A tale of 2 pairs of shoes.......

Day 1 of cycle 1 is complete. I no longer feel like a fraud - I am now a bona fide patient. My body is a battle ground and it does help to think of the chemo going round my body rounding it all up. I appreciate this might be slightly premature given the infusions only finished a few hours ago, but positive mental attitude and all that.

I feel it is important to face cancer head on and show it who is boss. I am renowned for my footwear and decided that Louboutin ankle boots would fit the bill today in the absence of Dorothy's ruby slippers. I went from one extreme to the other when I switched out of these into my own furry fox slippers for sitting on the bed. Both got comments!

The port held up beautifully and is healing well, given it only went in 3 days ago. Apparently the surgeon made a great job of it  and I have limited bruising. It seemed a little churlish to mention that it rubs when I run, so for once in my life I managed to keep my mouth shut. It's a bit weird the way they just stab a needle into it and that's it. I thought it would hurt, but actually it doesn't. They've offered me some anaesthetic cream for next time but to be honest I'm not sure I need it.

Then the infusions. Pertuzumab first (over 1 hour), then some saline, then a little break, then Herceptin over 90 minutes. More saline and then 2-3 hours of waiting to make sure I didn't keel over. I didn't - good news there! Very convenient in terms of getting most of the Christmas presents sorted, plus a small snooze.

Stephen also had a cracking idea of bringing our little portable speaker with us and we listened to an Ibiza sunset playlist. I was imagining being back on the beach at sun-down, cocktail in hand (usually double-parked). It helped massively.

Also did a bit of reading. Before all of this happened I decided that I had reached a time in my life where there were some classic books that I hadn't read and felt I should. I started with Gone With The Wind. Actually, I pretty much finished with Gone With The Wind, as 5 months on I am only 8% in and the Kindle is still saying that it is going to take me 30 hours to finish the book. I swear that time hasn't gone down in the 5 months I've been reading it. Might have to admit defeat on that one. However, as with all books of that era it is completely politically incorrect by today's standards, so quite amusing.

Do I feel any different? No, not yet, but this is early days and the drug tomorrow is the one that is likely to make me feel lousy. I've started some anti-sickness tablets in preparation for the likely after effects of that. Also pleased to report I have drunk my own body weight in tea today. I'm not sure how many different packets of biscuits they have, but the lovely Nick has managed to produce a different variety every time he brings us yet another pot of tea. I'll let you know when we are repeating......

I was asked to mention to them if anything looked/felt funny whilst having the treatments. At one point I got a very weird red left hand, which we mentioned and then felt really silly when we realised that it was because I had been holding a mug of hot chicken soup. Oops!

Celeb spot on the way out of the hospital - Jamie Cullum plus daughter. For those of you who don't know you can literally walk from the hospital to Roald Dahl's old house (where he and Sophie Dahl  live) so shouldn't be that much of a surprise I guess!

Back tomorrow at 8.30am for the next assault. Let the battle commence in earnest........