Today i had to go to the hospital in Aalst to get my immunotherapy. I am not used to rush anymore in the morning so i was a bit slow. Also we left a bit later than usual maybe so we had to rush to the hospital and of course their was a lot of traffic 😃. Jolien,my buddy from the cancerorganisation, who became a very good friend, picked me up again.

When we arrived, arround 9am, i first had to do a haertscan, i have to get this every 3months because of the immunotherapy i get, to make sure it doesn’t cause damage. Everything was ok on the scan. Than we went to the dayhospital on the 6th floor to get the immunotherapy. The nurse always comes to take blood first and to take the blood pressure. I always have a very low one, that is why i always dizzy a bit wen i get up, it is also a good excuse to me for eating a lot of salt 😁. They say when you have low blood pressure you need to eat salty, and i use always a lottt because i like😉.

After i always need to get premedication first because i had some allergical reaction before on the products of the therapy. First the nurse had to put cortisone in my infuse. I have very small vains so sometimes it is hard to get directly into a good vain. When she putted the cortisone in the infuse that goes to my vain, it was hurting sooo much 😬. I don’t cry fast and i can handle pain but this time i had tears in my eyes. She stoped putting the product and tried again in some other vain. It didn’t work so another nurse came to put the infuse, than it was ok and the cortisone got in. I understand that it is not always easy to get the needle right, it happens often, but i was happy when the needle was in a good one. I also got a product that project my stomach trough the infuse. the last product is the injection in my ass that always makes me a sleepy and burns when they put it.

After that i had to wait one hour to start the immunotherapy. In this time the oncologist past in the room. I asked him if it is really necessary to get this premedication and he told me that it is, because i already responded bad on the immunotherapy therapy without the premedication and next time i could respond much worser without.

He also told me they checked to see if i already was without having periods, i told them before i don’t have but he said that i am somewhere in between and that i need this injection in my belly every 4 weeks to keep me in a menopause. This is because i also take hormonpills to protect me against new tumors. This is because my cancer is hormonsensitive, so hormons are feeding my cancer. Putting me in menopause and giving me this pills is an anti-hormonaltreatment and helps protecting me. I was taking this pills but the last months i didn’t get this injections anymore but the hormonpills that i take don’t work without beiing in the menopause, so they dont work without this injection that will keep me in menopause. Today my oncologist putted this big needle in my belly to do this.

But after the pain of the needle i got before that got wrong in my vain , the one with the cortisone , and the one in my ass, this didn’t hurt that much anymore.

I already got this injection during my chemo from another doctor but that is already almost 3 months ago and it only works for a month, that is why it was time for a new one.

Because i already started taking this hormon pills a month ago but you need to take thim together with the injections if you want them to work. I told my doctor that i will be not in Belgium the whole time and that i will only come back every 3 weeks to get my immunotreatment.

He told me i will need to take the injection with me so they can give it to me somewhere else in the world because the treatment is every 3 weeks and the injection every 4 weeks. He asked me where i will go and i told him i will see 😃. Than he asked me if their will be doctors and i told him i think , hospitals are everywhere 😉. At that point i realised my life is maybe a bit different than from some other patients, but things like will not stand in my way to keep living my life like i want.

One hour later we started the treatment that goes trough the infuse. It takes one hour to finish one product(herceptine) and than they put some other product that takes 30 minutes(perjeta).

After all of this we could leave the hospital, around 2 pm. I am lucky Jolien was with me to handle all this needles and distracted me. She also brought me to the next hospital where i have to get the radiotherapy.i always need to wear this before going under the machine

This hospital is in Ghent, closer to my house ,because i have to get the radiatikns every day and other days i can go get them by bike. It was my 21 st radiation today. Whem i was on the radiationmachine i felt so sleepy because of the medicins i got before. I was lucky again that Jolien joined me and toke me home after. When i came home i did nothing anymore.

Probably from tomorrow, i will be not tired anymore. Mostly the day after therapy the cortisone starts working and makes me feeling nervous. Than i don’t need to much sleep. Than i take advantage of hanging out in the evening 😃because i am not tired the next 2 days after. Cortisone is like a kind of drugs i think. anyway. Let’s see .