Seventh Chemo session / Scan results

Today I get to find out the scan results. I might have more chemo today, it could be all over.

No chance to take the boys to school - end of term this week. So we just dropped them off at friends before we went to hospital. I went in with Sam.

Weigh in today was 79.1kg - a bit of a jump, I'll have to keep an eye on my weight after this ends. We were hanging around for an hour before we got to see the doctor. Sam was mainly keeping an eye on progress of files between the offices. Must have been swapping out the awkward cases. She was mainly concerned that I did get to see Dr Davies. She thought my file did end up with another doctor, but Dr Davies recovered it just before we were called in to see him.

So, first up, we got the scan result. My tumor was given as grade 1 (on a scale of 5). Basically they could see no sign of activity in it. The lymph node was measured at 13mm, only slightly larger than a normal size which should be 11mm. They also confirmed that there were no other tumor sites found - I suppose it would be a bit unlikely that they would develop during chemo. I am now classified as in remission. So there is no more chemo which I don't think I'll miss. But I have been randomly selected to have the radiotherapy as part of the trial. We discussed a bit about this, Dr Davies did suggest that I could stop treatment now, but I would not be part of the trial and not have the extra scans as part of that. I'm probably a but disappointed as I hoped not to do the radio. But I did sign up for it and commit myself so I'm going through with it. At least at has meant that I miss a cycle of chemo. He did say that the radio will make sure that any lingering disease cells are killed off for sure.

We discussed a bit about swine flu. He recommended that I (and Sam) should get the vaccine when it is available, my immune system is still going to take some time to recover. I should get priority. I still have a prescription for antibiotics for the next 3 months.

We left after seeing the doctor. Picked up the boys and then off to Dom & Lynda's for the weekend.

Next step is on Monday, back at the hospital to have a CT simulator. I think this is just to measure me up for the radio, not sure exactly what will happen, but it's not quite the same as a proper CT scan. I will update on Monday. After that my radio treatment is virtually every day from 10th August to 1st September.