Halfway :) and with snow!

 6 weeks post chemo

I finished 26 weeks of chemo (4 AC and 12 Taxol) 6 weeks ago. I am surprised by residual taste disturbance. My fingernails are growing back but halfway along they have lifted off the nail bed so I'm hoping they stay safe until they've grown back properly. My body hair is returning, my eyebrows are nearly there and I have about 3/4cm length of hair on my head. I look disturbingly like my father did in late middle age with bags under my eyes. Oh yes, I have dark bruise like colouration  at the inner edges of my eyes that weren't there before chemo. Makeup is helpful. I am 80.4kg, up from 75kg and not all of this is fluid retention. I am an emotional eater with a bland disregard for portion control. Right now, I've done something stupid to my foot so 6km walks are out of the question for a couple of days. I write these here so I can look back in 12 months time.

4 weeks post mastectomy and tissue expander

I got out of the shower this morning and dried myself carefully and was delighted to see the outlines of my tissue expander at last. I had thought it was quite a different shape due to the seroma and bruising but now the seroma seems to have been sucked dry. Yay! I'm left with some odd skin puckering where it was which will obviously settle eventually. It was a great pick-me-up.

Physio

I've been going to my physio weekly for lymphatic drainage and to massage the pectoral muscle and she's given me an excellent exercise pulling the shoulder blades to the centre of my back without lifting my shoulders to keep the shoulder blade moving freely and helping the super tight trapezoids running from shoulder to neck to relax more. This is preventing the quite wicked nerve pain that flares occasionally when I reach and rotate my hand to pick something up. There is a little way to go, but I'm starting to feel confident again that I'll be physically OK.

Radiotherapy

There was going to be difficulty getting my tissue expander filled and fitting in with radiotherapy. I did have 300mls put in during surgery, 2 weeks post surgery was too soon to have any more, and the following week was my planning session. I start radiotherapy next week.