaries. They do this to protect my fertility.

The chemo infusion was easy, the side effects were horrible. Days of body aches, mood swings, rashes, headaches, all sorts. It's not nice. My platelets dropped from 150 to 32 so my blood wouldn't clot leading to a series of nose bleeds, one lasting an hour.

Im writing today on a day I feel good. Its been a week and 3 days since my first chemo and I feel back to normal. My energy is up and my mood. However I have welcomed adult acne back into my life after years of very good skin, but make up covers it OK and my head scarves come down over my forehead to cover the damage. My hair hasn't started to fall yet, but that will come.

Some days are hard, and some are easy. Im having a good day today. The sun is shining and Im at work with my awesome supportive team. I have learnt to tie head scarves in a turban and I am getting lovely comments. I don't feel ugly, and I remind myself this is all temporary.

Bring on chemo Number 2 on the 22nd of August, I say.

I had great news today - Assuming there is no delays my surgery for my double mastectomy will commence the week of the 9th of December. I can't wait to get rid of this ticking time bomb hanging off my chest. I will have my first infusion of Herceptin on the 4th of December, this will last once every 3 weeks for a year. "Herceptin is used to treat metastatic (spread) breast cancer. It is effective against tumors that overexpress the HER2/neu protein. As part of chemotherapy regimen for adjuvant treatment of lymph-node positive, HER2/neu protein positive breast cancer. - Wikipedia"

Herceptin can only be used when you are HER2+ and its an amazing drug that is proven to cure breast cancer. I am very lucky my cancer responds to this drug. It is a hugely expensive drug and has only recently just become government funded. It takes up 90% of all cancers government budget - huge huh?

You wont break me cancer, you are soon going to be a distant memory and I will regain my strength and be well again. See you all at the finish line.