And just like that, another year is almost over! Does anyone else feel like we just blinked and it’s gone? The pohutukawa are glorious in full flower through out Auckland and it looks like it will be a long, hot summer. With Christmas just around the corner we have some scandalously fabulous skin care gift boxes and gorgeous gift vouchers for the perfect Xmas gift for you or a loved one.  

With the year nearly over, it’s a great time to reflect on the year that has been. Our biggest celebration was the move of our Britomart clinic to our gorgeous new Quay St clinic, we’ve added another couple of fabulous nurse injectors (Janny and Tina) to the team, and our team has continued to upskill, attend conferences and explore new treatments despite the sometimes challenging economic environment which has negatively affected so many in our industry.  

We made huge progress with our training academy (IG @tfp_academy) this year with the building and launch of the online components of our Foundation Neuromodulators and Foundation Dermal Fillers courses. I am so incredibly proud of our wonderful trainer, Marjorie, as she has been the key driver of these courses, and has run the vast majority of this year’s workshops. She is an excellent trainer, and her learners often comment about how easy it feels to learn with her.  

I recommended one of our other senior nurses, Eve, to become part of the newly formed Allergan Nursing Faculty, and she has also excelled as a trainer in this field.  

On a personal level, I celebrated my 50th birthday in the Galápagos Islands, which has been in the top part of my bucket list for many years. Just before flying out for my birthday celebrations I found a lump in my other breast, which was originally thought to be a pre-cancer, but when I had surgery to remove the breast it was was discovered to have 3 different invasive cancers in it, and more cancer in the sentinel lymph node. The presence of cancer in the sentinel lymph node meant I had to have a second surgery to remove and check the rest of the lymph nodes in my armpit.  

I’m recovering well from my axillary lymph node clearance surgery 5 weeks ago, although I had my drain in for almost a month as I continued to produce high volumes of sepus fluid into the drain… 50-100ml a day! They only take the drain out when it’s less than 30ml for two consecutive days, or when it starts getting painful and infected like mine did… I nearly beat the existing record of 4 weeks with a drain in…. And I kept looking at the serous fluid which looks so much like PRP, and being tempted to inject it into my face (it’s different to PRP though as it has metabolic waste in it that the PRP doesn’t).  

Because it took so long for my drain to come out, my chemo was delayed by a week, and I had my first chemo last Thursday. I had a portacath (a tube into one of the veins on my chest that delivers chemo into my central circulation) inserted last Tuesday, and I’ll have a nice scar on my chest from it when my chemo is over, which will be fun for the team to play with some of our new scar treatments using Botox, insulin or growth factors, alongside our usual scar treatments of PRP, needling of vampire facial plus! 

The good news is that they found no further cancer in the 21 lymph nodes they removed in the most recent surgery, so I will have a less aggressive chemo regimen of 4 x21 day cycles, followed by radiotherapy and then attempting hormone blockers again. The last two times I attempted hormone blockage with Tamoxifen I experienced severe fatigue, rage, uncontrollable crying and suicidal ideation, so I have started an antidepressant now to try and see if I can tolerate the blockade better with antidepressant support.  

I missed my mum’s 70th on 23 November in Mexico due to my surgery, but the day after her birthday she jumped on a plane to come and care for me during my first round of chemo. It has been lovely having her here, and because my chemo was delayed a week, we got to have some nice time together before I started chemo. She leaves just before Xmas on 23 December, when my friend group will take over again. I have 3 months of chemo and then a month of radiotherapy, and will then attempt the hormone blockers.  

I am beyond grateful to have such an incredible team, who have allowed me to step back almost completely and focus on my health, and to have had such amazing support from friends, family and our wonderful patients such as you.  

Wishing you and your family a healthy, happy, glorious holiday season, and a 2025 that brings great joy and success!  

Love and holiday hugs,