What's next?

[Guest guest]

Well, I've had my diagnosis in May '05 (OMG!); chemo until April '06

(nasty); mastectomy in May '06 (no problem); a little rest, then

radiotherapy in July '06 (easy). And I'm now on Arimidex (joint pain, but

OK), for the next 5 years probably.

Last week my oncologist started me on Xeloda - chemo tablets, which I take

twice a day for 14 days, then 7 days off - for 6 months. I haven't had any

side effects yet - has anyone else felt any effects? I find it weird, after

11 months of letting a nurse feed poison into my veins once every 21 days,

to now have to swallow the stuff every day! But this is a very clever drug:

it goes in your stomach and gets changed there, it goes in your liver and

gets changed again there, and then it goes in your bloodstream ... now if it

meets a cancer cell it uses an enzyme on that cell to change itself into the

chemo drug and kill the cell! Magic!

After my visit to the onc, he got me a CT scan, which shows a spot on my

liver. This spot was there last May when the BC was first diagnosed, and

they thought it was a haemangioma (benign tumour), but on this latest scan

it's still there and may be bigger. And may be cancer. So now I have to

have an MRI scan (on Sep. 19th), and the professor who runs that will decide

what he thinks it is and recommend treatment.

Just one durn thing after another ... every time I think it's over, there's

something else crops up - I felt a bit weepy this time, but I'm OK again

now.

Thanks for reading.

Hugs,

Margery.

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margery@... in North Herts, UK

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