So 2008 comes to an end and I take a deep breath and wait to see what life throws at me in 2009. Okay cancer is one battle,chemo a totally different battle but a brain haemmorage for goodness sake, because that is exactly what happened next, is a completely different kettle of fish.
January 17th started like any normal day. Went shopping,cooked dinner,watched some tv and went to bed about 11pm and that is when the headache from hell 'landed' 'erupted' one minute I was fine the next I was literally holding my head up to go to the bathroom. Standing at the sink I remember wondering why my left leg was shaking . . . . and then I was sitting sideways in the bath, legs hanging over the side being violently sick!
I felt too weak to try and scramble out of the bath and my voice what voice,couldnt seem to shout and despite hubby being asleep in the next room he carried on snoring. Lets face it ladies a lot of our other halves would sleep through the ceiling falling down! Rachael was the only other person in the house and her bedroom was downstairs. This is where our scary (not,unless you are another dog) staf Daisy came into play barking non stop until Rach got up and came to my rescue again. Funny that I didnt want the damn dog as we had cats but thats another story.
Okay having been helped out of the bath Rachael decided to phone an ambulance, we werent sure if this was just a delayed reaction to chemo, but I hadnt had any for 3 months or maybe the neutropenia hadnt quite sorted itself. Fast response medic arrived and everything seemed spot on,temperatue normal,blood pressure ok so what was going on. He asked if I wanted to go and see a doctor at hosp and I thought perhaps I should. Had I not gone to the hosp, laid down and gone to sleep who knows.
I can remember talking to the ambulance crew, nurse at the hosp and then I woke up in a hosp bed a drain in my back,wires and tubes everywhere. Imagine my suprise to find it was friday evening, nearly a whole day lost. Lots had happened none of which I can remember including having coils fitted to stop the bleed.I had suffered a subarachnoid haemorrage. 33% of people dont make it,33% have lasting damage such as memory loss and 33% walk away virtually unscathed. Luck on my side again? I just know I had once again faced my own mortality.
The rest of the year passed fairly uneventfully apart from the birth of grandson number three. I wasnt allowed to drive for 6 long and frustrating months, a small price to pay. Incidentally I will introduce you to the rest of the family in another edition!!
Oh hell here comes 2010 and this time I face it head held high, not literally like a year ago! I had to be ready for anything life had ready for me. Come on then I shouted come and get me Im ready. Oh buggar it did a scan in April showed a new lesion on my right lung. After the usual appointments my lung consultant decided I was a good candidate for RFA(Radio Frequency Ablation) in his words lets fry this one out . . nice!.So in June, the same week as previous hospital ventures,I was in and out of hosp in three days how amazing and hardly any recovery time. The only downside I dont like about RFA is there isnt any sample for histology but would still recommend to anyone. Oh and also became nan to two more grandsons this year.
Are you bored yet because here comes 2011, last year and you guessed it scan showed another lesion in right lung. RFA? No to near the edge of lung so in August another thoracotomy, not going to go over all the ins and outs just that they had to reopen the old scar and yes it bloody hurt!! Histology came back . .malignant.My oncologist wanted to start chemo again but a PET scan had shown hot spots between right lung and ribs. Eventually after much toing and froing my consultant decided to 'get in there and have a look' and 4 days before Christmas he did just that opening the same scar which he had so carefully patched up four months earlier. Finding nothing strange wahoo! However this ment I had missed the six week window for chemo oh dear thats a shame!!
So there we are. Its now 2012 and two clear scans and a clear colonoscopy so far. Just waiting for scan results again. Question is can I actually have a surgery free year??
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