I need to have 18 treatments in total, so I won’t be finished until early January. The side effects are minimal, although they do leave me fatigued. No where near Chemo-fatigued, but tired.

Last time I saw the surgeon, he suggested going to see the Plastic Surgeon to discuss my reconstruction options and timeframe.

The good news is the operation can be done, the bad news is I have to wait until 6 months after radiotherapy has finished to give the skin a chance to recover. I’ve been lucky with my skins reaction to radiotherapy, and apart from a square of slightly darker pigmentation, there are no outward signs of it. So, this takes us to the end of December. Obviously I won’t want to have such a big operation at Christmas time, so it can wait until the new year.

Another consideration is Herceptin. Studies have shown that whilst it is very effective in treating the HER+ type of cancer I have, it can cause cardiac problems. A general anaesthetic puts quite a lot of stress on the body, so that coupled with a potential reduction in heart function also needs to be taken into account. I have regular heart scans to check everything is working as it should and so far there haven’t been any issues. Taking all this into account, I might as well wait until I’ve finished the Herceptin before I have the reconstruction operation. So that’ll be January. I had hoped that I would be finished by then, but sadly not.

So, I’ll keep on, keeping on.