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Her2+ and positive about parenthood!
It was June 2006, I was 38 years old and on maternity leave with a young baby, when I had been diagnosed with Stage II, Her2+ breast cancer, with six positive lymph nodes out of seventeen. Surgery had taken place within two weeks of my diagnosis. I had found a lump in my left breast when I was about six months pregnant with Isabella but it was put down to breast changes during pregnancy. After three visits to three different doctors at my medical centre, I was finally sent for a biopsy, adamant it wasn't mastitis. By the time Isabella was five months, the lump was noticeably bigger and I then discovered a lump in my armpit. If only I had been more persistent earlier on we might have been able to take action sooner. I thought that breast cancer was something that happens to someone else. I also felt as if I had been let down by my body as there was no history of breast cancer in my family. I nearly cried my heart out lying on the table going into surgery. I really didn't want to have surgery but knew there was no other choice if I wanted to see Isabella grow up. Post operative wise, I guess I was na•ve when I found out I was Her2+. All I knew was that it was an aggressive type of breast cancer and would require additional treatment.
My herceptin treatment started once my chemotherapy and radiotherapy treatment had been completed. As I was in the UK, there was no talk of a nine-week trial, it was the full eighteen cycles for me, as it is for anyone in the UK who is Her2+, how ironic is that! Everyone in the UK complains bitterly how poorly run the NHS is and how each month a proportion of your earnings is taken from your wages, but even herceptin is funded there!
I found it hard having a young baby and receiving treatment especially during the chemotherapy. Childcare centres and playgroups were off limits, as I would inevitably pick up their bugs. Isabella picked up the Nora virus (nasty vomiting and diarrhoea bug) which my husband Gary and I both contracted. We were both terribly ill. It delayed my chemotherapy for a week, as my white blood cell count was so low.
To go out in public, with Isabella in tow with all the perceived bugs floating around, it was just too much. I became terribly conscious of door and trolley handles, people sneezing or coughing and rooms with no ventilation. After a week on intravenous antibiotics due to a bout of neutrophenic sepsis early on in my chemotherapy treatment, there was no way I was going through that again. The fatigue, tiredness, and necessity to just keep going at times was so tough. You don't realise how tiring the herceptin treatment is until you finish and your energy levels start to pick up again, your hair grows back and you feel like you are a 'normal' human being again.
The radiotherapy was a breeze in comparison to the chemotherapy and after that was completed I had one cycle of herceptin in the UK, before returning to New Zealand to live. I have recently completed my final eighteenth course of Herceptin, which in hindsight I could have had funded in the UK. It is a tough decision for women in New Zealand who are Her2+ to make about their future health based on their ability to pay for their own treatment and the variability of cost depending on where they live. I was fortunate to have international medical insurance in the UK, which covered my herceptin treatment upon returning to NZ. I was also lucky enough to share a hospital room with Dr Sue Walthert at Mercy Hospital every three weeks, who educated me on the funding issues around Herceptin. The medical staff there and Sue helped to keep my spirits up during treatment, thank you!
I feel as if I am now ready to embrace the future, whatever it might hold and the gift of breast cancer has meant that I am now able to rationalise about what is important in life. I have started my own marketing communications business, Strategy First Ltd, and like many other working mothers, I am managing to juggle childcare and work commitments with the support of much loved family, friends and colleagues. And finally, I do feel more like the energetic person I used to be before my treatment. So yes, your energy and zest for life does return, if you ever feel like you are losing it along the way.
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