The Frank Diary of Anne

The PET scan showed……… the tumour has gone!!!!!

Got the news this morning at the hospital from the consultant. I am so pleased and relieved and so is Chris.

The consultant said that it was an excellent result and the PET scan results were very accurate.

It will take 3 to 6 months for my immune system to recover and I must just take it easy for a while. We just chatted about a few other things and they he said I could go. I saw my other consultant in the corridor and thanked her for everything they had done for me.

All that happens now is that I have to have a check up every three months for two years, and then every six months for eight years.

The consultant said to try not to be anxious and keep checking for lumps, but if anything did come up just to come straight back to the clinic.

After that, I went downstairs to the Day Case Unit and told a couple of the chemo nurses the good news, they were really pleased.

Then I rang my Dad at work to tell him and he was so pleased too. I told him we were going home to put the champagne in the fridge and he said not to drink too much (typical dad comment).

Then we went home and I sat on the sofa for a while trying to take it in.  I thought that the cancer MUST have gone after all that chemo, but it isn’t until you hear it yourself from the doctors that it becomes real.

As it was a nice day we decided to go to the beach so we ran about in the sea and walked along the beach and had an ice cream to celebrate. Then we went to a vineyard and did some wine tasting and then we went out for lunch.

The champagne is still in the fridge at the moment, I thought I would wait until my Dad came to open it so we can celebrate properly.

Even now, it is only sinking in that this is finally over.  This has certainly been a horrible experience, I would like to say one that I will forget, but I will never forget it.

On the plus side, it has made me see things in a totally different light, and I really think it has changed me.  I now appreciate those close to me so much more. The relationship that I have with Chris was strong anyway, but I think that this has brought us closer together and we realise that if we can get through this together, we can pretty much get through anything.

So many things I took for granted before as I am sure many people do, and I take nothing for granted now. People still look at me with pity because I have no hair, which annoys me because I don’t really care about it anymore. I am just grateful to still be here!

I now find it extremely difficult to tolerate people who moan about things that they consider to be “problems” but which are such minor things.

All in all, I am just so glad that it is over now, and I can get on with enjoying life and  spending time with the people close to me. I am looking forward to the future now, and Chris and I have got many nice things planned to make up for the last seven months. We plan to do all the things that we have thought about doing and never quite got round to. Most importantly, we can enjoy our wedding and start our married life together knowing that I am on the road to recovery.

Thank you once again to all the people who have given me advice, support and just kept my spirits up through these last few months. You will never know how much it has been appreciated.

But thanks most of all to my Dad and to Chris – I couldn’t have got through it without you both.

Uncategorized

I had my scan yesterday. I had to go to Sussex University where they have a clinical imaging department. I was taken into a small room with a bed and they put a canular in my arm (thought I had seen the last of those!) and then they put the radioactive sugar in. The lady that did it had to wear protective clothing in case the stuff got spilled on her and I had to use a special toilet that gets rid of radioactive waste. The  stuff that went into my arm came in a lead container which was inside a metal box with all these warnings on the front. Then they took my blood sugar which was low as you have to not eat for 6 hours prior to the scan so that the images show up clearly. Then I had to lie down for an hour to let the stuff travel through my system. I was quite bored and I wasn’t allowed to read a book or anything as glucose rushes to the parts of your body that move and that would show up on the scan. They told me that the scanner was basically a CT scanner with a Geiger counter inside it. The radioactive stuff would travel to cells that were multiplying quickly such as cancer cells and this would light up on the scan. It is all very clever. The radioactive stuff they put in me was only a tiny amount but the lady told me it cost £500!.

So then I had to lie very still in the scanner without moving. It was different to the CT scanner. This one was like a tunnel and the bit I was lying on shifted in and out of the tunnel at various stages. I felt uncomfortable in the scanner, it reminded me of when I first got ill and also it was very claustrophobic, I felt very closed in and couldn’t see out the other end. I was in there for 25 mins but it felt like about four hours! Then I was allowed to go home.

So now I just have to wait for next week for the results. Apparently, the results are discussed at the weekly meeting of all the haematology consultants at Worthing and Brighton hospitals to see if anything further needs to be done. I hope not.

Uncategorized

I now have a date for my PET scan!! It is next Wednesday 10th June at 1.45pm. I then have a clinic appointment to get the results on the 18th June at 8.30am (thought it was better to have an early appointment and get it over with). 

The information has come through from the hospital today, and it says that I am not allowed to eat for 6 hours before the scan, which will be done at the imaging department at Sussex University, and they will inject me with a radioative sugar. Then I have to lie down for an hour to let the sugar substance work its way through my body. Then I lie in the scanner for an hour while it does what it has to do.  Then I can go home. 

The results will then be discussed at a meeting in Brighton by my consultants and the haematology team at Brighton hospital and then I will get the results at my clinic appointment. I am already so nervous. 

I am getting the results sooner than I thought I would, I did have a clinic appointment in July but I have been able to move this forward.  I have been doing quite well, am very busy at the moment at work and at home and I think I may have been overdoing it a bit, so am taking a couple of “rest” days at the moment. I have had a horrible mouth problem where I had sore bits,  cuts and ulcers in my mouth as a result of the chemo, so I had to go to the GP and get some hydrocortisone tablets and anti viral tablets. They seem to have done the trick though.

Uncategorized