29/07/14
Dear friends,
Just a brief update to let you know radiotherapy has been delayed as I found another breast lump that needs to be investigated. It is almost certainly benign but still needs to be investigated before I start radiotherapy. So that's happening tomorrow. I will update after that.
Love Jill
Monday 28 July 2014
Monday 21 July 2014
Preparing for radiotherapy
21/07/14
Dear friends,
I had my radiotherapy planning session last Wednesday. This involved a scan and getting 5 tattoos-never imagined I would get a tattoo let alone 5! Mind you they are so small you can hardly see them.
The first dose of radiotherapy is scheduled for Wednesday, then each day apart from weekends, for 4 weeks.
The night sweats have started but so far not severe or disabling, just waking me up. Otherwise I'm feeling well.
Love Jill
Dear friends,
I had my radiotherapy planning session last Wednesday. This involved a scan and getting 5 tattoos-never imagined I would get a tattoo let alone 5! Mind you they are so small you can hardly see them.
The first dose of radiotherapy is scheduled for Wednesday, then each day apart from weekends, for 4 weeks.
The night sweats have started but so far not severe or disabling, just waking me up. Otherwise I'm feeling well.
Love Jill
Tuesday 15 July 2014
Negative for mutation!
15/7/14
Dear friends,
We visited the geneticist on Friday as the results had come back. The result was that I do not have the mutation on the either of the Braca genes which is good news for me & my family in terms of future risk of breast & certain other cancers. There is still a moderately increased risk of breast cancer because of the family history but not the high risk of both breast and ovarian cancer that the mutation would have given. Hurray! This means I don't have the difficult decision of whether to have further surgery which would have been a double mastectomy.
It was a blessing to get the result so quickly and it meant I didn't have to change my appointment with the oncologist which was yesterday. Now that the genetic test was out of the way we could plan for the radiotherapy. It was good to see Fran again - she is a wonderful lady. We talked menopausal symptoms with a few jokes thrown in, got the referral to the radiation oncologist & I gave her a copy of Dave's book 'hope beyond cure' that I have mentioned previously, suggesting some of her patients might find it quite helpful. We then got on to talking about a project she is going to be involved in with medical students helping/training them to ask patients about whether they have a spiritual dimension to their life and how that is impacting/being impacted by their illness. She asked if I would be interested in being involved, which I certainly am if she thinks I could be helpful.
I then managed to get in to see the radiation oncologist yesterday afternoon. The treatment will be 5days a week for 4weeks starting in the next week or two. I go tomorrow for the planning session.
I then saw the physiotherapist today who specialises in lymphoedema to have some baseline testing done - no sign of lymphoedema yet thankfully. My arm is still quite stiff with some 'cording' which is quite common after an axillary dissection so she gave me some exercises I need to do 3x per day.
Well that's about it for now - it really is quite a process but I'm getting there!
Phil & I had 2 days away on the central coast last week - some wonderful friends have a house which was free for the 2 days it was possible for us to get away. It was great to finally get some time out and it was very refreshing, even if it was only 2 days!
Love Jill
Dear friends,
We visited the geneticist on Friday as the results had come back. The result was that I do not have the mutation on the either of the Braca genes which is good news for me & my family in terms of future risk of breast & certain other cancers. There is still a moderately increased risk of breast cancer because of the family history but not the high risk of both breast and ovarian cancer that the mutation would have given. Hurray! This means I don't have the difficult decision of whether to have further surgery which would have been a double mastectomy.
It was a blessing to get the result so quickly and it meant I didn't have to change my appointment with the oncologist which was yesterday. Now that the genetic test was out of the way we could plan for the radiotherapy. It was good to see Fran again - she is a wonderful lady. We talked menopausal symptoms with a few jokes thrown in, got the referral to the radiation oncologist & I gave her a copy of Dave's book 'hope beyond cure' that I have mentioned previously, suggesting some of her patients might find it quite helpful. We then got on to talking about a project she is going to be involved in with medical students helping/training them to ask patients about whether they have a spiritual dimension to their life and how that is impacting/being impacted by their illness. She asked if I would be interested in being involved, which I certainly am if she thinks I could be helpful.
I then managed to get in to see the radiation oncologist yesterday afternoon. The treatment will be 5days a week for 4weeks starting in the next week or two. I go tomorrow for the planning session.
I then saw the physiotherapist today who specialises in lymphoedema to have some baseline testing done - no sign of lymphoedema yet thankfully. My arm is still quite stiff with some 'cording' which is quite common after an axillary dissection so she gave me some exercises I need to do 3x per day.
Well that's about it for now - it really is quite a process but I'm getting there!
Phil & I had 2 days away on the central coast last week - some wonderful friends have a house which was free for the 2 days it was possible for us to get away. It was great to finally get some time out and it was very refreshing, even if it was only 2 days!
Love Jill
Monday 7 July 2014
Recovery continues
7/7/14
Dear friends,
Recovery continues and in myself I feel back to normal apart from my L arm which has a way to go. I did manage to start back at the pool doing my laps twice last week which felt good. Tried not to overdo it - only did half of what I normally do and no freestyle yet so not very taxing aerobically!
No sign of menopausal symptoms yet - likely to come in the next month or so. The other hormonal treatment which I am due to start soon can cause osteoporosis so I had my bone mineral density done. Thankfully it came back above average even compared to a 30 year old (T scores of 1.4 (lumbar) & 0.3 (hip) for those who know what the numbers mean!) It will be important for me to do some weight-bearing exercise each day - finally the dog might get a walk each day!
Still awaiting the genetic test results - will let you know the results once we know.
Thankfully Mady's 18th went well - it was great having Sam down from Townsville & 2 of his army mates as our bouncers, and some lovely friends came to help us serve the food and keep an eye on proceedings but generally everyone behaved themselves which was a relief.
For those of you who have tried to reply to the blog online but have not been able to - apparently you need a gmail account to do so. Thank you for your emails & texts of support & encouragement.
Love Jill
Dear friends,
Recovery continues and in myself I feel back to normal apart from my L arm which has a way to go. I did manage to start back at the pool doing my laps twice last week which felt good. Tried not to overdo it - only did half of what I normally do and no freestyle yet so not very taxing aerobically!
No sign of menopausal symptoms yet - likely to come in the next month or so. The other hormonal treatment which I am due to start soon can cause osteoporosis so I had my bone mineral density done. Thankfully it came back above average even compared to a 30 year old (T scores of 1.4 (lumbar) & 0.3 (hip) for those who know what the numbers mean!) It will be important for me to do some weight-bearing exercise each day - finally the dog might get a walk each day!
Still awaiting the genetic test results - will let you know the results once we know.
Thankfully Mady's 18th went well - it was great having Sam down from Townsville & 2 of his army mates as our bouncers, and some lovely friends came to help us serve the food and keep an eye on proceedings but generally everyone behaved themselves which was a relief.
For those of you who have tried to reply to the blog online but have not been able to - apparently you need a gmail account to do so. Thank you for your emails & texts of support & encouragement.
Love Jill
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