My lump in my mouth gotthe all clear on Tuesday night, it’s a benign bone growth and can be removed if it causes any issue in the future. Julia and I come out relieved and now I can focus on her properly.

Wednesday was a scary day the first chemotherapy session - a daunting prospect. Julia slept terribly the night before and so did I. She woke me by crashing round like the rolling waves of a storm. I’d had enough and suggested that we watch something instead of huffing and puffing about not being asleep. So, it’s 4am and we are watching Hebbern, it’s funny, we laugh and then I fall asleep. Julia is not so lucky and wrestles with things for a while longer before sleep claims her.

In the morning we head off for the chemotherapy and it surprises us. It all seems so ordinary, they plug Julia into the machine via her port (it reminds me of the matrix) and after a couple hours of flushing the port, chemotherapy drugs and flushing again we head home.

Thursday

It’s back to hospital for a round of a complimentary drug called Herceptin. It’s a biological therapy that specifically targets the HER2 positive cancer that Julia has. As Julia kept the needle in her port overnight the treatment quickly starts. Once administered we have to hang round for 5 hours to make sure there are no side effects.

Julia passes the time watching day time tv and on the Gin Club photo challenge - sorting out the Gin Club photo albumn into date order. Julia writes an email to my work thanking them for being ace - I’m truly lucky to work for such a great and understanding company. I spend the time baking next to the radiator and escaping into my computer by watching another round of lectures and coding for the course I’m doing.

Just before we leave Julia gets a course in injecting herself with a booster and then graduates by doing it. She’s a gutsy lady my Mrs.

We get home tired, the kids all play up and get a shouting at. Unfortunately, my mum copped a shouting too when she complained about all the noise! Talk about timing!

That evening I head to the pub for a few beers with my Dad and Neil, we talk cancer for a while as I update Neil and answer his questions and then we dive into the normal pub talk - absolute rot and covering all subjects. It’s great to escape for a while and be normal.

Friday

I have a slight headache! Nothing too bad and my parents deliver the kids to school whilst I work. They’ve been great this week and it’s been good to have them on hand. They then head off for the day to see some friends nearby.

Julia looks flushed today and I worry why that might be and she has a slight temperature. She brushes it off and heads for coffee with Ginnies. She still looks flushed when I get home, I take her tempurature and it’s up a little so I’m now watching that. She rests up.

Julia has a chemotherapy book recording her treatment that she has to have on hand at all times. In it there are certain directives about what you should do if you feel ill or have a temperature or aches etc. It’s serious stuff the medicines they give you today are strong and targetted. They stop all cells from splitting and reproducing, leaving your immune system highly vulnerable to infection, so vigulance is required.

We all have pizza for tea and then it’s Imogen’s gymnastics. She does great and impresses granny by being able to do the splits. I drink a coffee and then pay for it later when I can’t sleep. Julia heads to bed early, I take her temperature again and it now is over 37.5C her book says I should call the nurse.

Julia thinks I’m fussing but the nurse says she’ll speak to consultant and comes back to me. As it’s so early on in treatment paracetamol is advised and we’ll review tomorrow morning, if it’s still up they’ll have her in for blood tests.