The final hurdle 🥳🥳

Last treatment hurdle is radiotherapy in order to have this I needed my surgical wounds to heal and to regain full movement of my arm. My breast wound healed no problems my lymph node wound was a different story….

3 weekly reviews, one week of antibiotics, a week of a leaking wound I managed to get it to heal. Exercises were really painful and I got tendon pains on the inside of my elbow meaning I couldn’t straighten my arm.

Nerve pains are the worst so before surgery I was told that the removal of the lymph nodes would indeed give me altered sensation under my arm, nerve pains, shooting pains and pins and needles. These feelings can last for months and it’s about managing, exercising and resting.

So Friday I’ve got an Mri scan which was requested by my breast consultant as an image they use in March to determine if there have been any changes and can be used every year. Then I’ve got CT scan with tattooing in the radiotherapy department. This is my planning scan ready for my start date.

I’ve already had my discussion. Over the phone with my radiotherapy consultant. He explained all the side effects and what he wanted to do and if I was happy to consent. So side effects to get my head round because the cancer was on my left side I need to hold my breathe for 15 to 20 seconds whilst having radiotherapy this is to move my heart slightly so the beams don’t hit my heart!! I will have scarring to the top. Of my lung, increased weakness to my left hand side, burns to my boney area on my chest and fatigue.

The plan is for 19 daily sessions of radiotherapy 3 weeks of left side then 4 daily doses of just my boob to finish off. The boosters at the end are because of my age and the fact I had triple negative cancer which at my age shouldn’t be getting. After my radiotherapy ill have a 3 monthly review and then be handed back over for my yearly scans!!!

So Friday 3 attempts of a cannula they managed to get a paediatric cannula on the inside of my wrist for the contrast in the MRI. I have never had pain like it it made me cry and the bruise is phenomenal. Straight after that I had my CT scan in radiotherapy so 45 minutes I was all measured up and scanned ready for radiotherapy to start on the 25th November. The CT scanner measured the depths of my breathing and checked that I could hold my breath correctly in order to move my heart away from the beams. They also needed to do 3 tattoo marks to focus the beams on for each session.

I now know why I’ve never had a tattoo. So they popped some ink on the spot and then proceeded to stick a needle in my skin to mark me. Wow the pain was excruciating no local aneastetic I was glad when it was over. So now I’m literally ready for the last hurdle… Daily E45 to be applied to my chest and scars to try and prep my skin for a blasting.

All being well the final blast is on the 21st December just in time for Christmas…. Inbetween all of this we have managed to. Enjoy lots of family time and celebrating birthdays. Life is slowly but surely getting back to some normality.