Being NED - OK, I'd better let you know what NED means so that you don't think I've changed names or something!! Today, I went for the results of the CT scan and after waiting an hour, saw the doctor at 10am who said the scan was 'basically fine' . He expanded on this by saying there was No Evidence of Disease (NED) but that the area where I had the booster sessions of radiotherapy shows inflammation. They feel this is just caused by the radiotherapy but will keep an eye on it anyway so hopefully, that is all it is. I think I have 8 more herceptins to go to complete the year of that treatment and hope that it has done the trick. Hubby's parent's bought us a bottle of champagne tonight which I think I've drunk most of but it went a long way!!
Co-incidentally, it is a year tomorrow that I first got my diagnosis and what a year it has been. A huge thank you to you all who have supported us all either by looking after us physically or emotionally. We don't know what we would have done without you all or how we will pay you back.
Now to change the subject completely and back to this week's news. The mouse seems to have disappeared so has either run back outside to rejoin the guinea pigs or is laying upside down somewhere under a cupboard. However, hubby made an odd discovery in shed number 3. Firstly, there was a lot of chewed polystryene on the floor. Then, he noticed the black bag of rags had a hole in and there was a trail of birdseed to his wellyboots. When, he peered inside, the boot was full of seeds, nuts and other bits and pieces so we think a squirrel has been busy in there!! The tadpoles are now swimming around their container and the blue tits are back so we have a lot of wildlife in our city garden!!
I've felt better this week and have managed to cycle about 100 yds!! We were trying to encourage AJ to be more confident on his bike. I've not cycled now for a year and my legs ached the next day!! I've also managed a walk and a muddy splash with the children and their godmother and her daughter at Holly hill. It rained in the end so we had to come home!! Yesterday, we went for a walk in the local woods as my sister and her 2 younger children came down and again, the children came back very muddy after splashing in the mud and the local stream. For you local people, I managed to walk from home all the way up to the Obelisk and the park up there!! I'm very pleased that I am getting stronger even though I still get breathless and get tired. (My blood tests are still not quite back to my normal but very nearly there now). I was so tired when we came back though I couldn't face cooking so we went to a Brewer's Fayre with inside and outside play areas. Woody suddenly came back to us to say my youngest niece was stuck in the toilet. Of course, we all thought she couldn't really be locked in the lavatory but she was!! The female manager tried with a knife and a screwdriver to turn the lock but it wouldn't budge. Eventually, she had to get the chef to get a crowbar (looking well used!!) from her flat above the pub and he broke the door down to get her out!! The manager commented on how silly it was to have such a stiff lock on the children's toilet and that they were getting new doors next week!! Not very useful, when there is a strong 9 yr old girl locked in the loo!! You know, we didn't even get a discount for the upset it caused the poor girl and her mum!! I think that was a bit unfair, don't you!! Actually, that day was eventful all round. Mum fell over while posting a letter for an elderly friend. The lady was sitting in mum's car whilst mum got out to post the letter. She fell up the kerb and all these people dashed towards her to help her and brushed her down to make sure she was alright and the lady didn't even notice. Mum being the brave souls she is, drove off, and a bit later on decided her wrist was a bit sore so drove to the local hospital. As it was after 5pm the X Ray was shut so they put a backslab plaster on and told her to come back tomorrow for an XRay. She went back the next day and sure enough, she had broken a bone near her thumb! I suppose at least, we know the osteoporosis medicine is working or it could have been a lot worse so now mum isn't coming here for Easter. As for me, well yesterday, a lady with a very small baby drove out at me whilst I was on a roundabout and then stopped right in front of me. I think she was distracted and then panicked and did an emergency stop rather than just speeding up and getting out my way. I was rather shocked as well!!
Oh well time for bed.

The story behind the twins' arrival
This is an adapted version of the birth story published in the local NCT magazine so will probably seem very familiar to most of you!!
As most of you know, I had 15 months of fertility treatment to conceive the twins. It was a very stressful experience involving twice weekly trips to London from Ashford, Kent. During this time, I produced lots of cysts but no eggs. However, in July 1996, after 56 days of sniffing and injecting hormones, I produced 10 follicles (which produce the eggs) so we had to abandon it. It was too risky - even as desparate as I was to conceive - I did not really want to have 10 babies. The doctors changed the regime but I still sniffed and injected. This time it all sped up and I went from 0 to 23 follicles in 7 days. We weren't expecting that. Due to the huge number of follicles I produced, I developed a very strange version of Hyperstimulation Syndrome . Many women have hyperstimulation syndrome when they have IVF treatment and it can make you very ill or even be fatal. Me being me, didn't develop the 'normal' type but a peculiar variation where my blood tests and general health were fine but my ovaries went into overdrive and grew and grew. Eventually, my right ovary became 2 litres (watermelon size) and my left ovary over1 litre (other type of melon sized). I resembled the size of a full term pregnancy and was uncomfortable and breathless to match. The doctors were very puzzled by me and the consultant even phoned from his holiday in Cornwall to check on my condition. (This was pre -mobile phones remember). Eventually, the test came back and I was indeed pregnant!! As you can imagine, finding out I was pregnant had now become rather a concern and was not the happy occasion I'd dreamt of for all those months. I had almost daily scans to check but it wasn't until I was 6 weeks pregnant that the ultrasoundographer discovered 1 foetal sac. We were relieved but told there could still be more. At 7 weeks they did indeed find 1 more. Due to the separation, I had to phone hubby to tell him the news that it was now twins. At this point, there was a lot of hysterical giggling which due to my immense size was rather painful and made me even more breathless than ever. Luckily, I only ever did conceive the 2.
I remained in hospital for the next 4 weeks which was a very mind numbing experience as anyone who has spent a long time in hospital can testify. It became extremely important if I could not sit on my usual seat in the TV room! It must have also looked as if I came from a very dysfunctional family, as only 1 one member would visit at a time due to the expense of the journey from Kent to London. Then, to add to our woes, hubby stood on a nail at work and could not walk, and then was made redundant!
Over the next 3 months, my ovaries reduced which meant that I must have been the only woman in history who shrank as their pregnancy progressed!! I still had to travel from Kent to London weekly for scans but all was well and the twins were growing nicely. The 12 week scan was a very magical experience as the scan showed both babies at the same time, and in wonderful detail. Twin 1, on the left, later known as Woody moved very slowly and precisely (he is much the same now). Twin 2 (Laura) was a whirling dervlish and has been this way ever since. It is hard to believe that their personalities could be seen at that point, not that we believed that at the time but it is true. Later scans were less enlightening, as they could not be seen together at the same time.
The rest of my pregnancy went well apart from the added complication that hubby found a job - on the Isle of Wight - over 2 hours and a ferry ride away from Kent. Luckily, his family lived locally and so he stayed with them in the week.
The early part of Christmas was spent with hubby’s family and the week was most memorable for having a car skid into ours in the snow. Hubby drove me back to Kent that day and the next day drove back to Hampshire. I was then snowed in for 3 weeks and had to rely on the neighbours to get me food.
Our house went on the market in December, and as the babies were due in May, we envisaged everything happening at once. We weren't far off the mark as you shall see. Our house eventually sold in March and having found a house in Southampton, we had a provisional moving date at the end of April, 1997.
By the beginning of April, I was so large and short of breath, that even getting dressed took me an hour! Getting in and out of the bath, was the equivalent of climbing Mount Everest. If I did venture out, I got so stared at as if people could not believe someone so large could go out shopping. I found I had to ask for help for even the most simple things. I could not bend over a supermarket trolley so used to get the staff to come with me to do the shopping.
At 36 weeks, I'd had enough. My whole day seemed to exist around a time frame of 45 minutes. I could only sleep for 45 minutes, had to go to the loo every 45 minute or even keep awake for 45 minutes. So, at my weekly, Monday outpatient appointment, I asked to be induced asI was so big and tired and also the scans showed Woody was getting thinner. Luckily, the obstetrician agreed. As had been the way throughout this pregnancy, nothing was straightforward. It was after all, a week before the move day but I was desparate to get my breath back and to be able to lie down at night. I was banking on the idea that the twins would go 3-4 hours between feeds so that I could get more sleep! I went into hospital on Tuesday and as they had told me my body didn't seem ready, I expected it to be at least 3 days before the twins arrived. In fact, I even told hubby not to come back until Thursday but he decided to come back late Tuesday night, anyway.
I settled into the plastic covered bed at 10pm and went into a fitfull sleep until midnight when I woke up to go to the loo. As I was getting out of bed, there was a ‘pop’ as my waters burst. I can still see the midwife with her mop and bucket clearing up after me and then my contractions began. As it was still early stages, we did not contact hubby until about 3am, when I was in established labour. I thought it best for hubby to get as much sleep as possible as anyone who knows him will agree. The midwife phoned home and felt that someone had answered the phone but then could get no response! She tried for over 30 minutes but still got no reply and even more worrying, kept getting the engaged tone. I was armed with lots of phone numbers - relatives in Southampton, Red Funnel Ferry, hubby’s work, and my next door neighbour. We decided if the midwife got no reply soon, we would have to ring the neighbour and ask her to go in and wake hubby up. On her final attempt, he answered the phone! He told her that he had picked the phone up the first time, but then went back to sleep immediately wihtout speaking!! He then woke up still clutching the phone and was not sure what had happened. I'm not sure how many men could achieve this feat! He eventually arrived about 4.30am and my labour progressed very slowly for the next 12 hours. Eventually, Woody became very distressed and I had an emergency caesarian.
As shown on the scans, Woody did indeed resemble a lollypop as he was so undernourished and Laura arrived crying and wriggling but looking a small but perfectly formed baby. Woody weighed 5lb 2oz but was the same length as Laura who weighed 6lb 5 so you can understand the difference in size. Poor Woody looked so fragile nobody wanted to cuddle him incase they broke him.
As for our move - well, when the twins were 3 days old and 4 days before the big move, I found out from the portable telephone in the ward, that our buyers had not sorted out their deposit and our move got delayed for 12 days. This was our lowest and most stressed point.
I came home from hospital when the twins were 1 week old and spent 1 night in our house in Ashford before decamping to my parents for the next 2 weeks. Luckily, the new work were paying for the removal firm to pack the house. Hubby moved to our new house in Hampshire on his own until I joined him with the twins when they were 3 weeks old. I arrived on the Sunday night and hubby went to work the next day and my new life in Hampshire had begun.