Tuesday 7 January 2014

Whats next, Chemotheapy and nanoknife

I haven't purposely asked certain questions on what is about to happen, so i appoligies for someone who is going through the same thing and is looking for answers.

This may be quite vague but to my knowledge this is what is about to happen.

I have been told that I have to have 6 months of chemo, now i believe that they do a CT scan after 3 months to see if it is working. I will keep a blog to let you know how I am feeling on this chemo, but i must admit, i am scared.

The last chemo took around 30 minutes to put into my system, this is going to take 2 days. I feel OK right now, so to hook myself for 2 days to make myself feel sick just seems strange.  I am up and about right now, back at work and about to go on holiday to Prague, so to visualise someone one sat in bed, thin and hair falling out been sick, plugged into a machine seems very far from where I am but I may be in that state next week.

I know that they send a district nurse to our house to see if all is OK with the chemo, (mental note, i must tidy the bedroom).

The doctor said that some of the side effects are, hair falling out (which i am not that fussed about - i have just bought a flat cap so at least i will get money out of that) and feeling cold sensation in a different way (I may have to wear oven gloves when I get something out of the fridge, and I may not be able to drink cold drinks) but all in all, its sounds grim!

I have found a some inspiration on twitter! there is a young man (aged 13) called Josh Wilson (@SuperJosh) not only as he reoccurring brain tumor, but also neuromuscular disabilities, and his attitude is really positive, he is really amazing.

Also, I am starting hypnotherapy, the last time I had chemo I built an association with the hospital (even the car park), so when i smelt disinfectant  i was sick, when i parked the car in a mulit story car park i was sick etc... so hopefully the hypnotherapy will take off the anxiety of this.

I am also having what is called nanoknife, I believe this is a new technology that electrocutes the tumor to kill it. I will let you all know how this goes too, it is not available on the NHS and will cost around £11000, but this is covered on healthcare (if you do call your private healthcare and they say they do not cover nanoknife, it may be because it is known as another name, all i needed was a letter from my surgeon.

I am also taking Kinoko gold AHCC 
This suppose to work well with pancratic cancer, it is expensive, but if it works its worth it.

I am also making my own bitter melon tablets.

Well! I have my pre assessment tomorrow, and then 3 days in Prague, and then back for chemo. I am looking forward to Prague!







Thursday 2 January 2014

Its come back!

This is one post i haven't really wanted to write.

A month or 2 ago i got a call saying that my blood ca-19 had gone up to 90, anything above 30 and they are worried.

I had a CT scan booked, i decided to carry on and still celebrate my birthday at the start of Dec 2013, it was my 40th, and we had planned to go to London.

It was a great weekend, the hotel was lovely, and i went to all the good markets of London, and ate a lot of street food, I loved it.

But when i got back to the hotel, i didn't feel that well, i thought it was due to a lack of sleep so with that i went to bed but woke up thirsty around 2am.

I was not sure if i was thirsty or felt sick, I went to the toilet and wanted to go,  my temperature suddenly rose and i fell off the toilet, i won't go into graphic accounts of the evening but my stools where foul smelling and bloody, i collapsed.

I awoke just as quickly and felt my temperature come back, with that the adrenalin kicked in and i stud up and called for an ambulance.

I spent 3 days in hospital, it looked like this was down to a burst blood veslal and had nothing to do with the cancer, but it had shown a 1.5cm mark on my liver.

I got back home and had another CT scan in Leeds, and this showed the same.

So, here we go again! i start chemo next week, 14th Jan, to say I'm nervous is an understatement.

But i will keep a recorded on how it all goes on here.