As many of you know, I have been diagnosed with stage 4 melanoma (without a cancerous skin spot - yes, that can happen) at the start of this year in the wake of breaking my hip due to an inoperable brain tumour when my leg suddenly just gave way under me.
The brain doesn't have any pain receptors, so falls or seizures and a very gradually increasing feeling of general grottiness with nowhere to put the finger on are a pretty common way of finding out that you have a brain tumour. Mine have been additionally masked by equally common somewhat indistinct Long Covid symptoms in the wake of a bad bout of Covid in 2022 while my cancer was already spreading through my body.
I have now recovered enough on my targeted immunotherapy (the newest generation of cancer meds) to tackle the next stage: concentrated radiotherapy on the cancer spots in my head over 5 consecutive days (Monday to Friday) next week.
I am going to be increasingly unwell and extremely tired with some other potentially more major side effects for the following 2-4 weeks and then still weaker and tiring more easily for another 3-4 months, which means that it is going to take me until next Spring to get back to how far I have come until now. It's not going to be a quick fix and the potential side effects on the brain and body can be at the worst permanent.
This in order to stabilise and hopefully shrink the inoperable cancer spots inside my head and to make them independent from my cancer meds, so that I don't have to worry whenever I have to come off my cancer meds and especially when they stop working sooner or later (nobody can say when) so we are not caught on the back foot at the other end.
However, your support has been invaluable for me over the last year and I will have rely on it rather heavily now for the frankly scariest part of my cancer journey. I may continue to come on here for a much needed moodboost and your community support but I won't be well enough to support others and give advice - and I will continue not do do it whenever and as long as I do not feel strong enough for helping others but need support and understanding for myself.
I hope that you can respect this and that this post can avoid awkward questions, comments and tags from members looking for answers for their own problems in the meantime.
I want to thank you all for all the support you have given me as individuals and as a community, but especially to @Qualcast&Flymo @furryfriends (TEAS) @BossHogg @Piggies&buns and to the whole modding team. You cannot imagine just how much your support has meant and is still meaning to me.
Please keep me in your thoughts and prayers for the coming weeks as the effects of the intense x-rays gradually build up and evolve.
Here is the ongoing blog of my journey so far over the past year. It's been quite a rollercoaster ride with lots of twists and turns, which is now about to take its scariest dive and bend. I will continue to update, depending on how fit I am: Wiebke's Journey
Thank you again for your understanding and support.
The brain doesn't have any pain receptors, so falls or seizures and a very gradually increasing feeling of general grottiness with nowhere to put the finger on are a pretty common way of finding out that you have a brain tumour. Mine have been additionally masked by equally common somewhat indistinct Long Covid symptoms in the wake of a bad bout of Covid in 2022 while my cancer was already spreading through my body.
I have now recovered enough on my targeted immunotherapy (the newest generation of cancer meds) to tackle the next stage: concentrated radiotherapy on the cancer spots in my head over 5 consecutive days (Monday to Friday) next week.
I am going to be increasingly unwell and extremely tired with some other potentially more major side effects for the following 2-4 weeks and then still weaker and tiring more easily for another 3-4 months, which means that it is going to take me until next Spring to get back to how far I have come until now. It's not going to be a quick fix and the potential side effects on the brain and body can be at the worst permanent.
This in order to stabilise and hopefully shrink the inoperable cancer spots inside my head and to make them independent from my cancer meds, so that I don't have to worry whenever I have to come off my cancer meds and especially when they stop working sooner or later (nobody can say when) so we are not caught on the back foot at the other end.
However, your support has been invaluable for me over the last year and I will have rely on it rather heavily now for the frankly scariest part of my cancer journey. I may continue to come on here for a much needed moodboost and your community support but I won't be well enough to support others and give advice - and I will continue not do do it whenever and as long as I do not feel strong enough for helping others but need support and understanding for myself.
I hope that you can respect this and that this post can avoid awkward questions, comments and tags from members looking for answers for their own problems in the meantime.
I want to thank you all for all the support you have given me as individuals and as a community, but especially to @Qualcast&Flymo @furryfriends (TEAS) @BossHogg @Piggies&buns and to the whole modding team. You cannot imagine just how much your support has meant and is still meaning to me.
Please keep me in your thoughts and prayers for the coming weeks as the effects of the intense x-rays gradually build up and evolve.
Here is the ongoing blog of my journey so far over the past year. It's been quite a rollercoaster ride with lots of twists and turns, which is now about to take its scariest dive and bend. I will continue to update, depending on how fit I am: Wiebke's Journey
Thank you again for your understanding and support.
Xx
