Today was my annual check up at the breast clinic.  Always a slightly anxious time - it doesn't matter what common sense tells you, there is always the faint possibility that something will be wrong, and I have a feeling that anxiety is catching... I walk in fine and am nervous by the time my name is called!

Anyway, good news, I am now nine years a NED and have only one more year of follow up to go.  Cue happy dance!

Back in 2011, when I had my surgery, the standard follow up for this part of Scotland was a decade.  Things have changed a lot, and now it is only high risk patients who are offered long term follow-up.  Many, maybe most, of the people I know who were diagnosed after me have been discharged - their risk is lower than mine.  I sometimes get told off for being 'fatalistic' or 'negative' but the reality is I have beaten and continue to beat, the odds for my starting point; even using the latest data, I am in a shrinking minority.  I am truly grateful to be here, and to be well - but I cannot ever forget the lower risk women who are no longer here.

Annual post check-up nag, then... do the screening, do the self-examinations, report lumps, bumps, bleeding, dodgy moles, persistent coughs, unexpected weight loss and so on.  Cancer treatment isn't fun - but it's better than the alternative.

Still NEDdy after all these years!!