Living with Ovarian Cancer

Hallelujah, a third of the way through this lot of chemotherapy!! Only another four months' worth of poison to go

On the upside, the Hickman Line is now fully installed into my chest, which certainly made chemo on Tuesday a damn sight easier than usual! I went in on Monday to get the Hickman line put in. A bit nervous, like, as I've not had an op or anything since my hysterectomy in 2004. They plonked us on the gourney in the prep room and stuck a canula into my left elbow to put the sedative in. "Oh, you'll just get a bit sleepy or you might go to sleep. Nothing to worry about."

"Everything's getting a bit woozy." says I, seeing the edges of my vision start to wobble like you're underwater. Then poof, out like a light, the next thing I see is the surgeon bending over me and I can feel him putting stitches in my right pectoral muscle to hold the catheter in place. I must have just gone limp

Quite nice, really, as I hadn't slept very well the night before, so I caught up on all my kip quite nicely.

So, that's in. I got my chemo on Tuesday - yech - followed by a bag of iron and two units of blood, on account of being quite seriously anaemic. Spent ALL DAY stuck in hospital having the blood etc, but I do feel a LOT less breathless than I did on Monday. I'm still tired, and I still get out of breath going up one flight of stairs, but that's normal for two days post-chemo. I am NOT breathless after walking down the kitchen to the back door! And even better, I've got a week off now as Tuesday's dose was the third part of the second dose, so it's now my week off! Yay!!!!

And even more of a miracle, I've actually got an appointment to register with AN NHS DENTIST tomorrow at 10.45!! Good grief, will wonders never cease?!? And if I take my letter in from Jobcentre confirming I get Income Support, I even get FREE dental treatment! So I think if there is anything at all wrong with my teeth - which there will be what with naturally crumbly teeth (thanks Dad for your duff genes!) and chemo - I will be getting everything done before I go back to work in July!

Also, if this chemo works and everything goes according to plan, I want to do a charity cycle ride across India in November. Got a leaflet about it with the Ovarian Cancer Action newsletter and it looks pretty good. You don't have to be hyper hyper fit, just up to a certain level and able to cycle 6/7 hours per day, at any speed. Can't do it yet but if I finish chemo at the beginning of June, don't see why I can't get up to that level of fitness by mid-November. It's raising the £3,000 sponsorship that's worrying me - not sure whether I'd be able to do that but we'll have to see. Can't sign up for it yet anyway as not sure whether this chemo's working yet - won't find out til beginning of April when I've had a CT scan. If it ain't and we have to have Cisplatin, well that won't finish til September so cycle rides'll be out. But this one ought to work - I've not had it before so no resistance to it yet so fingers crossed!

Anyway, there you go. I now have a catheter dangling from the upper slope of my right tit, which is a bit of an awkward place for it but who am I to argue? At least I don't have to sit around with my hands in a bucket of hot water for half an hour then endure another half hour of people turning my hands into pincushions looking for veins!

Another update on the trials and tribulations of chemotherapy

Saw Dr Perren on 1st February for the usual between-chemo checkup. Asked him about getting some form of central line put in, as it is now getting near-on impossible to find a vein in my hands that can be canulated. Especially as I am now having chemo three weeks out of four - it was hard enough finding veins once a month but now it's getting ridiculous. Miracle of miracles, Dr Perren agreed that it would be a good idea to get a Pick Line put in and walked me down to talk to the nurse in charge of these things! That is a first - every other consultant I've asked about a central line tends to try and talk you out of it, but Dr Perren was just really calm about it and didn't try and talk me out of it at all!

So, on Tuesday, when I was due for the first dose of the second cycle of Topotecan, Di the nurse tried to get a pick line into my elbow. This is a long canula that goes into a vein at your elbow then up, across your collarbone and into some artery near your heart. Or at least that's the theory, anyway! Needless to say, it didn't work with me - big surprise there then! The first pick line decided it was going up into my jugular instead, so that had to be taken out. Cue copious amounts of blood both inserting and extracting it - I bleed like a stuck pig at the best of times (fair skin you know) and because I'm a bit anaemic of course I bled even more. Niiiiiice. Just as well I'm not squeamish! Then the second line did a u-turn in my arm and didn't even make it up to my shoulder! So, no pick line. Probably a good thing, as you can't raise the arm with the pick line (my right) over your head which would be awkward seeing as I am right handed!

So what we're going to do now is try and get a Hickman Line in on the 18th - it means one more dose of chemo with struggling to find a decent vein in my hands, then on the 18th a dose of sedation and a two hour wait before an x-ray to make sure it's in the right place. Also means no iron next week either unless we get a good vein - fat chance! So hello anaemia, goodbye energy. As if the breathlessness from the fluid build-up in my abdomen wasn't bad enough

I could always go in overnight and get them to drain my abdomen off, but I'd rather wait and see how bad it gets first. Only gained 1/4 of an inch around my waist this week, as opposed to 3/4 of an inch last week, so that's a definite slow down in fluid build up. Fingers crossed after next Tuesday it ought to stop, if not start reducing!

At least with a Hickman Line it's not really going to affect my movement - it goes into an artery in your chest just below your collarbone/above the boob so apart from not being able to immerse it in water (no swimming and no baths) it shouldn't be too bad. Better than a pick line, where you can't raise your arm over your head, go swimming or play golf (hah!). Bearing in mind most of the shelves in my house are higher than my head, not to mention my airer in the kitchen.....

Anyway, just have to wait and see now. Need to get an INR done with all the other bloods on Monday, but Di's sent my blood cards out to me already filled in so that's good.

OMG, right, just found out that, get this, WALES ACTUALLY BEAT ENGLAND IN THE SIX NATIONS!!!!!!!

Gwlaaaad, gwlaaaad, pleidol wyf i'm gwlaaaaaaaaaad

Wales beat England, Wales beat England! Yay!! I'd hang my flag out the window if I thought it wouldn't blow away in these howling gales