This morning I went to the physio. As I waited, the physio came out with the previous patient. The patient was wearing a classic chemo scarf, and I overheard them making her next appointment. “So when’s your next chemo session?” “Next Thursday” and so on.

I am really impressed by people who made the decision to do chemotherapy that would cause complete alopecia. I really am. I just couldn’t do it. I can’t justify that decision, made way back when. I can’t explain why. I have no logical, rational reason. I just couldn’t do it.

Now, nearly 2 years later, my chemo is all over. It’s a week since I told the medical oncologist that I wanted no more chemo.

I know nothing more about the woman I saw in the physio’s waiting room. I don’t know what kind of cancer she has, how long since diagnosis, or how she’s doing. But seeing her, and hearing her make her next appointment, forced me to re-consider whether I’d made the right decision about stopping chemo.

Yes, it was the right decision. I still feel good about it. I haven’t for a single moment felt any regret, or wanted to reconsider.

I worked out I’d done 52 weeks of chemo:

  • 6 x 3-weekly cycles of Carboplatin last year
  • 2 x 1-weekly cycles of Carboplatin this year, before I had the allergic reaction
  • 3 x 4-weekly cycles of Cyclophosphamide
  • 5 x 4-weekly cycles of Caelyx

I’d given it a go. I’d done enough.