I've had a haircut!

Actually, I had it cut last Tuesday but haven't had time to update here since then.

It actually looks as though it is meant to be this short now, rather than all fluffy around the edges!!   And it has made it look a bit less grey, which can't be bad.

Yay!

Busy busy bee

So, just to explain why I have been far too busy to update the blog in the past month:

- Walked the Walk

- A week in Mallorca and some nice sunshine

- Visit to my brother and family to wish Ella a happy 10th birthday

- Attended a conference at Bicton College in Devon

- Camping with a big group of friends

- Seeing The Automatic at Monmouth Festival (free gigs!!)

- Being Jane Austen for a day (Leanne's Hen do)

- Mesmerised by the Monmouth Balloon Glow

- Decorating Greg's house ready for sale

- Securing a job. Yes, I have a job, but it will be all change soon. I needed to get a new role - the right role - in our senior restructuring. I did it. Phew. 

Have a heart

You may recall that my Herceptin treatment has been suspended because my MUGA heart scan result was not what it should be.  Well, I have been on the perindopril tablets since then and my blood pressure is down - the last reading I had, it was at 115/79 which is nice and normal.     However, I had another scan and my %  (of blood being pumped through the left ventricle) is not quite back where it needs to be.   Normal is 50-70%, my first 'bad' reading was 44% and my latest reading is 48%. So its going in the right direction, but it isn't quite there yet.

Dr Iqbal mentioned that I ought to increase my perindopril dose between now and the next heart scan, but although I saw my GP on the same day, Dr Iqbal hadn't given specific instructions to we decided to wait until the GP recieved a letter.   This arrived today, so they have phoned and told me to double my dose up to 8mg a day, and if I suffer any low blood pressure symptoms (dizziness, excessive tiredness), to toddle in and have a BP check.   So tomorrow, we start on the higher dose....

The next heart scan is in the middle of September, followed by another appointment with Dr Iqbal.  It will be my last one with him, however, as he is apparently leaving.  I didn't get the chance to ask where he was going, but I will miss him.   He has been a champion for my fertility issues, so I will make sure I will ask him what his longer term plan would have been for me, so that I can make sure it happens.  I will miss him and his funny ways!!

We Walked the Walk

Most remiss of me, not to update on here about the fantastic walk that my friends and I did on 3rd July.


"Team Flora" consisted of me, Greg, Hannah, Charlotte, Gail and Yvonne - and don't we all just look fine in our bras?   

We had great fun decorating them - quite a few of us (me included) specially designed them to cover our wobbly tummies! 

We walked 13 miles across Bristol - from Ashton Court to the harbour and back again, via busy Park Street and White Ladies Road, and escorted by policemen who helped us cross roads safely and a volunteer attendant at every mile.  Every single one of them - without fail - gave Greg a compliment as we marched past with his windmills spinning gaily!

Greg decided that he wanted to march on at speed, so we lost the other 4 quite quickly (sorry girls) and trudged on apace.  We made a strategic decision not to stop at the first loo block, wisely deciding that those that were stopping would give us a bit of extra space if we pressed onwards, which it did.  We had a comfort break at the next marker, mile 7, and grabbed more water to keep us hydrated in the warm sun.  At mile 10, Greg felt his thighs go numb, and the last couple of miles were fairly steeply downhill which came as a shock to our legs as it felt as though the rest of the course had all been uphill!   Greg was a broken man at the end, but was pleased that we had made it in under 4 hours (3hours 45mins to be precise), and was back to normal after a couple of days rest! 

I was most impressed that everyone kept starting sentences with "when we do this next year..." - so anyone else want to join us?

Added up, we managed to raise over £1500 for Walk the Walk, an outstanding achievement.  Thank you so much to my amazing friends, and to everyone who donated. We couldn't have done it without you.

I was just unlucky!

Yes, you guessed it - I got the results of the genetic testing that I had done in March (see March 17th blog) and I have none of the so-far discovered gene mutations known to cause breast cancer. So I was just unlucky, I guess.

Or I have a gene mutation that hasn't yet been discovered. Mum and I have both given our blood samples to another clinical trial which is continuing to scour the human genome for any other faulty genes, so there is always a possibility there is something there.

For now, though, what this means is that I will not be proffering my left boob to go under the knife, and I won't be worrying overly about ovarian cancer or opting for an oophorectomy (I love that word!!!). My neices (and nephew) don't have to be any more worried than anyone else when they get older. Phew.

Its a relief, I can tell you.

Whoops! It's been a while since my last update....

Hi folks
Sorry for not updating for some time - life has been just far too busy, in all good ways.

I shall now post about a few different items, so watch out, here they come....