Side Effects and Consequences

I have written quite a lot about the various side effects I have endured. Some are short and sharp some are long and irksome.

What I haven't written about is the consequences of the side effects.

The vast majority of the side effects have no further consequences, which by and large is a good thing.

What I have noticed is that the "minor" side effects appear to have the more annoying consequences.

One of the minor side effects is that I have slightly dry eyes. On a day to day basis it's not much of a problem. However, I wear gas permeable contact lenses and every so often the dryness makes getting my lenses out a little problematic. This problematic removal has led to two bouts of conjunctivitis which is, as you can imagine, painful and very annoying. It means that I have to wear my glasses, which I hate with a vengeance. I have eye drops which work well in clearing it up. I also have eye drops to combat the dryness, which I really should use more often. The problem is that the dryness of my eyes isn't very noticeable until I try to remove my lenses. I am hoping that this side effect will abate in the future.

Another side effect is that my skin is very dry and prone not only to spots on my head and face (I like to think of it as going through my second adolescence) but also, for want of a better description, holes in my skin. These holes bleed like the proverbial stuck pig and also take a long time to heal. What makes the healing process more protracted is that my skin has lost its elasticity, so any stretching of my skin results in splits which are not only painful but again take a long time to heal. It would appear that no amount of moisturiser and imbibing of liquids can combat this dryness of either my eyes nor my skin. Obviously, I don't put moisturiser in my eyes, or at least I haven't tried it yet.

Scan, Good News, Bad News

I had my "let's see how the treatment is going" scan a couple of weeks ago.

Things I have learnt from having my scan.

If it takes two attempts to find a vein, go for the second site first, especially if you have to call a someone else to do, because they always get the vein.

I also now know the difference between a radiographer and a radiologist. The latter is a doctor the former is not.

Finally, it is more painful removing the plaster which covers the cannular, then it does putting the cannula in, especially if it is removed against the hair growth. Bizarrely in spite of my hair loss I still have remarkably hairy arms.

In the time honoured fashion I will give you the bad news first.

I still have cancer, which is no surprise as I have incurable secondary breast cancer.

I also have slight damage to my lungs as a result of collateral damage from the radiotherapy. It is minor and explains my slight breathlessness together with my reduced haemaglobin level.

The good news is that my tumours have shrunk, quite a lot. Given that my oncologist was aiming for stability, I have exceeded expectations. Hooray!

So what happens now?

I will have the final round of six full monty treatments at the beginning of June and then the chemo element (docetaxel) will be dropped and I will continue on the maintenance regimen. That is just the monoclonal drugs Hercaptin and Pertuzamab. During this I will have 4 monthly scans until I receive just the "Bad News". Then the oncologist will put me on some other drugs of which she has many in her stock of ways to torture her patients.

So here's to the next few years of 3 weekly visits to the hospital.