Backing the Bartletts

Here’s a little bit of an insight to what’s happening with the Bartletts at the moment xx

It's now been almost 3

weeks since my final radiation treatment in Christchurch. When they said "you'll feel tired for a few weeks..." I did not anticipate the absolute exhaustion that's happening. I'm able to walk around 200 meters before I need to sit and rest, anything cognitive like writing lists, organising Ruby and everyday domestic stuff is a bit of a challenge and is requiring loads of patience from all three of us.

I had a telephone appointment with my oncologist this past Tuesday afternoon, I have six more days of steroids to get through and a few more weeks of the grotty painkillers before we start tapering them off. It will be interesting to see what reality feels like once the drug haze has gone, I'm definitely nervous of the pain as I've not really been able to get on top of it.

My oncologist also explained that we need to wait four months before they can get a new picture, via MRI, of what has been achieved/not achieved. There would be no point scanning now as it's probably not going to give us a clear idea, the old brain needs more time to settle and heal.

She also reminded me not to compare this to my breast cancer radiation, on the radiation intensity scale it doesn't get worse than brain microwaving which means being patient, not pushing myself and trying to let my body have the time it requires to start healing.

That's really all the informative we have for now, as we find out about the outcome of treatment and future treatment plans we will let you all know.

Thank you so much for your continued support and messages of love and hope.

We truly appreciate each and every one of you.