Looking good, feeling good......

Well, I looked awful during the chemo and felt like I had been run over by a bus. At one point I described myself as 'Gollum' from Lord of the Rings, except he had much more energy than me.....!

In the first week of the treatment I collapsed in bed, sweating the chemicals out from every orifice. I had little idea of time, falling in and out of sleep throughout each 24 hour period. My pee turned pink and I had to keep on drinking water to flush the drugs out, I spent a lot of time in the loo. I had zero energy and those loo trips were as much as I could do. I had a bath twice a day and Tim had to change the sheets almost daily.

On the third week, my hair began to fall out. This hair loss was expected, but shocking none the less. I had not realised that I had an almost white scalp complete with its own mole! Rather than wait for it to fall out, I took things into my own hands, went to see an understanding barber and had a number one. Once it started to fall out, Tim shaved my scalp off - what a relief from the unbearable itching!

My nails went black and ridged. My face decided to break out in spots and the rest of my skin began to feel like an elephants hide. My mouth developed ulcers and an attractive black tongue. And for a food lover like me, it was devastating to discover that nothing tasted the same!!

Throughout I had hot and cold flushes - baking hot one minute and freezing later. I suffered from back pain and my joints ached. I had palpitations and headaches. In short, I felt ill.

Possible chemotherapy side effects - see Cancerbackup for more details

• Bruising or bleeding
• Anaemia
• Sickness and vomiting
• Tiredness
• Hair Loss
• Sore mouth and taste changes
• Irritation of the bladder
• Diarrhoea
• Nail changes
• Heart changes

I found an excellent book on chemotherapy 'Where have my eyebrows gone?' by Maureen McCrucheon, a nurse who suffered from breast cancer and wrote a book about it. It is a oersonal and informative book, very readable and beautifully illustrated. It is packed full of tips of things to do, written from an American perspective, but a lot that we British girls can pick up on!

Possible Zoladex side effects - see Cancerback for more details

• Hot flushes
• Loss of libido
• Skin rashes
• Sore joints
• Weight gain and tiredness
• Nausea
• Headaches and mood changes

Possible Arimidex side effects - see Cancerbackup for more details

• Vaginal dryness

• Nausea and diarrhoea
• Hair thinning
• Headaches
• Skin rashes
• Vaginal bleeding
• Joint pains/ stiffness
• Tiredness
• Increased risk of osteoporosis