February already?

Hi all,

Thanks to all of you who have been checking up on me. I'm fine. Thought I should update you all on what I'm up to because I can't always remember who I have spoken to and who I haven't.

So medical stuff first....

I had my second Chemo this week and this one didn't quite go as expected. The nurse "Debbie" said to me that having had no reaction to the first treatment my chances of a reaction had reduced but there was still a chance that I may have a reaction to the Chemo. As is generally the case I dismissed this and thought yeh yeh...had lots of drugs so am sure I will be fine.

About 3 minutes into my infusion I felt a real tightening round my chest like someone sitting on me, and went really hot (and apparenntly bright red). Having been told this might happen I called Debbie over and was quite suprised with her response. She and the other nurse stopped everything they were doing for everyone else, took all my drips out, called the doctor, brought one of those resus kits things just to make sure I was all right. Luckily as soon as they took the drip out I felt ok, despite being a bit embarrassed with everyone looking at me.

The Dr came to check on me every 5 - 10 mins so I was a bit suprised by the whole thing. They said to me that some people do have a reaction (and I did see someone doing the same last month) so I was ok and they asked me if I wanted to carry on or not. Now having a busy diary and lots planned I was quite keen to have another go which suprised them, so after a break we did it all again and this time I was fine. It wasn't until I was talking to Debbie later that I found out that most people tend not to go again straight away so they were pleased I had tried it and come out of the experience well.

Now when I started the whole Chemo thing I was given a bit list of things I might get or feel and luckily last month didn't experience any of these, so I was expecting to get some this month. To date I am feeling fine which is good. That said there are some things that you can't avoid......the main one being my hair. Having grown my hair to about an inch long it is now all falling out again, now this doesn't bother me at all cos I have and enjoy wearing my wig but I am a bit nervous about losing my eye brows, eye lashes etc. Now so far so good in that I don't have much head hair left but still have hair on my face (you don't realise how attached you can get to eyebrows), the surprise for me though was that I would lose hair from elsewhere on my body...wont go into detail but lets just say I have to clean out the bath after my splish splash. Ha Ha

So all in all I am fine, treatment continues and I feel well, occasionally get headache and feel a bit groggy and tired but I am able to function the same as always. So with this in mind we have lots planned....

So far on the list of things we have to do are a holiday "back down south" where I will get to see some of you, holiday to Centre Parks, Barge Trip, Alton Towers and in between all this we are going to be doing some more work on the house with the kids bedrooms and new doors and windows for the house. So as you can see life in the Sargent household isn't quiet and we have things planned for most weekends...that said anytime you want to see us please say, it will be great to catch up.

Anyway being on steroids makes me eat constantly so need to go get some food so will wish you all a good weekend and speak to you soon.

Best Wishes

Toni