Having had a bad pre-chemo experience where the (new) doctor demanded to know why I was experiencing nausea when they are 'only' giving me Herceptin, which doesn't cause nausea??? And where did I get the idea that I had cancer in my hip from because there was nothing to indicate that on her report, I decided to make an appointment with my consultant.

Just so you know, they aren't 'only' giving me Herceptin, Herceptin in one of the drugs in the combination that makes up the trial, and on the list of side effects that they gave me in the beginning, nausea & loss of appetite are right at the top!

It's been nearly three years since my diagnosis and over the last sixteen months I've been having my 3 weekly infusions and 6 weekly scans that show no change, I felt that I needed some sort of review. I wanted to know exactly what is wrong with me now because to be totally honest I was feeling pretty clueless.

Dr Hickish was very understanding of how I was feeling, he explained that the reason my most recent scan showed no evidence of cancer in my hip was because there are currently no active cancer cells there.

He said that the new Spondylitis that showed up on the MRI scan has probably developed due to a weakness caused by the cancer but at the moment there are no active cancer cells.

He then went on to say that in all probability there are no active cancer cells in my liver or lung either, because I am allergic to the contrast dye they use in CT scans there may be a minimal amount of active cells that they can't see, but it's unlikely (I guess they have to cover themselves).

We asked what this meant, and were told that at this present time there are no active cancer cells in my body, but this could change at any time.

I asked what would happen if (hypothetically) I decided to stop all treatment, he said he felt certain that within a month or two the cancer would be active again, however he then added that if we're still in this situation in two years time he would be less confident about how quickly things would become active.

Kev and I came out of the appointment feeling a lot more positive, it suddenly feels that I have some kind of future. That he said "If we're here in 2 years" means he doesn't think it's impossible.

Now I just need to decide what to do with my time! The Fundraising role for Breast Cancer Care is going well, we've sold out of tickets for our first event - a quiz night at the end of this month, and with Megan starting school on Monday I'll have plenty of time to get stuck right in to raising lots of money and awareness for Breast Cancer Care.