On 30th May 2018 I ‘rang the bell’ my last chemo was finally over. How did I feel?? Not sure really. I had been going to the hospital for what seemed like a lifetime, had met some lovely people and the nurses were just fantastic. It seemed, sometimes, like a little social club. Strange, I know, but everyone was there with the same disease whether man, woman or boy and we all had to deal with it. So we chatted, drunk tea or coffee, some had lunch and some read the paper. Some were with partners, friends or family for support and it was a very exclusive club. You had to have cancer to be a member!!!
So off we went home after saying goodbye and thanks to the nurses, leaving sweets and biscuits for them. Got home and didn’t feel anything at all really, just another chemo session. You couldn’t really celebrate as there were still the dreaded side effects to deal with for the next couple of weeks and then the radiotherapy sessions so it was over but not quite.
Fast forward a few weeks and the side effects have all but gone and the radiotherapy is finished, now I’m on my own. Back to work and some sort of normality (I hope).
I started back to work on a ‘phased return’ so slowly built my hours up over the coming weeks. Everyone in work was wonderful, keeping an eye on me and making sure I was OK. I have heard from so many people who have said that once the treatment is finished people think you are fine and life is all back to as it was however, my colleagues were not like that at all and seemed, in their own way, to understand that I was not ‘back to normal’ and it would take time. But I’m so, so glad I had their support.
The tiredness is the one main thing that makes you realise what your body has been through. Chemo is a form of poison going into your body at regular intervals over a period of time, it kills the cancer cells but what else does it kill??? It can’t miss everything else so you have to give your body time to recover. Your immune system is at an all time low and it takes time to build that up as well. The chemo also left me with periphial neuropathy. For more information on this, click the link: https://www.macmillan.org.uk/information-and-support/coping/side-effects-and-symptoms/other-side-effects/peripheral-neuropathy.html This was very bad at the beginning and the pain would often wake me up at night, pain shooting up my arm from fingers to underarm. The oncologist did tell me about this side effect and said it could ease, go completely or I could have it permanently. A year later I do still have tingling and numbness in my fingers and toes and my hands often swell up however, the pain in the arm has gone and the symptoms are manageable. The tiredness also takes roughly a year until you are feeling better. Do you ever feel truly back to normal? I don’t think so. Unfortunately all this treatment you have has to leave its mark somewhere along the line.
This was me before treatment and during treatment and then a couple of months after treatment finished with minute hair growth!!!
Before 
During (awful) 
After – without the wig!!
Silverknitter 