26 April 2010 - Appointment at QE Hospital

On 15 April, Deb had the 9th MRI scan of her tumour since her radiotherapy treatment. This was about 2 months since the last scan (9 February) and 6 weeks since Deb stopped her chemotherapy treatment. We again saw Dr Sanghera, Consultant Oncologist and Fred Berki, Clinical Nurse Specialist.

Scan Result

Dr Sanghera showed the result of the latest scan on the computer. The grade iv part of the tumour had definitely increased in size. It was difficult to judge by exactly how much the tumour had grown but you could definitely see that the bright, active part of the tumour was bigger. This was not good news. I asked about prognosis and Dr Sanghera said we should not worry about that yet. This result should not stop us doing anything we wanted to do. I think he meant it in a positive way. That although there had been a deterioration in the tumour we should not let that put us off doing anything we wanted to do. But to me it sounded like he was saying you should do it now because you might not get a chance to later. Fred could see I was concerned that things were worse than they were letting on and said that they would not hide anything from us and would tell if the news was really bad. At the moment the news was not really bad; just not good.

Deb and I both felt cast down by this news. (Deb had been so well lately, and with the reduction in her steroids she seemed to be slowly returning to something like her old self).


Chemotherapy

Because of the progression of the cancer, Dr Sanghera decided to put Deb back on to her chemotherapy (temozolomide). She will return to her previous regime of a continuous daily dose of 100mg. Deb had her blood tested and the results were good and the chemotherapy will start immediately.

Steroids

Over the last 6 weeks, Deb has reduced her steroid dosage from 1 mg per day of dexamethasone to 0.4 mg. It was agreed that Deb will stay on the current level and not reduce any further.


The next appointment to see Dr Sanghera is in one month on 24 May (the day after the second anniversary of Deb's diagnosis). Deb's next scan will be in 2 months time.