The last stretch has begun!

Yesterday I went into the Marsden to have a portacath device implanted in my chest which carries a tube which is inserted into a central line in my neck, sounds horrific but it will be what they will use each week to take blood out and put the drugs in. I was only in for th eday and have various dressings on it at the moment so am not sure what will be visable once it has all healed. It is quite sore at the moment and I am not looking forward to the dressings being changed tomorrow when I finally start my last 12 weeks of chemotherapy; still after what I've been through with the main surgery, this is nothing really.

Amy and Kevin flew off to Spain last Saturday for a well deserved rest. Despite having the school holidays, Amy worked most of it at her old nursery and then with Kevin's mum at a school holiday scheme, Kevin also has not had a week off so they were both so looking forward to going away especially as it was just the two of them. The house has seemed quiet without them, no doubt it will be back to normal when they are home this Saturday.

Tomorrow sees me back at the Marsden to start this last 12 weeks of chemo, can't believe that I've done almost 9 months already and this is the final bit woo hoo!

Will write something next week when I'm over the initial side effects of my meeting with Mr Chemo!

Scan results

The scan showed, as expected, that there is NO tumour which was obviously great news. THe next bout of chemo will be to zap any cancer cells left that might be thinking of doing anything but they are too tiny to even show on the MRI so I'm thinking that the chemo will have no problem in eating them! Apparently the tumour was attached to a blood vessel so they need to make sure that they get every last cell regardless of where it may be in my body - clever stuff huh?

Am planning to go back to work next week, just ½ time and that of course will be interupted many times for the treatment but I managed it well at the beginning of the year so I'm sure it will be fine this time around.

xxxxxxx

Cannot believe it's the 8th of October already, I am making really good progress which seems to have been acknowledged by everyone. It seems amazing that when I came home from hospital I could hardly manage ½hour out of bed and now I am preparing to go back to work - albeit only halftime.

I had an MRI scan last week and get the results from that tomorrow afternoon at the Marsden. The hope is that it will show nothing at all as the sugeon said he removed all of UG, I hope that it the case. The schedule after that is that I go into the Marsden (possibly overnight) on 23rd October to have a portacath fitted which is a small implant that goes under the skin in my chest and tunnels under the skin up to a central vein in my neck and this is what they will use to take blood out and put the chemo and antibodies in because, as a doctor said last week 'I have crap veins'. It has to be done under general but should only take about 45 mins so it's small fry in comparison to the 5 hours of the last operation! I have seen and spoken to someone who has one and it is barely noticable under the skin, but even if it is, it's not for long - the next, no LAST, chemo treatment is another 12 weeks which means that I will take my last tablet on January 10th - woo hoo!!!

When that is finished, I have the portacath removed and then it's back to St Helier to have the colostomy reversed. Providing all goes smoothly I should be feeling ok over Christmas; have my last big chemo on 27th Dec (which means it's this year not next year - a big psychological thing for me) and clear of everything and back to something resembling normality by Easter. After that it will be some big fat holiday!

Will try to do another posting tomorrow after the scan results. xx