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#20 – Speed Bumps

31st May 2019 – I woke up bright and early for my PET scan today and realised I was so much calmer this time around. I even got dropped off and went by myself #Adulting. It all went well and I was looking forward to getting some great results in a few days! No Scanxiety in sight – except maybe for mum! After a quick pit stop at home to pack, we were off to the airport to fly to Sydney for our besties wedding. We had Qantas lounge passes so I stocked up on food (and a toothbrush!) since I’d been fasting before the PET scan. We had the most beautiful views of Sydney on the way in to land. Our flight was delayed which meant we got stuck in all the annoying Sydney traffic but that didn’t matter once I got a hug from Kristy 💕

1st June 2019 – Kristy & Sam’s second attempt at a wedding was lovely! It was a beautiful spot, the rain held off and we felt very privileged to be witnesses for them. I’m so lucky that I can call Kristy’s family my family as well. It was a fantastic weekend with everyone and was full of games, cheese platters, an endless supply of prawns and oysters and a few celebratory glasses of champagne 🥂 I decided to stop using cortisone cream on my rash and it’s started to clear – which is great, but annoying that the cream had obviously been spreading the rash. I also started using my new hair treatment today. It’s a leave in spray that helps to boost hair growth and help soothe my dry scalp. Hopefully it works quickly!

4th June 2019 – I woke up a little fuzzy today and am going to put it down to the fact that I had 10 drops last night 🤯 I slept really well too but that could have been because I went for a big walk with Kristy & Moose yesterday and got over 10,000 steps! Today I went in to Peter Mac to get a port inserted. It all went really well and now I’ve just got to get used to it. For those of you that don’t know, a port has the same function as a PICC but instead of sticking out of my arm, it’s actually in my chest under my skin. So once the scar heals then that’s all you’ll see of it. Well, that and a tiny bit of a lump. My nurse today introduced himself as my ‘drug dealer’ which I thought was pretty accurate! I also had clinic today but my oncologist was away so I had a different doctor. It was a bit annoying as I got my PET scan results and was interested to see what my oncologist had to say about it. In the end it didn’t matter which doctor I spoke to, I was just very happy to get great results! My scan is showing even less tumors (on the coloured version this means less green and definitely no red!) and my markers are down to 11.8!!

5th June 2019 – I slept really well but woke up quite sore and bruised from my port. I even started taking THC earlier than usual today to help with the pain. It’s chemo day so I was stocking up with a big brekkie. This time Elyse was my brekkie date and Anthony was our chef. We even had some sparkling apple juice in champagne glasses to celebrate chemo #9! On the way to Peter Mac I kept saying to Anthony that I was scared it was going to hurt when they accessed my port for the first time. And I was right. The nurse barely touched around my port and I basically jumped out of my chair. It was way too painful for him to even think about accessing my port! The decision was made to postpone my chemo to next Monday which should give me enough time for my port swelling and bruising to go down. It’s really frustrating to have another ‘speed bump’ appear and delay chemo. I wish I could have pushed through the pain but I really couldn’t. At the hospital I was put in a room with a cute old couple. The poor lady had cancer and had just started chemo and the husband had cancer too but his treatment was on hold while his wife has her treatment. So sad 😢 But so beautiful to see them so in love after so long together! Another bonus for me today: a new rash started on my chest around my port. Seriously?! Clearly my body just does not like having anything added to it because every time I have a PICC or Port put in, a rash appears. Luckily though, this time I worked out what’s caused the rash. It’s a reaction to the orange dye they use when cleaning my skin before a procedure. At least I know for next time and can hopefully avoid any more rashes!