Round 2

Whack it, crack it, zap it & restack it.  Too technical for you? OK, in laymen terms…. I need the trifecta, chemo then mastectomy & radiotherapy. And because I’m a drama queen I will also receive hormone treatment as I have hormone responsive breast cancer (still getting my head around this piece as this is the one thing I don’t have experience in). On the whole approximately 12 months of treatment….chemo for 6 months (once every 3 weeks) with 4-6 weeks recovery (on a cruise ship with some bfs) then surgery (yay, boobs on cruise), followed by daily radiotherapy for a month and continued hormone treatment (hercepton), (all intravenous) & finally a course of daily oral tamoxifen for 5-10 years! I love it when a plan comes together.

On the up side, no sign of secondaries and tumor sitting well away from the chest wall.  Official diagnosis  or previous said unknown opponent is Grade 2 Invasive Ductal Breast Cancer. Inconclusive lymph node invasion which they can’t confirm till surgery, which is why chemo is first. To catch any little run away malignant cells they maybe can’t see. Only real risk is to my heart with all the previous and future planned chemo. The TBI (total body irradiation ) from my previous MUD (matched unrelated donor) BMT (bone marrow transplant) what they now call a VUD (volunteer unrelated donor) Allograft (meaning from other graft=transplant) is likely to have caused this cancer. I am HER2 Positive.
What’s next. The oncologist will check my history with the heomotologist team at RAH, coordinate a heart function test & arrange for my central line procedure then get me started on chemo ASAP (within the next 2 weeks).
This opponent is no Creed/Clubber or Drago.  More like Tommy Gun (a common cancer), a wanna be Rocky who gets close to the champ only to use and abuse him (Rocky V). This isn’t even worthy of a ring fight. This is a knock down street fight, no holds barred KO. Winner takes all. Ding ding. Xx