When I spoke to my surgeon a couple of weeks ago, I heard the word 'oral' in relation to preventative chemotherapy. I hung on to that! But... if you have an ileostomy like I do, then anything you take orally gets flushed out rather early on in the digestive system. So, when I met my oncology team today, the news was that I will be having chemotherapy intravenously.
There's two lots of chemo that I'll be having, and both have some side effects, but the one that is likely to cause peripheral neuropathy (tingling in the fingtertips, loss of sensation etc), is the one that I could stop if needed. One of Sheena's chemo drugs (not the same as mine) gave her neuropathy, and a year on she still has pain because of it. I'm not on such strong drugs, but even so - I am aware of the potential side effects, one of which may be diarrhoea (which won't be fun with a stoma!)
I have lots to read still, so I can understand exactly what is going to happen, and a few more appointments to come. Particularly on 22nd December I will have a PICC line inserted. So that's a cannula that will stay in me for the whole of the chemotherapy treatment, which will be at least three months. I will probably have my first chemo between Christmas and New Year, and it involves a pump that will take 48 hours to deliver one of the meds. I have lots still to understand about the process.
I was a bit shocked to hear that not only would I need intravenous, but that I'd have a picc line, but thanks to some helpful comments from knowledgeable friends, I feel a bit better about it now. I will have to have chemo every two weeks, but each alternative week I will have 'line maintenance' to make sure the picc line doesn't become an infection risk. So that's weekly visits to the hospital for 20 weeks.
So it's PICC and MIXed emotions for me - because though I don't like the idea of the cannula, it does mean that each time I go I won't have to have a new needle inserted, so it will save me being stuck on a bi-weekly basis. That's a positive.
The treatment is needed because one of 19 lymph nodes had a cancer in it when they examined the pathology (Gertrude had babies before being evicted), so there is the risk of the cancer spreading. This treatment will reduce the likelihood of cancer recurrence by 15%. Doesn't sound high, but if you switch it round, I would have a 15% chance (at least) of getting the cancer again without treatment. So, I am going to go ahead.
The team at Ipswich hospital have been amazing, as ever, and when I go for treatment at the Wolverstone Ward I will know some of the staff because of the time we spent there with Sheena. This time she can't come in with me like I did with her because of Covid restrictions.
The end result will be that I won't have cancer. That's the end game, and that's what I am focusing on. To quote a famous marketing campaign, "F*CK CANCER!".
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