Chemo Go Ahead

I saw Dr Coxon this morning and reported that the night sweats had stopped a while ago. On the basis of that, my chemo can go ahead on a weekly basis, starting this Thursday.

The Chemo Unit at the hospital has that cheery Dunkirk Spirit atmosphere that I find so difficult but both Deborah and Sandra the Unit Managers/Sisters were really friendly and helpful and Deborah spent a while explaining the treatment and the side effects to me. The treatment will be every Thursday for 24 weeks ( I can take weeks off but they're added onto the end) and will take about an hour each time.

I knew about most of the possible side effects already from seeing Dr C last time but the new information was to do with avoiding infections - not just coughs and colds but also from food. I must avoid blue cheese, pate, cream ( unless I know that it's very fresh ) and reheated food. ( You can see where this is coming from ) Oh - and no kebabs...

But no problems with head and foot massages and I can exercise as much as I feel able to. J and I also talked about seriously investigating complementary therapies now - as much as anything so that I can feel that I'm in control of this in some way. It is ironic that today I think I probably feel the fittest and most upbeat I've felt since the op - and who knows how I'm going to be in a week's time. ( Of course, it could be that I'll have no side effects. Now wouldn't that be great! )

I'm glad it's all sorted - and I'm happy that it's going ahead. After all the knife edge stuff of the last few weeks, I can also do a bit of planning now - like the weekend break J and I have been talking about for weeks.

It's a lovely sunny day out there ( none of yesterday's snow settled) so I think I'm going to go for a walk.