January 7th

I was due to see the surgeon on the 11th to get my scan results but he phoned me yesterday morning to say that they had already reviewed then and had confirmed the devastating news that the cancer has spread to my spine. It was a complete shock and he asked me to go directly to London to meet with the oncologist and discuss treatment.

We got straight into the car at 10am and made it to London for just after12 and have had an incredibly difficult day. The MRI scan showed that there is a tumour in one of my vertebrae that has spread from the original breast cancer. Although nothing showed up in my lymph nodes all along, this can also spread through the blood stream and they did a blood test which shows that shows that this is probably the case as there are tumour markers in the blood which are slightly elevated.

The good news is that it is confined to one vertebrae and they are confident that they are able to contain this through radiotherapy and a drug called Zometa, which is an IV that I will need to get once a month to strengthen the bones in my spine and ensure that they don't collapse.

In true Marsden style, not only did I see the oncologist, I also saw the radiotherapist, breast care nurse and actually started treatment that afternoon! They are incredibly responsive and everything happened immediately.

It's a lot to take on board to understand all of this and we have lots of questions and concerns - it's such a hard knock to take just when we thought that things were finally getting back to normal this year & we could start planning ahead.