Woweeee this last week has been a big un. I'm squeezed so much into this last week, I think I'll need this week to recover! 🤪
First Zometa, First Treatment Buddy & First Easy Cannulation!
In my one of my other posts I mentioned my Oncologist had started me on a Bisphosphonate called Zoledronic Acid (also known as Zoledronate/Zometa) to help combat the effects of the Hormone Therapy drugs I take on my bones. Well... I had my first treatment on Fri the 7th July and let me tell ya, IT. WAS. BLOODY. ROUGH. 😵💫 Only for 24-26 hours though, so bearable. I was meant to have been doing a colour run on the Saturday and had to cancel and I'm glad I did (my oncologist wasn't impressed when I told her I'd got plans the day after and would have preferred another day- apparently they can't revolve everything around my social life🤷♀️ haha why not?!😅). The other first which I was super duper happy about was that it was the first time I was able to have somebody with me while I had my treatment. This one was only a short one (about 30 mins including the flushes) but I was mega excited (maybe excited isn't the right word 🤦♀️) and got straight on the phone to Ryan once I saw the sign saying you could have someone with you! It's such a big thing having someone there and even thinking about it 💗 (which I'm trying not to too much now or ill be crying again) makes me feel emotional as I had to have all my chemo on my billy tod!
I woke up at 4am, 12 hours after the infusion with the shivers and feeling like all my ribs were snapped. Nothing took it off either, even night nurse which is usually my saviour. The saving grace was that it did start to ease off by Sat tea time and by Sunday morning I was up early and out and about ready for another first...
Soz for the cannula picture but normally I can never be cannulated- at least without it been traumatic, hence why I had a port. Also Ry keeping me company for my little Osteoclast (bone resorbing cell) killer drip.
First Rugby Match 🏉
Luckily the effects of the infusion eased off enough for me to make it to my little boys first rugby match. Both my boys have recently joined our local rugby clubs tots/U6 teams (Up Trinity Tigers!🐯) and have really loved it. Sunday was Oliver's first match after doing just 1 and a bit training sessions (we gatecrashed the first session after joining in on the way home and then ended up joining the club) and I was so proud of my little squidge. He was so hyped and got stuck straight in, carrying on even when he got taken down by a bigger boy on the other team. This is making the Radiographer in me twitch a bit to be honest buuuut looks like I'll have to get over it cos he loves it!
Back to Clinical 🦴
Monday the 11th July was my first day back in clinical! My first few hours back in the hospital as a Student Radiographer after having over a year off 😲 (389 days or 55 weeks and 4 days to be precise!). If you've read some of my previous blogs you'll have seen that I was a bit nervous 😬 because the reality of returning to the course isn't as straightforward as just showing up and x-raying people (unfortunately). I've had to have new occupational health assessments, meetings with both my clinical and academic tutors and the sign off from my Oncologist.
Normally I am a get up and crack on kinda girl but I must admit, I was a little bit apprehensive (my family will probably be like "you didn't shut up about it Kirst!!). It's a big thing to go from been at home, going to the gym and pottering about to been back in a professional environment again with lots of people, millions of computer systems and no safety net of your home comforts. What I mean by that is that although I'm 6 months (ish) down the line from the end of active treatment, other treatments are still ongoing which do come with side effects. For example I did still feel a bit achey and tired from the treatment I'd had the few days before but decided I was OK to go in because if I moved everything around everytime I started a new treatment at the moment I feel like I'd never end up going back and I can't let this take over anymore of my chuffin' life! But if someone saw me sitting down they might interpret me as been a lazy student not someone that had aching bones from all the treatments I've had. This one is going to be a hard one to navigate I think (so if anyone has any advice please message me🙏).
I will be totally honest in saying that my first day back was a little ropey for me and not what I thought it was going to be and it knocked me for six. Whether this is because of the Zoladex (that turns my ovaries off and makes me EMOSH) I'd also had on the Friday or just catching the department on a crazy day, we'll never know. Fear not though, I emailed my clinical tutor, dusted myself off (well more like dried myself off from all the crying) and went back in on Thursday 💪 for another 3 hours which was fab and I really enjoyed myself. It allowed me to gain some confidence back with different x-rays, figure out how the department now works and start fathoming the crazy NHS computer systems out again. I think one thing to bear in mind is that I think it is quite hard for returning students in healthcare degrees because we don't have a set place of work so when returning, there's no single place to go and the staff all move around too so it's not like returning back to the office with people that all work there. None of my classmates were there either so all the students that were there were people I didn't know buuuut hopefully will soon cos I'll be joining 'em for year 2! Part of me thinks I need to toughen up, the other part of the thinks it is hard and I will need to adjust over time. I've not decided which parts right yet - maybe its both?! 🤷♀️😊
I would love to put a pic up of me in my uniform but my university has a really strict social media policy and doesn't allow us to post any pics of us in uniform or on clinical sites.
I am due to do 3 more mornings this week so I shall keep you all updated how I get on! 😁
First Mammogram
Friday marked my first mammogram since my diagnosis. I had one (well 2) on the day I was diagnosed but Friday was my first one since. As I have an implant reconstruction on my left side where I had my mastectomy I will only have mammograms on my right boob. I will now have yearly mammograms until I am 50 and will then join the regular breast screening programme (only 21 years to go!👵). Personally I don't find mammograms too bad pain wise, it's just a squished boob for a couple of seconds while the Radiographer takes an x-ray, shuffle into another position then same again. I have seen a debate on whether the pain some people get is to do with boob size but apparently its just an individual pain tolerance thing and how sensitive your boobs are to the squishing - nothing to do with how much the Radiographers are squishing as the pressure is measured although this may be something I will have to update you on once I spend some time on placement in Mammography which I am due to do in year 2! I'll pop some x-ray images below of the mammogram x-ray machine and the x-rays produced (it wouldn't be one of my blogs without something a bit sciencey 🤓) so you can see the pretty pictures they produce.
The image on the left is called a Medio-Lateral Oblique (MLO) view and is the 'side to side' view whereas the image on the right is called a Cranio-Caudal view and is the 'top to bottom' view. In Radiography we always try get 2 x-rays at 90 degrees to each other! In the middle you can see the machine that squished my boob - boob goes on the black shelf and they pop different sized paddles above to flatten it out.
I hope I've not tired you all out reading that because there is a lot!
Have a lovely week and please let me know if you have any tips for navigating work/clinical after a long period of time away 😊
Hope you're not melting in this ridiculous heat! 🥵
Kirst x
References & Useful Info
Mammography Images - https://radiopaedia.org/?lang=gb (of course!)