Fast Summary

This post is intended as a fast summary for those who get the link for the first time and just want to get the basic story so far. I will try to edit it from time to time to keep it fresh.

I was diagnosed with Hodgkins Lymphoma which is a type of cancer, on the 20th of Feb 2006. The first indication of this was picked up on a CAT scan on the 25th of January which was done for an unrelated reason, checking for the aortal problem which killed my dad and can be passed on to male relatives. The consultant told me I had "swollen glands in my chest" on the 30th of Jan and grounded me while more tests and scans were done. By mid Feb the medics were talking about tumours instead of swollen glands and I had a rather painful biopsy ( ie big needle from collarbone to the tumour near my heart via the lung to get a sample). At this stage we had moved up to "lymphoma" but were growing cells to see which type. The final conclusion was Hodgkins Lymphoma, normal type (there are four), Stage 2A.

That means it was small, caught early and this is one of the most treatable forms of cancer in the modern day. Untreated it is deadly in pretty short order (18months mean time to death), but the paradox is that because it grows so fast and agressivily it sucks up chemotherapy very strongly and therefore has a high success in first treatment (around 80 percent). I am in the lower risk area due to my age and the early stage of the disease.

The treatment was chemotherapy which started on the 1st of March 06 and repeated six times every 14 days for the following three months. Initially the chemo went well and my reactions were pretty mild compared to the possibilities. After the three months there was a critical PET scan which could have resulted in that being the end of the treatment if it was clear. In an emotional rollercoaster I was first told it was clear and then later told that further expert examination had detected some small amount of possible residual cancer activity. This meant that I did not qualify for treatment to stop there and had to go on to further chemo and then radiotherapy. The good thing about radiotherapy in theory was that it halfed the chance of the Hodgkins reappearing (from one in five to one in ten or so) and the new techniques have minimised the chance of secondary cancers as a result of the treatment.

So that all went well, I found the radiotherapy easy going and treatment was completed by the start of August 06, following a few weeks holiday I was back at work pretty much full time from the start of September ( I had been working about half time throughout the treatment). I set off to visit the various factories I am responsible for around the world and at the end of November had just returned from visiting the team in Shenzhen when I went to the hospital for the results of my "routine" monitoring CT scan.

Much to my surprise I was told that the cancer was not gone, I was not in the clear, and the cancer had jumped to an adjacent node probably just before the radiotherapy started and had been growing there since the summer. So although the original site of the cancer seems to be clear I have a new lymph gland which contains the disease. Further tests showed that the cancer had spread to multiple lymph nodes and was quite serious, the doctor at that time gave me a 40 percent chance which was quite sobering.

So the treatment for this situation is "industrial scale" chemo (doctors words not mine) to get the cancer into remission and then stem cells are taken from my bone marrow and stored. As I write this in March 2007 this has occured and although I was pretty sick it seems to have worked the cancer has disappeared and the stem cells were extracted successfully. Next step is to up the chemo level with the dreaded BEAM chemo which will kill off any lurking cancer cells along with all my bone marrow and all the bits of me that make my blood/fight infection. At this time I will be in a special isolation unit in the hospital. Once the chemo has done its bit I will get my stem cells back and hopefully grow back a healthy blood/immune system. This is expected to take a few months the first of which is full time in the hospital unit. The good news is the cancer having reacted well to the chemo by dying, and the stem cells being successfully harvested, puts my odds up into a much healther region.

Now adding a paragraph some time later the BEAM chemo was really horrible as predicted, everything which can go wrong with your body goes wrong all at once and existance is hour to hour in the deep times when you have no natural immune system. Never the less compared to many I got through it well, the transplant took, the blood counts returned and I started the long slog of recovery which took four months before a gentle return to work and nine months until I felt properly well again. Now a year later than that and two scans clear I am in good shape feeling well and fully immersed in normal life again, about once every three or four months I update this blog to remind myself how lucky I am and to keep the story going for those of you who read these things as preparation for your own journey.

This is a journey which we have walked through step by step, thats still the orientation we are taking, hence until any other possible future occurs we are not wasting too much energy or mindspace on it. I have managed to have as some fun over the months of treatment and you all have been a great part of making that happen by being as normal as is possible and being patient when its not possible and resting is necessary.

Hope this saves you a lot of reading as the blog proper is getting a bit long, the other two links on the side of the page are a good start if you want to know more about the disease or how to help.

Cheers

Gerry