Last chemo

When I started chemotherapy last September third to be precise, I never thought I would get to the end of my sentence. A stretch of eighteen weeks seemed an eternity. Then it was stretched another six weeks when my original chemo didn't work and I was switched to a new regime. Then another two when my neutrofils dropped below a certain amount. But here I am, better than I thought I would ever feel. I did three yoga classes last week (and then lay down for the whole weekend), but hey! Three yoga classes, count them! And now I'm through. I had my last chemotherapy session yesterday. I feel astounded I have passed the finishing line. And that I've passed it because the chemo worked. Amazing.

I have become a woman who sleeps with her head wrapped in a towel. Specifically, I'm a menopausal bald woman who sleeps with her head wrapped in a golf towel. Who knew that the quick dry sports towel was the exact size to fit around my cranium, leaving a tiny tuck in that secures it just enough for me to drift off into sleep, or at least a hormone lite sleep, which finds me up and down, asleep and awake, throughout the night.

Good news!

The last week has been spent worrying, worrying, worrying about my scans, which I had on Tuesday in preparation for meeting the doctor to see if I would continue with the course of toxic pink Doxorubicin. After attending Life: The Festival of Death at the South Bank last week, I did feel that I had covered myself in case the news was bad. What I hadn't expected, or prepared for, was really good news but, guess what? The chemo is killing the cancer!

Yesterday was spent attending Death: Festival of the Living at the South Bank Centref with Ally. The two day festival was a surprise success for the organisers, who were caught short by its sell-out success and a number of the workshops were filled to capacity, much to the annoyance of those who couldn't get in.

Update on how to post a comment

Despite my best intentions, posting on this site is still difficult. One of my original hopes when setting up the blog was that it would enable me to become more technically literate... so I (actually my sister) have investigated the problem and I (she) has come up with a solution, or at least a way around third party cookies, which seem to be the problem.

While I have been writing fascinating blog entries in my head, in real life I have been hanging out with my sister and not writing anything. Suzanne has come across from Cairns in far northern Queensland and is spending six weeks with myself and B. At first I thought her hot tropical blood mixed with London cold would lead to her expiration through overwearing of thermal layers, but the unseasonably warm weather (nine degrees in London today!!) and the discovery of B's super thick winter coat has allowed her to survive. So far. My brother and his family also arrived yesterday for five days, en route to a skiing holiday in America. I am so lucky to have a family who respond to a crisis by getting in touch and getting on a plane. Even my dad made it across for our civil partnership back in September.

Christmas highlights

Well.... I did have my chemo last Wednesday, which in this festive season seems like a lifetime ago. It had been a month since my last infusion and the space inbetween had made the whole experience seem a bit hazy, but it all came rushing back when I walked through the revolving doors of the Marsden.