In other news, saw Dr Yvonne today. Good and bad news but mostly good. I've been given a sackful of new painkillers and apparently I'm nowhere near my maximum dose of morphine. That cheered me up. Morphine is my best friend. And hopefully these new painkillers will control the pain. And I can drink sensibly... :-)
New cancer drug trial likely to kick off (in practical terms) at the end of January. Trouble is we may need to intervene on me before the trial starts. That would mean taking the regular chemotherapy. Those I've talked to (and maybe I've put it on the blog) will know that the average response rate for the proposed chemotherapy drug is one in ten. Those aren't good odds. But it's an average. Most people are older than me. Most people have a poor response to the initial chemotherapy (three months symptom free) whereas I'm over twelve months symptom free. A lot of older people have lots of other illnesses at the same time but luckily an addiction to prescription painkillers and vodka martinis isn't classed as an illness in these enlightened times. In fact, Dr Yvonne thinks my odds are more likely to be 50/50. I can live (no pun intended) with those odds.
Can't say at this stage how much extra time I would buy if the treatment were successful (everyone reacts differenly etc) but Dr Yvonne thinks it would be less than 12 months but maybe not a lot less. And in any case, even if I had no treatment at all she reckons I'd have a further 6 months from now. So effectively I'm being asked to gamble half of that 6 months on chemotherapy which would make me feel ill - slightly different side effects to the last lot: hair falls out (I already have the hats), very tired and fatigued, muscle and joint pain (hence the need for strong steroids which means, boo, weight gain).
Judgements will be made at my clinic appointment on 07/01 (offers of accompaniment gratefully accepted as DD won't be back by then) as to whether we need to start chemo immediately or can wait and go through the screening process for the drug trial. And even if we wait I'm not guaranteed to be accepted on the trial.
Cancer is growing but hasn't spread to liver, kidneys or brain yet which is good news.
And now it's time for the film so I'll love you and leave you. Will blog again soon I promise. J x
P.S. Thank you to Fig for the beautiful bottle of Grey Goose (another of my close friends) which arrived in a beautiful oak presentation box that, unfortunately, looks a bit like a coffin! Not as bad as the Funky Pigeon card I received from Toby though which wished me an "exiting" Christmas...!
That's all. J x
1 comment:
I'm free on 7th January, J, and would be happy to take you. And I know from DD that I have to take notes :)
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