Cancer Wizards Update

So today was my first official consultation with the head cancer wizard at the hospital since I started treatment, so this will be a bit of a boring medical type update unless I divert on to more interesting things as I type.

Basically the news is very good all round, the treatment seems to be working as I am showing all the signs of reacting well to the chemo such as the near distruction of my immue system, no swelling of the lymph nodes or breathing problems which would indicate the cancer in progressing. Hence the doctor was very confident that once the treatment, long or short, was complete I am very likely to get an all clear (about 95 percent or more).

The only dodgy fact was that about 15 percent of those who get an all clear relapse inside five years and have to go on to more aggressive chemo (so rough you are in total isolation in hospital for weeks, read Lance Armstrong's book if you want the blow by blow on this type of chemo) plus stem cell therapy afterwards to put an immune system back into your body. Good fact is that this tends to work in the majority of cases (60-70%) so if it happens we can cope with that, lets hope not !

So now the only dilemma is the length of the treatment, currently my 6th chemo finishes on the 12th of May, then we need to wait 2 weeks before getting CAT and PET scans, so by the end of May or so I get a result and another consultation. In about 30 percent of cases I get no more treatment and after a month or so should be able to get on with life pretty much as normal (early July just in time for well earned summer holidays yipee!)

The most likely situation is that they will find some small residual cancer, or possible cancer, and I will get another round of AVBD chemo (one month) and a dose of radiotherapy (one month) which will consume June and July giving me August to recover and build up my immue system ahead of starting back on the work treadmill in September or so. People say that the need for naps and real recovery of stamina takes a few more months so I will play it a bit more careful on jet lag recovery time for a while (ie not flying overnight to china, getting off the plane at 8am and going straight to work (3am UK time) for a day with the assistance of red bull or Java lava coffee! Mind you I still think that is better than flying economy overnight from the USA when you do that once or twice a month it gets really old after a certain age and time. Perhaps I can use my genuine immune suppression to get an exception from setting a good example for a while.

So all in all the news from the cancer wizards was all good, recovery probability looks good and they were more confident than I thought (doctor said she would be "really quite surprised" if I did not get a positive result at the end of the treatment). There is still the chance of a relapse but they have a plan if that happens, in between I can get fit, eat right take my supplements and meditate hopefully, so at least I will feel like I have some influence on that outcome (even if in reality its just random numbers).

Lee and I went out for a Nepalese curry just to get me out of the house last night, rather sadly as soon as I had eaten (v nice food) I came over all sleepy which happens to me some times so we came back home at about 9.30 having only been out for since 7.30 much to the babysitters surprise. I was tucked up in bed sound asleep by 10pm, so much for my romantic intentions ! I do find that I can pretend to be OK pretty well for about 2 hours or so but just afterwards I crash out on the sofa and nap, not something I could ever have done in the past but just need to do now. However a wee bit of tiredness aside I am fully over the last chemo and now, having done the experiment, swear by my special (horrible tasting) tea and my supplements.

The nurse told me during the last chemo that the people who cope well with the side effects tend to be those who have had rough lifestyles (jet lag, working hard, drinking and partying too much) as these seem to build up an ability to deal with toxins in the blood. So when you more or less stop drinking anything other than the odd glass of wine with a pint of water inbetween like me that capacity is available to fight the chemo. So my jokes about working for Gore setting me up to deal with chemo were not so far off the mark. The people who take it badly tend to be non-drinking, good living, more elderly women according to my nurse anyway.

One of my nurses turned out to be from Dumfries and recognised me from living there 11 years ago, nurses in Dumfries were a happy hunting ground for me in my bachelor days, never managed to catch one just did a lot of pointless prancing around like a cub lion, but we enjoyed it and had minor successes on other fronts. Fortunately she did not indicate that she had been witnesses to any of the more embarrassing frolics, small towns are funny that way the plant manager of my first plant was asked in a morning meeting (20 people or so) "why young Mr Mulligans car was parked at such and such a house when we came in for the start of early shift". I of course went bright red and blustered as the truth was I had been consigned to a friends couch (having thought I might do better) and had come to work in the same clothes I had left in the previous day. Much fun was had at my expense by the married guys as there would always be someone from the ICI factory in any pub I visited.

Actually they had another motive, when I was single, and I lived about 20 miles away from my work, I would just work through to about 7pm and then usually meet up with friends for sports, cinema or just a beer - saved me driving home and making my own dinner as we had a canteen at work. However this gave me lots of time to think up irritating ways to improve the plant which I would spring on the other (married with small children) guys the next morning (I was irritating even then, perhaps more so). After this went on for a few weeks Phil Roe my second plant leader said "for god sake Gerry will you go and get a girlfriend we cant keep up!" So I think they were secretly hopeful that my poor efforts to chat up the nurses would be successful to cheer up their day with gossip and reduce the load in their in trays. In those days we had in trays rather than email and you could measure your backlog in inches rather than red pages.

So anyway enough of my rather ordinary past exploits, you can thank the nurse for that train of thought its made me nostalgic enough that I may take the car down to see some of my friends down there if I can get the water leak fixed, which means I need to get the furniture out of the garage - so that may take a while.

Cheers for now

Gerry