The schedule I’m on with chemo is more intense than most – generally people  have AC chemo once every 3 weeks, where the drugs stay in their system doing their job for 6 days, then they have 15 days’ recovery before going again. I’m having it every 2 weeks, giving me just 8 days’ recovery before going again. So why am I doing it the hard way?

The doctors build your chemo schedule based on the kind of tumour you have (selecting the drugs that will work best at tackling it*), and your age, health and general fitness (to determine how much your body can take vs recovery time). They think I’m strong enough to recover quickly, so have put me on the 2-week schedule, keeping the 3-week schedule as a fallback if I start to flag.

As a Nike girl, I believe that you’re always stronger than you think you are; you’ve always got strength for one more; you can always run the extra 10 seconds, minute or mile; and given the option of hitting this hard vs giving the cancer time to recover too, I’m pleased they put me on the tougher track! This means that every time I go for blood tests and checks to see if my body’s recovered enough to go again, I always have in the back of my mind that most people haven’t recovered yet, so I shouldn’t kick myself if it’s a “no”. But it also makes it AWESOME to hear them say “yes, we’re good to go!” and I come out pumped and ready to kick cancer’s butt for another round!

Cancer crumbles under the pressure – COME ON!

When I saw the doc yesterday, she also agreed with me that the tumour is changing – I thought it was smaller, but she said it was harder to determine its shape and size, as it appears to be breaking apart. I LOVE THIS! it’s like the cancer is crumbling under the pressure! We’re fighting back! And we’re winning!

I’ve no idea if this is clinically correct, and after the 4th chemo session I’ll have another MRI to get a better like-for-like comparison, and at that point they’ll decide if it’s working or not. But in the meantime, I’m sticking to the “cancer crumbles under the pressure” line as this is a more positive outlook and a far better headline!

So on that note, I’m off to the gym to lift some (very little) weights and get myself pumped to go again on Monday!

#wearewinning
#strongerthancancer
#startstrongfinishstronger

BoxyOut xx