Roller-coaster week

Its turning out to be a tough old week.  This Docetaxel is nasty stuff.  I felt fine on Monday and did my two Tiny talk classes with help from my Mum playing the role of driver and Sherpa!  Then on Tuesday I felt rubbish again.  I struggled through my class with a very croaky voice, then had to go to Poole hospital for my MRI scan.

The hospital car park was full so we had to park elsewhere and suffer a torturous walk from where we parked to the hospital (in reality it was just up a small hill but I swear it felt like climbing Mount Everest!).  I was seen on time which was a surprise, however things went downhill from there.  My heart sank when I was shown into a brightly lit room with a large chair, tourniquets, viles of saline and little yellow sharps pins........noooooooo, what do they need to inject into me......I wasn't expecting that for an MRI but apparenty they use contrast material as with CTScans.  For the CT they put a cannula in and at a certain point while you are in the machine you get iodine injected which provides contrast on the images.  So, here we go again.....I have always been fine with needles and injections, I'm certainly not needle phobic, but I may very well become needle phobic by the end of this journey.  As I was shown into this room tears sprang to my eyes involuntarily, I told the nurse I had sore eyes!  I just knew what was to come, my veins have given up, you can get the needle in ok but they won't allow anything in or out, they collapse around the needle apparently!  It's been a long time since I've had a cannula in first time and the only people who can get blood out of me first time are the pathology nurses who do it all day long!  Luckily the radiology nurse asked about my veins and went to get the best person at doing cannulas to try first time but after three go's she gave up and went to get the senior consultant. She was a lovely lady but despite her best efforts could not get my veins to cooperate.  She assured me they could just do some extra scans to see what they need to without the contrast.  So after all that I then had an extra fifteen minutes in the scanner just to enhance my headache!


This morning I woke up still feeling rough, and now even more swollen in the face!

I almost got to the end of chemo before actually LOOKING like a Cancer patient, but I have well and truly succumbed!

I will leave you with this picture of Isla and I, chilling out in bed this afternoon, I was trying to get a picture of us both and just had to laugh at the state of us, me with my swollen eyes and Isla with her finger up her nose!  Attractive pair :-)