My Story - Part 3

Scans

I've mentioned about a few scans in my previous posts and as time goes on you get more - obviously. There's generally a start, a middle and an end.

So when you're diagnosed you have everything just to get a lay of the land and check for any spread as well as sizes and positions of the cancer. Then you get what they call a progress scan in the middle, and then of course you have another scan at the end of your treatment schedule.

When diagnosed, I had a mammogram (with boobs filled with milk, AND post 3 biopsies), ultrasound, and a chest to pelvis CT. After my third chemotherapy session, I went on to have another ultrasound and a repeated CT scan. These went on to show a significant reduction in all areas of my breast - as well as the specks on my lungs that were being watched - by more than half. What a relief, the treatment was working.

Come to the end of 2019 and I have all of these scans repeated again. Results were once again positive but the shrinkage in the cancerous areas had slowed compared to the first half of treatment. My CT had also picked up an area on my sternum which my oncologist said that was consistent with bones healing from chemotherapy. Thus confirming the dreaded secondary diagnosis. My cancer was now solidified as incurable with spread to the breast bone and, now most definitely, my lungs. Ten years I was given. This was January 2020.

Because of the now known bone spread, the plan was to have a full bone scan. I also had an updated ultrasound because by February I could feel the main lump in my left breast again. I was hoping for the best because I was still planning to have a mastectomy and node clearance for the second week in February.

Valentine's day came and the news just got worse. My chest infection from the beginning of the month still hadn't cleared so I wasn't deemed well enough for surgery. Then, to make the situation even more upsetting my ultrasound had confirmed that the chemotherapy was not having as long as an effect as my team had hoped.

My cancer was active again.

My prognosis went from 10 years, to just 12 months.

Even if I was well enough for surgery, the delay for more treatment with the healing process was just too great of a risk. So the plan was to continue to go ahead with radiotherapy to the breast in March.