The dreaded ABVD

February 18th 2014 I woke up bricking it having no idea what to expect going in for my first round of chemotherapy.

I walked in to the unit and was greeted by the most amazing nurses I have ever met, even had my own little room with a TV (and more tea and coffee than I could ever need!).
The chemo itself took around 5 hours to go in, along with the anti sickness meds and saline solutions - a very boring day!

I didn't feel any different while the chemo was going in, only a small burning sensation in my veins that was sorted by a heat pad.

By the 4th round, the nurses were struggling to find a vein so a picc line was inserted into my arm, very painless and made chemo and bloods soooooooo much easier!!

My hair started to think about a month on so I decided to take control an brave the shave, I was surprised at how well I handed it and how much I enjoyed my little bald head!

For the first half of the ABVD I tolerated it quite well, only being sick a couple of times and still managing to work in between the 2 weekly infusions, however by the second half I started to fall, anxiety had taken over. I had to drag myself to chemo or be forced into going, I didn't eat and would spend my time under a blanket on the sofa hating life! It didn't help I had 2 broken arms and a broken leg.

Finally by around the 8th round I picked back up again with a bit of help from anti anxiety meds and managed to get through the rest of the chemo very well! By the last round I was moving house the day after my last infusion and carry all sorts of furniture!

That was my chemo done!! Just had to wait on a scan to confirm the ending. I had had scan half way through and it looked like my tumours were responding well, the one in my neck had completely gone and the one in my chest almost there, we were very confident I would be in remission and need no further treatment..... we were wrong!

The tumour in my chest was still there so radiotherapy was recommended to me to give the tumour a final push and get me into remission