In my 20s, I would have spent most of New Year’s Day in bed because I didn’t go to bed until the Day was well under way. A little later, a hangover might have kept me in bed all day. Then with the advent of kids, no days could be spent in bed, least of all New Year’s. Now I’m 50, New Year’s Day has been spent largely in bed dealing with cancer treatment side effects.
Yes, the Tamoxifen has kicked in, keeping the cancer from returning but bringing with it headaches, dizziness, all-over aching, that pukey feeling, and chain-yawning tiredness. I couldn’t help but crawl under the duvet after lunch and stay there until dinner.
Since my last post, I have received three letters from the hospital (by ‘the hospital’, I now mean Bart’s rather than the Homerton, as my care has transferred post-surgery). The first told me that my appointment with the radiotherapy team is on Friday 27 January. Oh, I thought, I expected it would be sooner than that. Not sure what to make of that, but my impatient patient syndrome is getting jumpy. I’m choosing to believe that the 4-week wait is because they have no grounds for urgency and not because of lack of resources.
Then I got another two inviting me to appointments with the oncologist on Thursday 6 and Monday 16 January. It’s not that I had been expecting these earlier or later – I hadn’t been expecting them at all. Another, and slightly longer and more puzzled, Hmmm. Perhaps something has come up on my blood tests.
I’m glad, though – if these side-effects continue, then a session with the onco is just what the doctor ordered.
