The plan of attack!

Had my pre-chemo assessment today; this consisted of a 20 minute video on what to kind of expect, filling in a few details such as medications - interestingly I have been advised not to take vitamins as these can affect the absorption of the chemo, had bloods taken and they also chose a vein for my PICC line to be inserted.

Having a PICC line seems a scary concept but it means I will not need to be jabbed every time I need bloods, chemo or antibiotics etc, it will be left in till the end of my treatment. The PICC line goes in my bicep into a vein and the tip sits in the large vein near my heart. It also means I'm less likely to have any problems with it being in the wrong place and my veins won't be as ruined. Oh, and they've given little miss whimp here some magic cream to apply beforehand! Whoop!

The proposed plan of action attack is as follows (this may change depending on how my body responds):

• Insertion of Picc line in just over a week.
• Commence chemo the day after - I am having the FEC regime which is three different anti-cancer (cytotoxic) drugs given via my PICC line. This regime title sounds perfect to me, abusive towards the cancer in a way! Every little helps eh.
• 6 cycles of this, 3 weeks between each.
• Lumpectomy (cutting the lump out) at some point after my chemo.
• Radiotherapy.
• 5 years at least of hormone therapy as the lump feeds off my hormones.

So that's basically how I'm thinking the next 5 years of my life will plan out.

All the nasty side effects have been discussed, I'm not going to think about those until I've started treatment. The thought of no immune system is daunting. The hair loss is also a definite, today I've been told this will be in week 2-3 after my first chemo. For a while now I've been thinking about the best way to deal with this. I need to feel some form of control over everything so have decided I am shaving it off. I don't want to wake up with it on my pillow. There are some charity's that will take my hair to be made into wigs, I have found one that makes wig's for children so I'm leaning towards that as I'm a paediatric nurse. I also intend to make it into a fundraising event to split between two charities, I think I have already decided on these. I've had a quick discussion with a local pub who should hopefully let me do it there and my fabulous hairdresser has agreed to let me have a few drinks and she'll sort my hair out. Organising this will be my focus for getting through the next week I feel.

On a positive note, we won the quiz again last night!! About time some luck came my way.

As for the weekend, a lunch date with the boyfriend, best friend and my goddaughter followed by a celebration of my sister's birthday in the pub should help me keep some normality while I have the chance and keep me smiling.