Here it is, almost a week old at this stage and looking pretty good.  It's amazing how many people were surprised how big it is!  Honestly people, I showed you with my outstretched hand - "It's going to be this big"  What did you think I was describing??  LOL!

Tattoo

On Thursday 17 July 2014, at Westside Tatoo in Brisbane's West End, I shall meet with Tim Rix and get inked!

I've wanted a tattoo for years, but I'm a firm believer that a tattoo must be art, it must be significant and it must be something you will be happy to live with for the rest of your life.

My tattoo is going to be a patchwork pink ribbon and it's going to live on my inner right forearm.  I saw an image on the internet, of several large ribbons which had been decorated by different people with different messages.  I have no idea where these 'sculptures' were but they were all wonderful.  Naturally, the one that caught my imagination was the one which was decorated in a patchwork style called Flying Geese. 

Flying Geese are patchwork blocks where there is a centre triangle in each block, all the triangles are facing the same way, hence the name.
In the sculpture, all the triangles were varying shades of pink and the backgrounds were in blues, greys and black.  I immediately knew this would translate into a beautiful tattoo.

My sister and her husband, who are wonderful, loving and supportive people, decided this would be a perfect gift for my 50th birthday because, as my sister so lovingly explained, "It's something you really want, you'll have it for the rest of your life and I've always wanted to pay someone to hurt you!" 
I love my sister's sense of humour..... I think?! :\

Quilting - The reason I go to work

Some people are into sport, others like to cook - I like to make things with my hands. 

I suppose I get it from my mother; I learned to knit when I was so young I don't actually remember learning. 

Over the years I've gone through many craft obsessions, but the one that has enthralled me for the last 17 years is Quilting.

There's something wonderful about the feeling of beautiful cotton fabrics, and stitching several pieces together to create a pattern that creates secondary patterns when stitched into a full sized quilt that just makes you feel amazing!!!

Yes, I am obsessed :D

It's 7 July 2014 and in a few days I'll be driving to Coolum Beach for a quilt retreat.  I'm so excited!!!

I've been working towards this week away for a couple of months.  The problem is, I work full time, so I have to plan my life around the time I get before, after and between the working week :D

I think, at the last count, there will be 7 different projects that I'm taking with me.  I'm not making all 7 from scratch you understand, they're in assorted stages of completion.

I'm 2/3 of the way through hand quilting one quilt.  That'll be the project that I work on when my back starts to ache from a day sitting at the sewing machine.  My 'evening' project.

One baby quilt is a finished top, and will need to be pinned and marked for hand quilting.

One quilt was pieced years ago and languished in a drawer - practically forgotten :( - and will be pinned ready to hand quilt.

I made a denim 'rag' quilt years ago and when my oldest child left home he wanted to take it with him but his brother wouldn't let him take it. 

It's made from old jeans that the boys grew out of over the years and soft snuggly flannel on the reverse.  The two squares (denim and flannel) are placed, wrong sides together, then sewn with a half inch seam on top.  Once the quilt is all together, the seams are then snipped (without cutting through the stitching) and the ragged edges then fray every time you wash & dry the quilt.  It's a really effective look.  The quilt weighs quite a bit and is the best thing to snuggle under on a cold evening.

As I've got so many pairs of worn out jeans, I've decided to make another for Nathan at the retreat.

While looking for something else, I came across a scrap quilt I had started making - I barely remember starting it so heaven only knows how long it's been waiting for me to rediscover it!
I shall finish piecing that too.

A Jelly Roll has been packed.  A lovely lady that was a first-timer at the retreat last year (as was I) has indicated an interest in making a Jelly Roll Race Quilt.  As it'll take less than an hour to make it, it'll be a fun project to take a break with :D

Lastly, I think, is a quilt for a new great- niece in England.  Isabella Rose was to have the other baby quilt, the one that's a finished top, but the colours turned out to be a little duller than I wanted for her, so I've been through my stash and found some gorgous bright pastels that I think will be much nicer for her.

Is that 7?  Oh wait, I threw in a little wall-hanging that needs a border - so that'll make 8.  LOL!  Maybe I am mad??

Combined Breast Clinic

Wednesday 21 December:

This was interesting.  They get all the different branches who treat you around a table and look at the cases one by one deciding what the best treatment will be for each case.  Then they see each person individually and explain what happens next.  It's a lot of information to take in and can be a little daunting, but you walk out with a plan.

Firstly I saw the Surgical Representative, who told me that all the biopsy results were back and there was no cancer in the lymph node.  WooHoo!!!!  Had to grip the sides of the chair to prevent myself doing a little dance :D

Then came the Oncologist who told me that I would be having 4 Chemo treatments over 12 weeks; one every 21 days.  Sadly this didn't mean I'll have small doses; it means the opposite!  4 mega-doses which would definitely cause my hair to fall out.  She said that each treatment would make me feel worse than the one before so that by the fourth treatment I'd feel really bad.  But what the hey?  It's the last one;I can handle it :D

The Radiotherapist was next.  They've decided that I'll probably require 6 weeks of Radiation and the initial treatment would be part of a 'planning day' and would take about 3 hours.  Oddly enough the treatments only take about half an hour.  The actual radiation takes about a minute but setting up the machine takes the rest of the time.  The 3 hour planning day is setting up the machine and tattooing 4 little black dots on my breast to assist with realignment on subsequent visits.
I always wanted a tattoo.....  but I'd hoped for something a little more artistic! :D

After all of that treatment I'll be put on hormone blocking therapy to prevent me producing the girlie-hormones the cancer likes to feed on.  Anything that even thinks of having another go will find nothing to live on.  Hah!  :D

I'll be monitored for 5 years and then my chances of a re-occurence will be about 50% less than the rest of the population.  Which is fine with me :D

I came out of the clinic to discover someone had accidentally backed into my car... it's ok, she'd left a note and the insurance company waived the excess because I was parked at the time... 
I personally think it was G-d having another poke to see if I would cry - Nice Try!!!

I was able to enjoy Christmas without worrying.  Big thanks to the pathology department who worked so hard to get the results out in time for everyone to get through the holidays with a plan in place.

Consultation with the Surgeon

On Tuesday 20 December I went to see the surgeon to get my results.  What a relief!!  He had taken a wide margin of healthy tissue and there was no cancer near the edge.  No more need for surgery!  Yay!
The lymph node had been looked at and no cancer cells were visible.  Double Yay!!

One note of caution from the Breast Care Nurse; the lymph node is encased in wax and sliced wafer thin.  These slices are then subjected to further testing.  The tests would be concluded by tomorrow.  In other words, exercise cautious optimism...

Combined Breast Clinic tomorrow for results and treatment plan.

Surgery - Wide Angle Excision & Sentinel Node Biopsy...

Friday 16 December 2011

I had to be at the hospital at the crack of dawn, get scans etc so the last thing I wanted was to hassle a friend to come with me.
I know this probably sounds odd, but I just wanted to be on my own and not have to make conversation with someone.  I tend to cope best with this stuff if I go quiet.

On that morning I caught the bus to the Mater.  Don't get me wrong, it's not some superhuman thing; the bus stop is a 7 minute walk from my house and stops right across the road from the Hospital!

First stop was Admittance then off to QScan for the radioactive stuff.  This was actually really interesting. 

To find out if the cancer has spread, the doctors need to find the Sentinel Node.  Our Lymph system seems to be a network of small glands who work together to move stuff arround our bodies.  What I didn't know was that there was a pecking order within this system.  Each boob has a Sentinel Node; the boss node.  It draws up the fluid from the boob then sends it out to other, lesser nodes who send it off to other areas.  Finding the Sentinel Node to see if there are any cancer cells is the most important thing because then the surgeon can see what to do next.

They do this by injecting radioactive material around the tumour then they put you in an ultrasound machine to see which node is glowing.  Fortunately my node showed up really quickly, but it can take up to an hour.

Once they get you into surgery, they inject you with blue dye, which also gets drawn up by the node.  When they open you up, they're looking for the blue node that beeps when they pass the detector over it! 

Now, here is where I misunderstood something my surgeon told me in consultation.  I thought he had said they would look at the node under a microscope during the operation and if they needed to take more nodes because there were cancer cells present, they'd take more.
What he meant (but I misunderstood) was that this node goes off to pathology and if there are cancer cells then I'd have to have further surgery to take more nodes.

When I came around, I kept asking how many nodes he'd taken and was getting a bit frustrated with the lack of information!

My overnight stay in the hospital was not great. 
Shared wards are never fun.  Tip for those of you going into a shared ward?  Shut the heck up!!!  I had a woman in the bed next to me who'd taken her hearing aid out and she and her husband were yelling at each other to be heard.
A woman in the bed over from me groaned all night because she couldn't cough; it hurt where she'd had her op.  So it was, cough, "oh that hurts", cough, "oh that hurts"  all blimmin night. 
ALRIGHT, WE GET IT!!!  CAN WE GET SOME SODDING SLEEP PLEASE??? 
We're all in the same situation, we've all just had surgery.  None of us are feeling so good right now - have some bludy consideration.

The best part was at 4:30am when some moronic nurse WOKE ME UP to give me pain killers.  I was sound asleep, and in no pain!!!!!  If I could have leapt out of bed to throttle the bitch she would have gone down.

Apart from that I was feeling fine.  A bit sore but no pain.  They told me I would experience quite a bit of pain once the local anasthetic wore off and sent me home with a script for mega pain killers.  Which I never needed.  I was waiting for days for the pain to arrive but I was perfecly fine :)

My friend, Pup, collected me and took me home.  And then I just had to wait to heal from the surgery.

My boys were in Western Australia doing a labouring job.  Their father had arranged a weeks work for them which was great but the timing could have been more fortunate :) 
Actually, I think it was probably better they weren't around.  I was more than able to take care of myself and didn't need them stressing about me.

Chicks in Pink & Breast Care Nurses

The Mater Hospital in Brisbane has a charity that focusses on supporting this hospital and raises money to pay for those in the Breast Care area.  They're called Chicks in Pink and I urge all of you in Brisbane to go buy a pink something from their shop on Stanley Street or go online to support them.  Great gear and a fantastic cause.

The breast care nurse I deal with is Carmel.  She's a wonderful woman who I met for the first time while she was still jet-lagged from her fabulous trip to New York.  I knew I'd get on really well with her because we obviously have similar tastes in holiday destinations :)

She was a font of knowledge and didn't bombard me with it.  She understood that I needed the basics at this stage, a contact number and email.  She also arranged for some amazing information to be sent to me from the Breast Cancer Network Australia - the My Journey Kit is filled with really good information and comes with a fantastic book that you can keep a sort of diary of appointments, medications, and thoughts in.  Brilliantly designed by women who've taken this journey and can lead you along the path.

Also, Berlie give you a free bra for post surgery.  I have to say it's not going to get anyone chasing you around the bedroom, but for all that, post surgery it was the most comfortable thing I had to wear. 
For those who have a mastectomy it comes ready with an internal pocket for a soft pad to fill your blouse out.
I'm pretty much healed now, but yesterday morning I used the bra to go for my first walk and it was incredibly comfortable.  The bras are in the shops, so go have a look if you need something comfy. 

Big thanks to Berlie!!!