August Update

Short :  After a few muddled months, I am  now well and enjoying life.

Longer :

In Februry, March and most of April  I pottered along happily with only minor side effects from the  estrogen blocking pill aimed at reducing my odds of a recurrence of breast cancer. Then in mid April I got bad diarrhea .  Luckily I was still spending most of  my time in my well-equipped eerie on the 8th floor.   Over the next 2 months I saw my medical oncologist, my GP ( several times) , had lots of blood tests ,  saw my naturopath,  and finally got into a GP  who specialises in hormones.  The diarrhea stopped after I stopped taking the estrogen-blocking pill, but  the blood tests showed that my thyroid was way out of balance again.

When I went to the hormone GP I took all my  blood tests since 2015 that were relevant to my dodgy thyroid.  After reviewing them , she agreed with my naturopath's treatment  over the past years.   She also said, looking at the tests done in September 2019,  that while relatively better than the previous years, they were still not great.  This I knew. She felt the marked deterioration  from September 2019 to May 2020 was due to the physical trauma of the mastectomy to my body and the diarrhea was probably caused by the estrogen-blocker. 

We then went on to talk about how she would treat me if I were not to take the estrogen-blocker. Again,  very similar to my naturopath's suggested treatment.   However she said that , in her opinion, my main focus now should be on getting my thyroid hormones  back into  better balance  rather than worrying about my chances of a breast cancer recurrence. Again her suggeted treatment was the same as my naturopath, even down to the statement  "Do more of what you enjoy".   I asked her if she was diagnosed with  a hormone-positive breast cancer  would she take an estrogen-blocker. She said if she was 50 or less  yes  she would,  and left it at that.  I have a big birthday next year and it is not 50 or 60.  I said  " So how about I spend the next 6 months  gettting my  thyroid better, not take the estrogen-blocker, take the alternate stuff from my naturopath  and then get more blood tests and reassess." Excellent idea she said.  So this is what I am doing.

I have talked to my medical oncologist and she has told me the name of the different estrogen-blocker that she would recommend, so I have time to research that and I have made an apointment to see her in December after my yearly scans for breast cancer and blood tests for the thyroid. She seems quite reasonable and said she understood when I said that I didnot want to take another estrogen-blocker till  December ( at least - but I didnot say that) mainly because I didnot want the stress of worrying whether or not  I would get  another dose of diarrhea. I donot have another 4kg to lose. 

Over the last month or so I have been trying to do more of what I enjoy.  I was brought up " Do the jobs first and play later" and I am trying to turn that around. I have been to quite a few movies, spent more time reading, doing yoga, sitting and doing nothing,  and I am reading a very interesting book about self-compassion and doing the exercises.  As well as enjoying the company of my family in Canberra. I have a new project - once a week I go by foot or public transport ( there is almost nobody else on the midweek buses) to a different suburb for a coffee/lunch  and return a different way.  I went to all 20 of the arrondissments in Paris last year, so why not explore my own city?

In March I cancelled my proposed 5 weeks in Barcelona in October.  In May I booked to go to Sydney in late August for 3 weeks.  2 weeks ago I cancelled that.  So at the end of next week my 4 Wellness Weeks at home start. I have never  had much luck with  an 'at home' holiday. This time I will.