Cycle 6, Day 17 (scan results)


Quick, informative update as I need to rush to the Tate Modern to try to understand what the hell modern art is all about. 

I saw the oncologist yesterday and received scan results from Monday. Miraculously the chemo is still having an effect – the main tumour has shrunk to 9.6cm (at the start it was around 16cm, last report was 12cm). The report only gave me one axis this time which was quite bizarre but there we go. Then lung secondaries still seem to have disappeared, and there is no new growth anywhere else. Dr Ross seems very happy to go ahead with surgery and suggested the start of January. So, no more chemo for now, thank God. Hopefully the fatigue will start to lift.

I learned that Dr O’Brien, the heavily recommended kidney surgeon, is on jury service for the first half of January. But I rushed around to get an appointment with him anyway just in case. In his alpha-male-surgeon (picture Tod from scrubs but as an English gentleman) way he completely ruled out the first half of January anyway as I need to build up my ‘reserves’ pre-surgery so I’m not fragile (apparently about 1-2% chance of death, but this is skewed as its normally older, more fragile people). This means putting on weight (protein and fat) and getting my lungs and heart used to exercise again before surgery so I can cope with it. Back to the gym for me! Therefore, it looks like surgery will be the second half of January. He ended the meeting by saying I looked “better than he ever could have imagined” from when we first met in May. I can only take this as a huge positive!

I have an appointment with the (heavily recommended) liver surgeon next Tuesday after an MRI of my liver so I can ask more questions then about what surgery will entail- they might need to give me  a liver graft which doesn’t sound fun. My understanding is that it will probably involve removing my adrenal gland, gallbladder (“surgeons can do this in about 5 minutes’”), and then its unknown how much of my liver and kidney I will keep. It is a serious operation. Basically, they won’t really know the situation until I’m opened up. It’s open surgery that involves at least two surgeons and lasts several hours. I believe I’m in very good hands though. Recovery (if it is successful) should be about 2 days in intensive care, followed by a week in hospital where I’m dosed up on painkillers. Then about 6-8 weeks recovery at home with a massive scar to show for my efforts.

Then I will have a scan to see how I’m looking. If all has gone to plan, I will be cancer free for now, although stage 4 means its likely to come back. I will slowly reintegrate back into normal life and start working, probably not a 5-day week at first but hopefully back to that. I will have (at a minimum) 3 monthly scans as a check-up and continue to take mitotane and all the hormones it replaces, but other than that I should be able to lead a pretty normal life, although I imagine I will be a bit more laid back than I used to be. The prognosis still isn’t good but it's a hell of a lot better than it was 6 months ago and if the cancer returns, they have options for how to handle it depending on where it is such as chemo, surgery, radiation therapy etc.

I feel, at the moment, that the last 6 months have been worth it. Whilst gruelling, I’ve spent a lot of time with family and friends and had a lot of fun. I’ve also just received a letter from DWP telling me that I have a Christmas bonus of £10 which is just swell.

Please try and put any questions you have in this article so I can answer them for everyone and not have to answer a hundred messages as it's gruelling to answer them all individually and I have cancer. :) 

The Tate Modern

Comments

  1. Simmo SimmonsDecember 13, 2018 at 2:44 PM

    That £10 bonus is £10 more than I got...get us a beer?

    ReplyDelete
  2. UnknownDecember 13, 2018 at 3:50 PM

    Are you allowed to take pictures inside the Tate?

    ReplyDelete

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