Before you start your chemotherapy treatment plan you meet with your oncologist for what is called ‘Chemo Teaching’. This is an hour-long session of going through in minute detail every single drug that will be administered to your poor unsuspecting body and what the possible (or probable) side effects might be. Bret and I were handed a print out of the world’s most depressing drugstore shopping list that basically included every item under the sun that might help diminish any nasty side effects. In my classically optimistic and hopeful nature I wasn’t overly worried about this sheet of doom. I continued to make stupid cancer jokes with Bret in the aisles of CVS and earnestly complained about spending $250 on drugs I wouldn’t need. I had made up my mind that only old people get sick from chemo and that for my young and resilient body this would be a breeze. Everyone, I was so utterly and hilariously wrong about this! I feel like I have taken home the jackpot for winning Chemo Bingo! Every single one of my side effect numbers has been called and I’m not happy about it!

The actual chemo day itself went very well. I had been most anxious about having my port accessed and about the possibility of having immediate allergic reactions to the chemo drugs. I’m pleased to say that although it was sore, having the port accessed was manageable, and that I had nothing in the way of allergic reactions at all. I was very anxious when I arrived, and after checking my skyrocketing pulse the nurses gave me a pretty large dose of pre-meds that really calmed me down, and so I slept through a large part of having the drugs administered. Round one chemo day is quite gruelling, as the drugs are given to you at a slower rate to minimise reactions, and so we were there from 8am to 4pm. Also factor in that with every 25 minutes that passed I was having a frozen cap replaced on my scalp and you’ll get a good idea of the level of fun I was having. The incredible thing is that this chemotherapy regiment works so well for my type of cancer, I could actually feel it working as it was being administered! And now that it’s almost a week later, the tumour (which had been about the size of a date) has shrunk away to next to nothing. In less than a week. After one round of chemo. I am trying to keep that in mind when I feel down about the side effects I’m getting. And as one of my lovely friends said to me, for me the chemo’s effects are temporary but for the tumour they are permanent!

Here’s a fun picture of me looking naive about the world of shit that’s about to come crushing down on my head:

(Side note… did you know that chemo can cause sores inside your mouth? I did not know that and I could very happily have lived the rest of my life without ever finding that out!)

In other news it has been almost two weeks since I had my egg retrieval… not quite sure where that time went! I had meant to update the blog ages ago, but I think having the port placement and the egg retrieval all within 72 hours may have been a bit much and it took a good while for me to bounce back. I really did find the first couple of days after the port placement incredibly painful. I am not at all sure what they were on about when they told me I’d experience mild discomfort… they have literally sewn a Tamagotchi sized piece of plastic under my chest and attached it with tubing to my jugular and to my heart. Personally I think it was a touch more than mild discomfort but the good news is that it’s now almost completely healed and most of the time I forget it’s there.

The fantastic Christmassy news is that the egg retrieval went VERY well! When my fertility Doctor called to give me the results the day after he actually sounded amazed. They were able to retrieve 33 eggs, with 24 of them being mature, so that is a real weight off of mine and Bret’s minds to have that as a back up plan. I genuinely don’t think my Doctor was expecting such good results due to the fact that I was having the estrogen suppressant, so it was smiles all round on the egg collection front. As my dear family keeps pointing out to me, Bret and I can rustle up a full football team if we so desire!

Bret and I had a very quiet Christmas Day as I wanted to rest up before starting chemo. Bret cooked an absolutely delicious dinner, with possibly the best roast potatoes of all time, so I have told him that he will have to take on the honour of cooking Christmas dinners going forward! He thinks I’m joking but hopefully when he reads this blog post he’ll realise that I’m being deadly serious. We ate like Kings and had a Harry Potter movie marathon, and it was a pretty cozy time. My Mum also arrived on Boxing Day to be there for the first round of chemo, and it was a huge help and relief to have her here with us. I wasn’t very good company, as I spent most of the time crying and trying not to throw up, but I do think it helped us all to be together for the first round, and also for her to meet the quite frankly brilliant chemo nurses who are taking the absolute best care of me. My Mum flew back home on New Year’s Eve, but her and my Dad will be back at Easter, when I should hopefully be finishing up with my 6th and final round of chemo!

I meet with my oncologist again this Friday to go over how everything went for my first round. I will literally be begging him to give me any and every drug under the sun and I may even start up with some of this medicinal marijuana everyone out here seems pretty darn excited about! If everyone could please pray for my mouth sores that would be appreciated 🙂

With love and best wishes for a Happy New Year,

Emma and Bret xxx

Emma’s Gofundme

***Photo below taken by my long-suffering husband on chemo Day 1 when I was completely high on Benadryl and I thought my port made me look like a sexy robot 🤖