Well that didn’t last long

After four or five glorious days of respite during which once again I could eat whatever the heck I wanted, another blasted mouth sore developed. It was mild to start with but for the past few days it’s been as vicious, if not even more so, than the two I’d just got rid of. 

Managing these painful, spirit-sapping sores takes effort. For a start, when do you eat when frankly it’s the last thing you feel like doing? Also, what do you eat? 

Because of where this latest sore is, I can only open my mouth so far before it starts hurting. It also hurts to fully close my mouth. The other day in a cafe with friends, I had to cut the crusts off a toasted sandwich and cut the rest of the sandwich into tiny pieces before I was able to eat it. And rather than have a hot coffee, I had a healthy beetroot and carrot juice concoction that I drank through a paper straw. It was rather nice, if also rather expensive. 

And how do you brush your teeth without touching the sore and nearly fainting from the pain? I was always a hard-bristle kind of gal, but I have just bought some soft-bristle brushes.

And how often do you rinse with the various mouthwashes you have? They all sting.

When I had my appointment with the consultant oncologist who’s treating my secondary breast cancer and me on Thursday this past week, this new sore wasn’t causing too much trouble. I had thought that was as bad as it was going to get. I therefore bravely and, with hindsight, in far too cavalier a manner, told the consultant I’d stay on the highest dose of the tablet that’s the cause of the problem for another month. 

However, rather than improve, things got worse. I’m now seriously thinking that I will indeed have to reduce the dose. I’d really rather not do that but I may well have to as this really is no fun. If another sore appears after this one, my mind will be made up. I think. It’s a bit like a “good” childbirth. Once it’s over, you forget how painful it was. Until the next time.

That’s the bad news from this week. It’s been a busy one on the health front, with plenty of decent or even good news. I need to focus on that, really.

The chest x-ray I had on Wednesday was clear. That means that the new treatment regime of two drugs – mouth-sore inducing everolimus and exemestane, both taken as tablets, daily – hasn’t done any damage on that front. 

Also, the results of the biopsies on the pigmented lesions that I had excised on my right leg and foot, also four weeks ago, came back clear. We had suspected they would, but it’s good to have that confirmed. The wound on the sole of my foot that wasn’t healing well is looking much better. 

There’s more. The blood tests I had on Wednesday – immediately before I had the chest x-ray – showed that the all-important tumour marker is stable compared with two weeks ago. That’s the first time it hasn’t risen in many, many months. It’s early days but it shows that perhaps the new treatment will have a dampening effect on the tumour activity. That makes the mouth sore issue even more frustrating.

My kidney and liver are functioning ok too. However, my bone marrow is still struggling (the secondary breast cancer that I have is in my bones and bone marrow). 

I can walk for miles on the flat without any trouble but increasingly just walking up stairs had been making me breathless. The first thing I said to the oncologist when she asked how I’d been was that I reckoned my haemoglobin level had taken a bit of a dive. That was indeed the case.

The bottom line is that after seeing the consultant on Thursday morning, I spent four and a half hours in the Ambulatory Oncology Care Unit at the hospital having a blood transfusion. It takes around two hours to transfuse a single unit of blood and I had two, the same as on the two previous occasions where I’ve needed help on the red blood cell front.

I do feel much better now, energy wise. Never one to waste a good blood transfusion, I have planned two bike rides for this week, one short and one a bit longer. This will be the first exercise I’ll have done other than walking for over a month, specifically since I had the procedure done on my foot. Fingers crossed my foot wound and energy levels behave and that I manage if not both, then at least one.

Distractions are good. They take my mind off what’s going on in my mouth. There have been a few this week. 

Work continues, for example.*

Monday saw us have a meal out – inside at a pub restaurant – for the first time in many, many months. Gathering at the bar is not yet allowed so it’s all table service but it pretty much felt like nothing much had changed.

We went to the pub again (a different one) on Thursday evening to celebrate a friend’s 50th birthday. This time we were outside, as more people are allowed to gather together outside than in.

The wind did its best to blow us away; it did in fact blow a glass of wine into my lap! However, we held firm and had a lovely evening. I’d only been planning to stay for an hour as I’d been feeling miserable earlier that evening. However, such was the power of the blood transfusion I’d had that afternoon that I not only went out but stayed as long as everyone else, ie until closing time. I also remembered that white wine stings less than beer on the mouth sore front so, after one beer, white wine was my tipple of the evening.

Both those nights out were organised well in advance. On Saturday, though, we did something on impulse. Yes, read it again, on impulse! We went to the cinema and, as if that weren’t enough, we went for a meal afterwards – without booking!!!! There was social distancing in the cinema itself but it’s been a long 14 or 15 months since we’ve done anything that remotely “normal”. 

The restaurant was Turkish, where we knew we’d be able to order lots of mouth-sore friendly dishes such as all sorts of tasty but not spicy dips with lovely warm, soft bread.

The film we saw was Nomadland, which was great to see on the big screen with all those amazing American landscapes.

I watched a lot of the film through tears. If you’ve seen it and you’re aware of my situation, you’ll understand why. This phrase from one of the characters, who has terminal cancer, spoke volumes to me: “I don’t want my sail boat to be in my drive when I die.” 

You can take that literally or figuratively. In my case, much as I’d love to do it, heading off on a yacht is not practical. I hope we can head off on foreign trips soon but, in the meantime, there are plenty of things close to home that bring joy.

I’m feeling quite sentimental so I’m going to mention a few.

There’s new life all around. Our revamped garden is bursting into life and everywhere I go it seems I see baby birds. With the ones in the photo here, at Kew Gardens this week, there was no drama – unlike the previous week at Richmond Park.

A friend giving me as an early birthday present a beautiful throw that she’d crocheted herself.

Another couple of friends handing in a surprise bunch of flowers.

Our sons, who are away at uni, WhatsApping us photos of things they’ve cooked for supper. Or one of them pretending he’d had his nose pierced and using it to encourage me to have mine done; I’ve been saying for ages that I want to do it but I’m too nervous.

One of my brothers who lives in Glasgow going out of his way to take one of my sons out for dinner when he was on a work trip in the north of England, near where his nephew’s at uni.

The many messages I get from friends asking how I am and sympathising with me on my “issues”.

And, most recently, my husband presenting me with a box of Tunnocks tea cakes “because they’re soft and they won’t hurt your mouth”.

Allow me a schmaltzy ending: “Take joy in the small things because one day you’ll realise that they were the big things.”

*My story about working with an advanced cancer diagnosis is featured in a campaign that has been launched by an organisation called Working with Cancer. I’m upfront about my prognosis right at the start so please only read it if you’re prepared for that – https://workingwithcancer.co.uk/2021/05/11/maureen-kenny/.

Salted peanuts, citrus fruits and vinegar – they’re all back on the menu!

I am both relieved and happy to report that the two dreadfully painful mouth and tongue sores that I’d had for the past couple of weeks have gone.

The sores were a side effect of one of the two new drugs that I started taking just over three weeks ago for the secondary breast cancer that’s in my bones and bone marrow.

I made it very clear in my previous post just how awful these sores were. These past few days, though, I’ve been eating salted peanuts again – a favourite snack to accompany a pre-dinner drink. Not just that, I had an orange earlier today for the first time in almost three weeks. Finally, I am happy for my husband to start putting vinegar in the salad dressing again! 

Everything is back on the menu. At least it is for the moment. Mouth sores can come and go while you’re taking this drug – everolimus (Afinitor) – so we’ll enjoy this mouthsore-free period for as long as it lasts. I’ve been mouthwashing assiduously with the two rinses the oncologist prescribed for me. I guess I’ll continue to do so as a preventative measure.

Also this past week, I had the stitches taken out from the two wounds I have from the skin lesion removal procedures I had a few weeks ago. The wound on my right calf has healed beautifully but the one on the sole of my right foot has not. There has been a certain amount of discomfort associated with the “non-healing” and it means I’ll be off the tennis courts and off the bike for yet another couple of weeks. 

In case you’re wondering, yes, it was indeed painful having the stitches removed, especially those in my foot. I had to ask the nurse who was removing them to stop two or three if not four times so I could take a breather. In the end, the nurse had to call in one of the doctors – an expert in stitches removal apparently- to finish the job.

How painful was it? Well, as we all know, pain is very hard to measure objectively. However, I suspect that if it had been a person very close to me who’d been having this done, he might have fainted! He knows who he is – it’s not hard to guess his identity! – and he’s ok with me writing that. I did check!

I was due to get the results of the biopsies they did on the removed tissue on Thursday this past week, but instead I got a phone call to say the report’s not available yet.

Away from the medical stuff, we’ve been continuing to enjoy the easing of the pandemic-related lockdown restrictions. 

We’ve been out and about, enjoying the late Spring. Indeed we had a very eventful experience just a couple of days ago, during a trip to the beautiful space in southwest London that is Richmond Park.

I can’t remember the last time I was in the park without my bike; regular readers of this blog will know that it is a great place for cycling.

This time, however, my husband and I were on foot. We were going specifically to see the annual display of camelias, azaleas and bluebells in an area of the park called the Isabella Plantation. (There were lots of other flowers too, but I’m afraid my flower-identifying knowledge is extremely limited.)

Walking though the park after we’d seen the flowers, we came across a family of Egyptian geese.

When we first encountered this charming group, there were eight goslings and the mother was trapped inside a small enclosure in the park (photo on the left).

The father was outside the enclosure, unable to help. Both adult birds were clearly distressed – there was lots of squawking and heavy breathing. 

As it turns out, I was instrumental in facilitating the release of the mother, upon which the family hotfooted it towards the nearest pond (photo on the right). It’s a long story but the “rescue” was enabled by the actions of two helpful but distinctly underwhelmed members of the Metropolitan Police who had the misfortune to be in the area at the time!

The pond was about a ten-minute waddle from the enclosure. We followed, taking photos. It was all very cute and exciting.

A happy ending, you may be thinking. Sadly, it wasn’t so. On the way to the pond, disaster struck! To my horror, a big crow swooped down and snatched one of the goslings. As a result, only seven of them made it to the pond. In just a few seconds I went from feeling like a hero to feeling responsible for the death of a gosling. Nature can indeed be cruel.

As for the flowers in the Isabella Plantation, what can I say other than that they are an absolute delight.

In other developments, we’ve booked another couple of trips away over the next month or so – one to Manchester with friends and one to Wales to stay with some very good friends. We’ll catch up with some relatives while we’re in Manchester and, in Wales, I’m very much looking forward to seeing my teenaged goddaughter. That is despite the fact that she has said that, as well as looking forward to seeing me too, she “can’t wait to beat you at chess”. Mmm.

May 17th is an important day in England in terms of the restrictions easing. Museums and art galleries can open again, you can once again eat inside at pubs and restaurants, hotels can fully open again and you can stay overnight with relatives or friends. I’ve already bought tickets for a couple of exhibitions, one of which I’ll enjoy with an old friend who’s coming to London for the day the week after next. Also, tomorrow evening, I’ll be eating inside, at a (hopefully well-ventilated) pub restaurant, with friends, for the first time since last summer.

I’m well aware that we’re far from being out of the woods on the pandemic front – variants of concern, localised spikes in cases here in the UK, the tragic situation in India, etc. However, I’m determined, safely, to make the most of our newly returned freedoms while we have them. I’d like to have been able not to write the last four words in that previous sentence, but I’m sure I’m not alone in thinking that restrictions will come and go depending on how the situation evolves. That said, I tweeted recently that I intended to “carpe the sodding diem” out of this summer. That’s still my plan, the pandemic and my health allowing. 

I am, of course, also well aware that we still don’t know how much protection the vaccines give to people such as myself who have compromised immune systems. I won’t be diving in for big hugs with all and sundry and I think I’ll be steering clear of full-capacity cinemas and theatres for some time to come. I did feel uncomfortable on the London Underground the other day; while almost everyone was wearing a mask, it was much busier than it’s been in the past few months.

Back to medical practicalities. I’m less than one week away from finishing my first 30-day cycle of this new line of treatment. On Wednesday I go to the hospital for blood tests and a chest x-ray; the latter is to see whether there’s any damage to my lungs (another potential side effect). I see the consultant on Thursday for the blood test and x-ray results and to discuss how things are going.

This latest treatment consists of a combination of two drugs – everolimus and exemestane (Aromasin). I take one tablet of each every day. It may still be too early to tell whether they are having an effect as it can take some time for this to show. Other than the mouth sores, the only side effect I’ve noticed is the odd night sweat, similar to those many women get when they’re going through the menopause. They are not pleasant – who wants to have to change out wet nightwear at 2 or 3am? Finally, I wouldn’t be surprised to hear my haemoglobin level has dropped further.

We shall see. For now, though, I’m off to suck on a lemon.

Mother of God, the mouth ulcers

Spoiler alert: This blog includes multiple gratuitous references to a recently concluded and very popular UK TV series about police corruption.

Jesus, Mary, Joseph and the wee donkey, if it’s not one thing, it’s another.

The pain I’d been having periodically in my joints disappeared overnight when, a fortnight ago now, I started on my first cycle of the new treatment I’m on for advanced breast cancer. Also – and what a relief – the pain I’d been having in my feet for the past few months eased up massively. Now we’re sucking diesel, I thought. Then wham, I get blasted with two horrendously painful mouth sores – or more precisely one mouth sore and one tongue sore – within days of starting the new drugs. God give me strength.

Mouth sores are a very common side effect of everolimus, one of the two drugs I’m now on (Document A in your folder). I’ve written before about how painful cold sores can be (Document B in your folder). Well mouth sores are like that, except they’re on the inside of your mouth and they’re even more painful. Just when you’d started to sleep well again as a result of the throbbing in your feet having eased off, you wake up at 4am from the pain of these mouth sores. The discomfort when eating is such that I’ve had to tell the boss, who does most if not all the cooking in our house, to stop putting vinegar in the salad dressing. Mother of God.

Has it been so painful that I’ve sworn? No comment. Or cried, even, from frustration as much as pain? No comment.

I’d been given mouthwash to prevent mouth sores from developing and/or to alleviate the pain once they do develop. I’d been following the instructions to the letter, to the letter, I tell you; who knows, maybe they’d be even worse if I hadn’t been using the rinse.

As for the sleeping tablets I was prescribed at my last appointment, I’ve used them twice. The first time I didn’t notice any difference; the second time I slept for nine hours (getting up once for the loo and half-waking when my husband got up). Now we’re cooking with gas, I said to myself when I realised how long I’d slept for.

You’re monitored closely during the first month or so after you start on everolimus because of the potential side effects. The monitoring involved a mid-cycle review yesterday with my oncologist where we discussed how things were going and she gave me the results of the MRI scan of my liver that I had recently.

As I’ve said, for various reasons the consultant wasn’t convinced that the metastatic breast cancer I have in my bones and bone marrow hadn’t spread to my liver. Now many of you reading will know that I’m a bit of a grammar pedant. I would therefore like to point out that this is one situation where two negatives don’t make a positive. The consultant didn’t necessarily think the cancer had spread but there was enough concern that it might have done that she thought an MRI scan was merited. It came back clear; no spread to the liver at this time. Pleasing news.

We also went through the results of the blood tests I’d had done the previous day. My tumour marker is continuing to rise and my haemoglobin level has fallen slightly. The rising tumour marker means my cancer is active; it’s early days, but one hopes the drugs I’m on will dampen down that activity. As for my haemoglobin, if the level falls much more, we could be looking at another blood transfusion. I’ve already had two since I was diagnosed with secondary breast cancer two years ago now (Documents C and D in your folder). I’ll have blood tests and see the consultant again in two weeks’ time, at the end of this first cycle of everolimus (brand name Afinitor) and exemestane (Aromasin). We can but hope but it seems unlikely that I’ll get as long as out of this line of treatment as I did from the other two. I was on the first line for a year and almost a year with the second.

I’ve been prescribed a stronger, steroid mouthwash. Let’s hope that between that and the one I’m already using – and also the ice lollies and chunks of chilled melon and the home-made mouthrinse of salt and bicarbonate of soda – they help alleviate the discomfort from the two sores I currently have and from any future ones that might appear. If the mouth sore situation doesn’t improve, it’s possible we’ll reduce the dose of the everolimus tablets for the next cycle.

For the purpose of the tape, the consultant and I once again discussed future scenarios, with me voicing concerns I had about various things and asking questions that deep down I knew were impossible to answer in any definitive way.

As for the lesions I had removed a few weeks ago from my right calf and the sole of my right foot, I get the stitches out next Tuesday and I have a teleconsultation a few days later when I’ll find out the results of the biopsies they did on the removed tissue.

I’m looking forward to getting back on the bike and to playing tennis once the stitches are out. Running had become quite difficult for me (Document E in your folder) so I’m not sure I’ll start that again, despite that fact that Parkrun – the free, timed, mass-participation, volunteer-led 5k run that pre-pandemic took place on Saturday mornings in parks around the UK and indeed in many other countries – is meant to be starting back in June. I ran my 100^th Parkrun in January 2019 (Document F in your folder) and managed one more before the very first lockdown two months later. Despite my doubts about running, I would definately (😉) like to do at least one more Parkrun post-pandemic.

For those still in the dark over what TV series I refer to at the start of this blog and from which I’ve used multiple lines throughout, it is, of course, Line of Duty. I was helped by the fab bingo card that some joker put together.

None of what’s been going on cancer-wise has prevented me from enjoying the gradual lifting of the pandemic-related restrictions. That said, the novelty of meeting up for a drink and a meal in beer gardens when the temperature is in single digits is starting to wear off somewhat. Bring on May 17^th, when we can socialise inside again. Rather excitingly, the boss and I have booked two nights away at the beginning of June. It’s only an hour or so’s drive from the house but we’ll catch up with friends we haven’t seen for many, many years. It’s the first of many UK-based trips we’re hoping to be able to make over the next few months and beyond.

Briefing over, readers. As you were.

PS Thanks to the friends who contacted me after I posted the original version of this to point out a couple of obvious Line of Duty-isms that I’d missed! They have been duly added.