(6) The weeks after round 1

My mum came back down to stay with me and my partner on the 18th of March, as I had a meeting with the genetics team at the hospital the following day.

The genetics meeting was a huge over load but so interesting! We went through our family tree and looked at so many different genes. Some of the genes I will be tested for are pretty scary, but it is amazing they have the technology to do this now. One of the genes (BRCA2) runs in my family, but only through a half-aunty, so there is still no direct link. I'm a slight medical anomaly it seems, and they are very interested to see what my results will come back with.

I then went for blood tests. The one I am most nervous for is the TP53 gene mutation. This can mean a high chance of all cancers in the future, and a high chance of passing cancer on to children. But keeping my fingers and toes crossed I don't have any weird gene mutations and this is just a bad luck situation.

The rest of the week went pretty slow, I tried to recover as much as possible and take things easy. Its so hard to do. You want to be your usual self and be normal. But being normal is hard. You also want to pretend to be normal for your friends, so they think everything is ok and you are your usual bright and cheery self. But actually everything is not bright and cheery and every step is a struggle. But I like to smile so that is ok :)

Exactly two weeks after my first chemo, my hair started to fall out. It had itched for days before hand. My hair was already shaved, but holy heck there was SO. MUCH. HAIR. The first day it was just the sideburns. But then you could just grab hair and it would just come out! The weirdest feeling ever. I spent what seemed like forever in the shower, running my fingers over my scalp trying to brush it all off. But there was always so much more to come out! It pretty much fell out within 5 days, and just left some hatchling fluff on top, which I despised! But being bald wasn't too bad. :)