The human pin cushion

Well, that was fun. Not. Spent another full day in the delightful oasis of calm that is Ealing Hospital. But at least we're finally making some progress towards getting that treatment plan.

Had the obligatory chat with my Macmillan Nurse and got a whole library of literature to peruse at my leisure. To be fair, I already knew quite a lot of the stuff that she told me but the key points are that my tumour is:

• An Invasive/Infiltrating Ductal Carcinoma - so has already spread from the milk duct, where it started, and into the breast issue.
• Stage 1 (probably) - in that it seems to be less than 2cm.
• Grade 2 - so growing at a moderate speed.
• Hormone responsive - and feeding on the oestrogen in my body.

We talked a lot about possible treatments too but all of that is academic until the full set of tests are done to ascertain what else, if anything, might be there.

And so we began. First with a blood test (urgh!) and then with a 30-minute MRI scan (double URGH!). The veins in both my arms are thoroughly bruised and battered. How they're going to find a free vein to stab tomorrow at my bone scan, Christ-only-knows, but if it means I can see the back of this parasitic little f*cker, so be it!