About Double C
This was me in February 2022, three days after my husband, William, was diagnosed with multiple myeloma.
I had just finished six rounds of chemotherapy treatment for breast cancer, but the shock of William’s diagnosis threw me back into hospital with a high fever and infection.
After six days and nights of being hooked up to a drip packed full of antibiotics, I eventually persuaded my oncologist to discharge me in time for William’s first consultant appointment.
He was about to begin four months’ of chemotherapy in preparation for a stem cell transplant – a process that wipes out the immune system and as many cancer cells as possible. When William’s immune system stops working, he will be infused with his own stem cells which are harvested prior to transplant to restart the immune system.
During William’s chemotherapy, I also had breast conserving surgery, a PowerPort removal and 19 rounds of radiotherapy. Then there was blood tests, cardiology tests, CT scans and ongoing immunotherapy injections which target the human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER-2) that feeds my breast cancer.
Although my breast cancer is curable, William’s myeloma is not. The best outcome we can hope for is many years’ of being in remission together after treatment.
In the meantime, we keep ourselves sane by having fun with family.
Eating lots of lovely pasta,
and being crazy parents to our children and cats.
But the one thing that gives me a real outlet, is writing.
In fact, William and I have been overwhelmed by the amount of support and interest people have shown in our story, so I thought I’d share it with you as a free newsletter called Double C.
If you subscribe, you’ll receive helpful insights on what it’s really like living with cancer as a family and fighting it simultaneously as a couple.
Although Dr Google might provide info on numbers and scary statistics, my experience of cancer has taught me to seek real-life information from real-life people who are actually going through it in the real-world.
On that note, this newsletter continues to chart our progress from diagnosis-to-treatment-to-recovery and hopefully beyond. Many of the posts have not been easy to write. But if they help just one person, then the effort was worth it.
We hope you enjoy reading Double C and please tell a few friends if you feel like it.
Fiona and William
xx
