but cancer’s still a c@#!
Had my radiotherapy marking, scan, Dr appointment and billing information session on Friday.
Cost $15509 and don’t forget the 10 cents
My Gap $1000. Don’t say the Australian Government doesn’t do anything for u or ur taxes are wasted. I would have to say if I add up both cancer’s my costs covered by Medicare would equal approximately $300,000. My bug bear is with private health insurance but that’s for another post.
So my cute Radiotherapy Oncologist explained there was evidence of cancer cells in the lymph node they removed but as with the breast tissue the chemo eradicated all cancer cells. Common response for HER2 diagnosed breast cancers. Because the chemo did such a good job I only need 5 weeks if radiotherapy rather than 6. Why do I still need radiotherapy at all? I hear u ask…..because my tumour was over 5 cm and a lymph node was involved. It just reduces the risk of reoccurrence to about 1% as opposed to 5% without it. At my age you overtreat rather than undertreat, apparently I’ve got a lot more living to do.
I had my radiotherapy markings tattooed and that fucking hurt so any thought of getting a celebratory tattoo when all is done has gone out the window. Even re thinking nipple tats but then again that will all be numb.
Radiotherapy starts on 20th March and I’ll be finished 3 days prior to my birthday! 5 days a week excluding weekends & public holidays. I will see the cute Dr weekly.
Hercepton will continue every 3rd week until October.
Wounds are feeling better, every day I get a little more movement and I’ve been told I can swim again. Even my tooth is not as sore! Things are looking up.
Happy days xx
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Published by Debra Mesecke
I was 21 and I was planning a wedding, buying a house and had a job interview for the job of my dreams on my 22nd birthday. You see I was being made redundant and had to find a new job by August. Especially with the new mortgage now. It was April. I worked for CML and my new job was a done deal. All I needed was a medical. And with that, just like that....my life was turned upside down and I was diagnosed with CML, ha ha, I know the irony. My hematologist had a laugh at that too. I had Chronic Myeloid Leukeamia, which was normally reserved for 70 year old men. Quite rare for a young adult to get, so how would they treat it? I underwent two separate trials until finally it was decided my best chance of survival (all be it only 50% chance), would be a MUD BMT (matched unrelated bone marrow transplant), now known as VUD Allograt (volunteer unrelated donor). I was told 21 years ago the chance of finding a match was 1 in 20,000 (and that is everyone was on the bone marrow donor registry). Scary odds. So being the risk taker I am I said "go for it". They found a match and that was my first miracle in this journey. The second miracle was, it worked - new blood type, two different DNA profiles and the miracle of medicine was reborn inside me. The third miracle is my son.
25 years on, I now face a new challenge. Breast Cancer. Certainly not the first person to have cancer, to have invasive ductile cancer, hormone receptive and HER2 +, or to even have a dual diagnosis. But this is not another Webiste about a cancer survivor, this is just my excuse to finally publicly write. Along the way I am hoping I can share some insights I have learnt over the years and at the same time, give you a good belly laugh.
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