Wednesday 17th June 2009

Hi Everyone,

I've just got back from meeting my new oncologist - a very nice lady!

She confirmed all the details that I knew already, and discussed all the various treatment options.

It seems that as the cancer has proved to be extremely aggressive, the only appropriate treatment is further chemotherapy. There are other options like targeted radiotherapy, but these are more for slow-growing cancers and wouldn't work quickly enough in my case.

I was given the option of not having any treatment and just focusing on managing my symptoms, but I am keen to feel like I am fighting this, so I have decided to go for the chemo.

It will be different from last time, although it will still include the Cisplatin (Platinum) that I had last time. This time though, instead of the 5FU, I will have a secondary drug called Etoposide. It is hoped that this might make the tumour more receptive to the effects of the Cisplatin. I have been warned that the chances of this chemo having a dramatic effect are quite slim - about 20% - but hopefully it can at least slow the growth.

I don't have to have a PICC line this time - all the drugs will be via a cannula in my arm or hand. I will have the same overnight stay in hospital to get the Cisplatin and two days worth of Etoposide, then I have an extra day as an outpatient to get the third day's dose of Etoposide as a one hour infusion. So no pump attached like last time and less inconvenience than with the PICC line.

Each cycle is these three days, followed by 18 days rest, so a three-week cycle as before. The plan is for two cycles followed by another scan, and if it looks like it is working, another two cycles followed by another scan and possibly even a fifth and sixth cycle although these are less likely.

For those mickey-takers amongst you, you finally get your day, as I will definitely lose my hair this time with this drug! :)

Other things we discussed during the meeting were my prognosis. She confirmed that we were looking at 6 months to a year if the chemo doesn't work, but if it does work, then who knows.

She also warned me off the Maitake mushroom extract, as these extracts have to be dealt with by the liver, and given the cancer in the liver, she told me that it was probably not wise to give it extra work to do, which is a shame as that only leaves me the chemo to focus on - however, at least I have some options.

Overall then, no surprises, but no particularly good news either. I'll probably start the chemo in the next week or so, and we'll just have to hope that I respond to that positively.

On a lighter note, a good fun weekend was had by all in the sun. It was Le Mans 24-hour weekend, and instead of going to the race this year, we all met up here and did it in a little more luxury than we usually do in the Le Mans campsite. We rigged up a projector and a screen for the race and used my big telly for racing games on the XBox. BBQ in the sun and lots of beer (or 2 cans of cider in my case) topped off the excellent weekend. Some photos:


Really, really big screen telly! Amazing what you can do with a projector and a sheet!


Craig racing an Audi R10 round Le Mans on the smaller telly!

Barbie time, and me with my everlasting can of Woodpecker!

Everyone by Eric's RV and Craig's Porch (sorry, Porsche)

I have spent the last few days recovering, but it was worth the effort - great fun!

So that's it for now - more soon,

Cheers,

Colin