Week Commencing 28 June 2021 - The Last Chemo!!

Monday

Monday's mean only one thing... my beautiful friend Gina comes to visit and I so look forward to our visit.. as we have a good chat about past and present, put the world to right.. we can confess our mistakes in life and our achievements too..

Talking of achievements, I still cant get out of my head that Gina did 36,000 steps in a day... I just manage to do 2,000!!! but cannot wait until this is all over so that we can walk together.. I need to get fit again and lose this weight eventually, with eating what you want when you feel well enough, (including bags of jelly tots that my mom sneaks in of a weekend) steroids and not being able to do any exercise because your knackered, takes its toll on your body over 9 months..

Anyway Gina, you brighten my day, you make me forget what's ahead the next day... but this week you said something that really hit home.. I beat myself up on what I am not able to do, because of what the chemo is doing to my body.. but you were right, I may have been in bed the past 2 weekends very poorly, but after that I have still taken Pixie to the childminder and picked her up. Cooked for the family, cleaned where I can in the house, a spot of gardening., and I'm out of bed, trying to do what I can, you made me feel proud and Phil re iterated this on the evening too..so thank you, your words meant the world. I love you dearly, and look forward to seeing you soon. Always Jo xxxxx

Tuesday 29 June 2021

Today was my last chemo, hurray!!!

I travelled to Burton, obviously not for the last time as I will have other appointments, but my last drive for chemo and this is such a relief.

I waited in the waiting room to be taken in, and chatted to a lovely gentleman called Peter, who shared his ailments and wondered what I was doing with my full head of hair.. I told him that I was as bald as him.. and it made him laugh, as he thought it was my own hair, and was quite shocked!

I eventually went into the chemo room at 1.50pm, so quite late today, I thought they had forgot about me at one time, but was quite happy chatting away in the waiting room.

Sue administered my chemo today, I double checked that I was only having the 80%.. and it was correct, which made me happy, we went through the normal checks and also my medication which is a lot less now, as its not needed, but she did give me my Anastrozole which is my oestrogen blocker pills that I need to start on the day of my radiotherapy, (this is my medication that I will take for the next 5 years) I'm sure I'm going to be fun to live with when I start taking those too.

I was also given my box of Filgristam injections, which I didn't want to bring home and I start those as normal on Thursday.. Good luck with these last ones Phil..

I took with me today some chocolate and cards for the ward staff and a little extra gift for Angi, who I just blooming love.. lots of giggles and always smiling, and I just felt I bonded from the first time she administered my chemo.

I also took Sara some flowers and a card, who I met on chemo 4, but missed her so that was sad, but we have promised to catch up when were both well, so I cant wait for that, Sara sent me some pictures of her new scarves from the company that I bought mine from, and a picture of her in a Gucci scarf that her cousin bought too.. omg.. I'm so jealous Sara its beautiful and looks so comfy.

I left the Hospital and made my way to the car park, honestly this walk kills me at this moment in time, I have to stop on the way and catch my breath as I am totally exhausted, when I actually get to my car the relief is unreal.

This is when I thought I would make the video above just to say thank you.. and chemo is over, excuse the little breakdown at the end, but the relief of it being over I cannot describe, only someone that has gone through chemo with ever relate to the effect that this has on your body, its one of the worst things to go through, but you know you have to have it for the end results, and if you are ever offered chemo then you should take it... it will hopefully extend your life.

As I say in my video, I cannot thank Burton Hospital enough, they have all been amazing from the staff in Phlebotomy, The Receptionist in Reception A, (who I think sleeps there) and all of the staff in the chemo room, The doctors Mel & Lauren and obviously my consultant Dr Persic, who is approachable, informative and has done an amazing job, I will be forever grateful to you all.

I also wanted to share this amazing news.. my fundraising page reached £2060!!

The beginning of last week my brother Ian donated £58 to take me over the threshold of my £2K target which was so lovely of him, and then friends have added onto that in the past few days.

I am so thankful to every one of you that have donated and now have the details from the staff so that I can pay this in when my treatment has finally finished! I am donating to The Burton Cancer Patient Fund.

Some of you will know that originally I was donating to the Breast Care Unit at Burton, but during this journey it has made me realise that the donations need to go to Burton as a whole.. as I have had the best care from the Emergency Department Staff, The Chemo Ward, The Phlebotomy staff and obviously in the beginning the Breast Unit, which I'm sure I will be visiting again very soon for other check ups.

So just again, a huge, huge thank you to each and everyone of you.. keep sharing if you can on your Facebook or Instagram pages, you never know what we could reach with the powers of social media before my treatment is over.. GoFundMeJoanneOrton

Thanks again for taking the time to read my blog, and love to receive your comments, so please feel free to write to say you have read..

Take care all,

Love Always