ABVD - Cycle 7, Day 15 - nearly DONE!

Sitting here writing this while having chemotherapy, the days of modern technology! Typically it is a beautiful day outside!

Saw my consultant as he was back from his holiday. Discussed my fatigue - it is quite debilitating, no matter how much sleep I get I am still tired, and I haven't been doing much at all, don't know when the last time was I went out in the evening to the pub! The Dr said it is a know side effect of ABVD and it does become more prevalent the more cycles you have. He said within 2 months of finishing I should have my energy levels back. I have been doing a bit of reading on the lymphoma website and one of the things I came across was about getting the flu vacine. I asked him if I should have it this year and he said that yes that would be a good idea. Talked about whether I would have any other treatment after chemotherapy, basically it depends what the PET scan shows, and what type of remission I am in, but in all likely hood the chemotherphy will be it - fingers and toes crossed. Discussed a bit about 'if the cancer came back', which is of course is always at the back of my mind and always will be, he said we would discuss percentages after the final PET scan but did say that the odds were on my side. Chatted a bit about the treatment I would recieve if the cancer came back, basically it depends, if and when and where it manifests itself, but the end result would probably be more intense chemotherapy.

Cancer forever more will be in my life, like it or lump it!

ABVD Cycle 2, Day 15 - nearly DONE (just dacarbazine to go)!

7 weeks and 4 days until HOLIDAY!

BTW - I am trying to recruit more followers so spread the word!

CT Scan

Tuesday was the day of my CT scan at hospital, the appointment came through really quickly.

CT scan (or CAT scan) stands for Computerised (Axial) Tomography scan! It takes a series of X-rays and uses a computer to put them together. The CT machine takes pictures of your body from different angles and the result is a series of images, showing 'slices' through the body. The scanner (see right), is a donut shaped machine, with a moving bed that slices in and out of the scanner.

Wasn't allowed to eat anything after midnight on Monday and was only able to drink water before the scan. I had to wait and hour and a half before my scan in the waiting room. During which time I had a horrible tasting drink to drink, they try to disguise the taste with squash but it doesn't work! It is the 'contrast medium' which is a dye that shows up body tissues more clearly on the scan.

Before the scan you have to wear the attractive hospital gown! And then lie on the bed which is fully extended from the scanner. They put in a catheter so that they could administer more of the dye whilst I was in the scanner. I had to lie with my arms above my head. First they do something called setting the scene, basically setting up for the scan, they look on the TV screens in another room and get you in the right position by moving you in and out the scanner and telling you when to breathe normally or hold your breathe. Once they were happy with the position, the nurse came out to give me the dye, she did worn me of the side effects and they were weird. First you taste metallic in your mouth, then you have a hot flush and then it feels like your weeing yourself, you don't I might add but it is all very strange! And while all that is going on they are telling you when to hold your breath and breathe normally! The scan all in all takes about half an hour.

Then the waiting begins.

Ultrasound then Results.

After becoming very upset that I couldn't stand without being in pain for more than 10 minutes while observing Pilate's, Tuesday was the day of my liver ultrasound.

Wasn't allowed to eat anything before the scan but luckily it was an early appointment. Arrived promptly and was seen almost immediately. Had to change into the attractive hospital gown and then went into a side room which had the ultrasound equipment in it. A doctor performed the procedure, little complication at the beginning as the equipment wasn't set up probably which didn't please him! The squeezy get they use was warm!!! The examination took about 20 minutes, the doctor didn't say anything throughout, at the end he simply said that 'yes, the liver is most definitely enlarged and there are a number of lymph glands present in the stomach', he said there are a number of reason for this and that I would need further investigation, possibly involving a CT scan and a liver biopsy - scary! He would make sure his report was with the GP for my scheduled appointment on Thursday.

I came away with the conclusion that I still had a virus, because my liver was enlarged. Looking back now, the doctor must have suspected lymphoma then.

Wednesday morning, Mum and I went to photography our local church (didn't have my camera at this point so used Mum's) - Mum’s idea, an attempt to get me out and about. It was cold and sunny, we spent about an hour in the graveyard and I took over 100 photos!

Had an appointment with the Osteopath in the afternoon. Decided to stop treatment pending results of scan and on Dr Hoffman’s advice as remaining pain clearly wasn’t mechanical.

Saw GP on Thursday morning. He went through the results of ultrasound and explained they weren’t good, it showed an enlarged liver as suspected and glands in my abdomen. Although the last lot of bloods showed improvements the results of the ones taken on Monday were worse again. Knew in my heart they would be because I hadn’t been feeling right at all, needing to sleep for 2 hours every afternoon isn't normal.

Next steps - GP had already referred me to the Hepatology department at hospital, he said they are the best around to investigate what is going on and they will find out what it was. Asked what he suspected it was and GP said he suspected it was lymphoma, I didn’t have a clue what this was but he described it as being like leukaemia, which didn’t sound too good. The way my GP was being so sincere, I knew it was serious. Had to wait for the hospital to contact us which would be within 14days.

Looked up lymphoma on the internet and two words stood out cancer and chemotherapy.