Today is my lovely husband’s birthday. He doesn’t really do birthdays. He has little interest. But he still gets presents and cards – that’s what you do on birthdays. This morning was the usual. Kids opened the presents while he opened the cards. He liked the cards. He was indifferent about the presents. I thought…
So the latest. Genghis is gone, girl. The lump has been removed. Yesterday I had my lumpectomy, or “wide local excision” in medical speak. Plus I had one of my lymph nodes under my arm taken out – call a “sentinel node biopsy”. The sentinel node is the gateway to my lymphatic system. If any…
Ta-dah! It’s cut. It’s done. Step one taken. Hooray. Bring on the next step.
Today is the day I am cutting my hair. I’ve had long hair for ever and today it’s going. I control the time and date, not Genghis. I control where and how, not Genghis. I control the outcome – it’s going to be donated to a charity that makes wigs for kiddy cancer patients –…
So it’s arrived. The black cloud. Yes I have lost my mojo and feel down in the dumps. Today is a bit better than yesterday, which wasn’t great. I understand why they call it a black dog. It crept up on me from behind and brought me down in its teeth. I just wanted to…
So I’m BRCA negative (for the Jewish mutations). This should be good news. It should mean a lumpectomy. This should mean less pain, a shorter recovery, our holiday looks more likely blah blah blah. But the geneticist reckons I still have a 20-25% chance of another primary breast cancer. If I have a double…
This weekend has felt almost like a return to normal now we know that Genghis hasn’t spread. We have been a lot lot lot less tense – obviously. And not all our conversations are about Genghis. Another nice thing is that friends around the world have been in touch. Some have been sad, some angry…
Yesterday I found out that my scans were all clear. Genghis is only in my left breast. So already I am winning. But nothing is straightforward. By way of background, my daughter was born with abdominal situs inversus with levocardia. This means all her abdominal organs are in the mirror opposite position from where they…
Hello. My name is Rosie. I’m 37 years old. I am a wife and mother of 2, living in NW London. I am Jewish. I have a double First from Oxford. I am a partner in a City law firm. And I have cancer. There. Said it. The “c” word. First and last time in…