KiwiCat's updates

It may sound silly, I mean I know I am on a cancer journey, I’ve had major surgery, I’ve been bouncing between scans and medical professionals for that very reason, but I just don’t feel like someone who has cancer. What’s that supposed to feel like? I’m not sure, but most of the time right now I feel quite normal and that surely isn’t normal with cancer? Is it?

Well anyway, yesterday I met my new oncologist. Or, as it turned out, oncologists because I have two: Emma and Sarah. Sarah is the senior oncologist and I spent more time with Emma but at future appointments it’s likely to be one or other rather than both. It does mean if one is bisy or away there’s always someone around, which is nice.

The latest scan results still show no sign of spread into any organs or muscles, and that’s important because that’s where sarcomas like to live and spread. That’s pretty much what these scans are for, to watch for that. So far so good.

That said, there is something going on in my lymphatic system. It’s not where sarcomas generally go but mine did. I had 5 lymph nodes removed in November’s surgery and that means the ones left are having to work harder, and that could be the full explanation of what’s happening. Still, out of an abundance of caution, my oncologists are being particularly vigilant.

Long story short, we’re going to try a round of chemotherapy. It was offered, not pushed on me, and it may have no effect on the lymph nodes if the changes aren’t to do with cancer to begin with, but I think it’s worth doing. I was told back in November that the testing proved the cancer is still somewhere in my body. It hasn’t made itself visible so far, but I’m in favour of giving it a shove back anyway.

I’m not looking forward to this. I’ve just got life back to normal, and I could have said no, we don’t even know if we’ll be able to see if it’s having an effect.  But I’m mentally ready for it, and I figure getting through it in winter means I should get a nice summer, so that’s something to look forward to.

The details of when it starts haven’t been figured out yet, but likely before the end of June, running for 18 weeks with treatments every 3 weeks so I have recovery time between. There’s no point trying to guess what impact it’ll have on me, it might be really rough or I might sail through, but the two things I can expect are nausea and lower immunity, so I might be more inclined to linger at home. Which I don’t mind, there’s plenty of crafting to be done.

I’ll update as I get more details but for now I’m continuing on and going to enjoy each day as it comes.

I suppose I might now at least feel like a real cancer patient at last. 😊

Last minute edit: as I was about to post this the phone rang and I have my first treatment date: 16 June. So here we go.