March 12th - Quick Update

Sharon is back from surgery and gradually coming out of the anaesthetic. Her surgeon came to see Heather and myself after the op to say that things had gone well and that there "were no surprises".... obviously something we were very happy to hear.

She is in a bit of pain and feeling slightly nauseous, but hopefully just a temporary thing while the drugs wear off.

We have the biggest possible Thank You's to all who have supported us, been thinking of us, praying on our behalf, text messages and so on. Yet again, we are just humbled by the amazing people that surround us. A very special Thank You to Heather for all your support and being here for a few days.

March 12th

Sitting in the hospital waiting to go down to surgery - they said it will probably be about 1pm before they're ready. Most of the nurses are the same as the last time I was here so it's nice to see some friendly faces :)

I am feeling apprehensive about the surgery and really hungry!! but apart from that doing ok. Dave as always has been by my side every step of the way - he really is amazing :)

And thank you again for all your messages and texts of support - they bring us so much comfort and encouragement and we are very blessed to have so many wonderful people around us.

March 11th

It's 5:30pm and we're about to leave for London in an hour or so and guess what I've been doing all day - finishing off a million things for work!! That's called getting your priorities right :) It has helped in some ways as I haven't been thinking about surgery at all and maybe I just needed to take my mind off things - but I really can't believe it's come round so soon.

I check into the hospital (or should I say hotel!) at 7am tomorrow but I'm 5th on the list for surgery so will probably be waiting around for a long time before I go in. The operation itself will be about 4 hours but I will ask Dave to let you know as soon as possible how everything went. Heather (my sister) is coming over tomorrow afternoon for a few days too so I will have lots of support.

I am so overwhelmed by the number of texts, emails, blog messages & cards. I'm really sorry I haven't been able to respond to many. I just want you all to know how much they mean to both of us - we feel so loved and supported & really do value you prayers and encouragement over the next few days, and especially tomorrow.

March 7th

I can't believe a month has passed since I've updated my blog. It's been a very busy month - we got back from Australia and I went back to work full time from 2nd Feb. Work has been so busy - my boss was made redundant while I was away but he stayed on for over a month to hand everything over to me. So it's been extremely busy - I've been travelling to Kettering once a week and staying up for 2 or 3 nights and then back to Swindon for the weekends. But I've also been able to work from home a day or so a week.

Then came the really difficult news a couple of weeks ago that my tumour has grown back. I noticed a lump right next to where the original tumour was and wasn't sure if it was scar tissue or something esle. When I went for my check up they thought it was just scar tissue but did a biopsy and discovered that the cancer had returned. It's been such a shock, just when we were getting back to normal again and really felt that we were moving on and putting this whole episode behind us.

I haven't updated the blog as I was waiting on test results & wasn't really sure what was happening next so wanted to be able to give the full story. I am due to go for surgery this Saturday (12th) - in order to make sure it doesn't come back again they are going to have to do a mastectomy. They will also do reconstruction at the same time but it will be a long operation and the recovery time is anything from 6 to 12 weeks. The surgeon said I'm likely to be out of action for about 3 months. They also said that chemo is unlikely but won't know until after surgery so I am really hoping & praying that I don't have to go down that road again.

There have been lots of tears over the last few weeks but it's been good to have work to distract me - and as always incredible support from the people around us. Thank you so much to everyone who has been sending us emails, texts, cards etc as you've found out bits of news. You are such an encouragement to both of us & we will make sure to keep you updated with how I'm doing. I may not be able to type for a while but I'm sure Dave will let me dictate (for a change!) and keep the blog updated for me :)