Let me fill you in

I know some of you are probably wondering how my appointments went on Friday and I'm here to tell you that - apart from my multiple snoozes in the waiting room - it went really well.

I got a little more information on the last scan report from my most recent CT last month and the the growth that has now appeared on my liver since my previous scan in February is singular. It's a little bigger than I would've liked it to be but that'll be down to my last treatment only being targeted to the boob and brain and the previous chemo not having a longer term effect in stabilising my cancer.

The main breast tumour that I can still feel did shrink and the lymph node in my armpit has shrunk - quote - "significantly". I hate that they don't always put measurements in the reports because that's something I always like to know. Not sure if that's weird but that's me!

A few more mets have shown up on my lung but again, that wasn't targeted during my last treatment. My June CT was compared to my bone scan from a few months ago and although they're different types of scans, there didn't seem to be any changes to my bones! Woohoo.

I have no update on the brain because they give an MRI around 3 months after completing brain radiation which is about now but I've made the decision with my team to just do the MRI on the same day that I have my next CT to see what this new treatment is doing to the demon ravaging my body. It will be around my fourth cycle and I have just started cycle 2.

Cue scanxiety (probably around my birthday) - to those of you that don't know what that is, it's an extremely common word in the cancer community, especially when you're secondary and are literally living from scan to scan.

Next topic, pills! Bloods were fine, I've been prescribed more Cape for my second cycle. I'm staying on the same dose at least until my first progress scan because I seem to be managing the side effects well so far and having only done one full cycle currently, it's still early days to know what's actually happening inside my body.

More pills! My 'just in case' box has increased in size. To the list I've got to add a minor sleeping pill - although fatigued, my doctor has put it across as being too tired to sleep (which explains to me the being tired and wired at the same time) to only take as and when I feel like I need it - and an anti-seizure medication which will start small and slowly increase over time.

That last one did scare me a bit but because there is cancerous activity on my brain it was recommended for me and I'm glad it was because I couldn't bear for anything like that to happen in front of my family, especially my kids.

I think that pretty much covers everything, I thought in general it was a positive appointment and I was surprised I managed to successfully maintain all of the info with my inability to stay awake in the waiting room!

Now let cycle two commence!