Tuesday, 11 January 2011

4 January 2011 - Cancer Centre, Old QE Hospital

Hi everyone; happy new year. Sorry I haven't posted anything for a while. It was a combination of my lethargy and the laptop being out of action because of a faulty power supply.

Anyway, I am happy to say that not much has changed since my last post. Deb went through her second cycle of PCV chemotherapy (she took the medication between the 15th and 25th November). I think her side effects were slightly worse than the first cycle. She was more tired and felt sick more often but nothing she couldn't live with. (Sorry - poor grammar I don't think you should end a sentence with a preposition.) Physiologically Deb was fine over Christmas and New Year. She was not taking the chemo - the start of the next cycle was delayed for a week so Deb would not have to be taking the medicine over the New Year - and she felt well. Psychologically it was not such a good time. If you are terminally ill you don't want to dwell too much on the past or think about the future. Christmas when traditionally you remember the past year and make resolutions for the future is not a good time for living in the 'now'.

On the 31 December Deb had her usual blood test (which was OK) and we saw Dr Sanghera on the 4 January. We discussed how Deb had been over the previous 6 weeks . The doctor was pleased and surprised at how well Deb was tolerating the chemotherapy. It was agreed that she would start her third cycle of the PCV chemotherapy. As before, the vincristine was administered intravenously at the hospital and the other two drugs were taken in tablet form at home. All seems to be going well so far. Deb's side effects are at about the same level as for previous cycles.

Dr Sanghera has arranged an MRI scan for Sunday 16 January. It will be interesting to see how the PCV therapy has effected the tumour.

We see Dr S again on the 14 February for the next cycle of chemotherapy. I expect we will look at the scan results then.

I promise to write more often - if only to say nothing is happening.