The Cortisol Diaries

I will do a proper update another time but this is a quick one for now... The scan result was relatively positive and the cancer seems to be reacting well to the chemotherapy. The tumours in the lungs have shrunk a good degree (e.g. 25x21mm to 12x11mm). The adrenal tumour has also shrunk slightly (e.g. From 15.7x7.7cm to 15.0x7.7cm). Therefore, they think they should continue with the current EDP regime for another 2 cycles of chemotherapy. Joy! And then another scam to see how things are and decide going forward. If it keeps shrinking then they will maybe consider surgery down the line. The nature of chemo is that the cancer can develop resistance to it at any moment so whilst results are positive, it's all relative... I still have an aggressive, incurable cancer, and have months of energy sapping chemo ahead. But the result really is as good as I could hope for. Dr Ross seemed really pleased which is the best indication of how it's gone! Again, sorry for the impersonal ...

The original purpose of this blog was to use it purely to update people on appointments and how I was feeling. It was useful because of the very real time-sapping impact of ‘cancer admin’. Having so many friends and relatives checking up on me with well-meaning messages and to get an update, led to me answering the same questions a hundred times and spending all my time on whatsapp/ Facebook. Of course, it’s lovely to receive these messages, but it became quite a chore. The blog has definitely served a purpose, even if I do feel like a bit of a dick when I receive messages from someone saying ‘how are you doing mate’ and I just send them a link to the website as a response. I think people have been quite understanding though. The content has been kept very factual and to the point for this reason, and therefore it is probably a pretty dry read and lacking in personality. From the time of my diagnosis I had started writing separately about my thoughts and feelings about what was goi...

Second week of chemo done. No complications this time. My first two days as an outpatient went smoothly, and the second two days as an inpatient as a precaution to make sure that anything like fluid on the lung could be dealt with quickly. This meant a repeat of last month’s benefits such as air conditioning and excellent hospital food, as well as some nice time spent on the balcony of the hospital in the evening. I was still feeling a little bit of fatigue from the first cycle but no other side effects really until day 4, when it caught up with me and I spent most of the day with the curtains closed, dozing away. However, all the blood tests I had during the week came back normal, except with slightly low potassium so I’m again just taking a pill for a few days to keep that topped up, and making sure I have bananas on standby. The doctors and nurses seemed very happy with how things went last cycle and my condition after this round of chemo so I was discharged in the evening. I felt...