elephant in the room, bursting their bubble, stealing their hope, councilling.
I’m back, I’ve just had a litre of fluid drained from around my heart under local anesthetic, I screamed the place down like a crazy woman. Mastectomy was a doddle compared to this, apparently the radiotherapy I had 2 years ago caused extensive scarring to the lining of my heart which made the procedure twice as painful. I have to admit I’m a bit teary and weary from this poxy disease, on the positive side my scan today overall was good there is still no…Continue Reading “Fluid”
Oh my good god, well I guess it is April fools day after all. So I arrive in Dublin at the crack of dawn and wait around half the day to have a pericardiocentesis, a painfull sounding procedure that involves putting a tube in the chest to drain fluid from the heart while semi – conscious and using an echo machine. I’m on the opperating table have just been given sedation when they examine the screen and see that there is no extra fluid and…Continue Reading “April fool”
Back to reality after a wonderful road trip with my four legged friend. Yesterday I had a biopsy on my knew lesions. Depending on the results of this and my up and coming CT scan I will have to decide on either more radiothearpy to stop further spread and potential skin breakdown but with the risk of damage to my lungs and/or a change in treatment which may or may not work considering chemo seems to have had little effect on my chest area…Continue Reading “SCAN, TREAT, REPEAT. STAGE IV NEEDS MORE.”
So it would appear that your love and prayers and my perseverance and dedication to doing everything I can to stay as well as possible has paid off. Post surgery and almost 4 months off chemo( think they may have forgotten about me?) the scans are good, it’s not gone by any means but it’s still under control.Back on chemo next week to try and keep it that way.I just realised I haven’t given my doctors any credit at all, but despite my aversion to…Continue Reading “Credit where credit is due”
It’s been a crazy few days. My dad had a heart attack on Friday, but thanks to Dr Gallagher of care Doc Carlow and Richie the quick thinking Paramedic and a host of other wonderful doctors and nurses in St James Hospital Dublin and St Lukes Hospital Kilkenny he is home and doing fine. We are very grateful .While it was lovely to have all my family together next time I hope it’s under better circumstances. xx
THEY ARE TALKING ABOUT MY LIFE! Those bloody goalposts are on the move again, the surgery didn’t get all the cancer and it wasn’t expected to. It was performed to remove some of the burden from my body and to prevent the tumour from breaking through.Yet the extent of the disease in my chest wall came as a bit of a shock and I suppose I hoped that maybe, just maybe by some miracle things might have been better. I’ve dusted myself off again after…Continue Reading “Goalposts”
Two weeks of daily Radiotherapy, Phew! I can cope with that. This might seem like a strange reaction from somebody who wanted to avoid conventional treatment, but a few weeks back I thought I was facing surgery, was then told surgery was impossible as the cancer had progressed too much in my breast. Six weeks of radiotherapy was mentioned and I was led to believe that progression elsewhere was also likely. Devastation, where next, my lungs my brain, both. Thankfully my scan revealed this…Continue Reading “Radio gaga”
