Wednesday 23 April 2014

Some Good and Bad News?

Last week was fairly busy with various clinical visits and appointments, but the main ones were with the maxilliofacial consultant at the hospital to look at my mouth and remnants of the infection, and with my oncologist to discuss next steps.


The appointment with the maxilliofacial consultant went really well.  My mouth is 'nice' and the infection looks to be completely gone. He was very happy with progress but is keeping me on his books so if there are any problems in the next six months, I can call them to ask for advice - and then I go see them in October for hopefully a final appointment. So great news there.

On the other hand, the oncology appointment was not so great. I thought the plan was that I would be starting with chemo mid-April to reduce whatever is happening in my liver; the cancer isn't going away, of course. However, with all the problems I have had, she feels that it is not in my best interest to have chemo right now - if ever in the future. My body won't take it and the chemo won't reduce the cancer in my liver enough to justify the side effects and other risks. She is worried that my quality of life will be awful if I go through it and I understand that. In addition, where I have fluid pooling in my body will be where the chemo drugs pool too - and I don't have cancer there! So even if my body could take it, there's no guarantee that the chemo would go to where it's needed and would just attack healthy cells. It was a real shock to be told that my body was in such poor condition; it still is when I think about it. I don't like being properly unwell. So bad news in that respect but good news - no horrible chemo! I've also been taken off hormone tablets which aren't working to reduce anything.

In terms of how the cancer's being managed, therefore, it's continue as we are, managing the symptoms rather than the cancer itself. The bone cancer is manageable still and I don't think I really need to worry too much about that. It's the liver cancer that may be a problem. I'm being sent for some more scans over the next few weeks to see progression, but originally there were just spots of it so fingers crossed it's staying slow.

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