I am about to start the second round of chemotherapy.
I have transferred from Calderdale Royal Infirmiary to Leeds Cookridge which is a university teaching hospital and feels so much better.
On Friday, we had the second appointment with Dr A to go through the procedure. The drugs I will be given as part of the chemo are flourouracil (“5FU”), oxaliplatin and cituximab, an Avastin type drug which is part of a clinical trial. Like Avastin it doesn’t cure the cancer but can prolong life. I only had a one in three chance of being given this. So the good news is that I may get more time but the bad news is that I have to travel to the hospital once a week which means that most of the prolongation of my life span may well be spent in Leeds traffic jams!
The stated aim of the treatment is to “shrink or control” the cancer.
The first session is to be Wednesday, 8th November and then it will be weekly. The travel time has varied from just over an hour to two hours each way, and I will need to be there for much of the day.
I injected myself with the viscum on Friday which provoked quite an extreme fever: I was in bed and out of it all weekend. Feeling much better today.
While sitting through my own cancer drug infusion (not chemo but Zometa, for bone calcium protection) today at the Dartmouth Hitchcock Cancer Center (New Hampshire), I saw first-hand what people are going through with chemotherapy. The man sitting next to me was having to sit for three hours while his chemo combination dripped through the IV. And as Elaine has remarked, then having to deal with the nausea and other after-effects does not make for a nice day! Still, what impresses me most about the whole scene at my cancer center is the upbeat attitude of both the patients and the staff. They behave like family, making light about things. If some new patient were to arrive full of fear, it wouldn’t last long.
Elaine, both Marlene and I hope the new series goes well!