Well, it has taken several weeks to get here but at long last we know the what, the where and the timing of the plan to start the attack on the primary cause of my cancer problem. Firstly, as previously reported, the full effects of the initial radiotherapy aimed at knocking out the brain tumours have taken effect. Hair is now very thin on the head (but thick on the ground), there is quite a bit of muscle wastage, especially in my legs and I have started to develop a little bit of a tummy. Most of this is due, they say, to the combined effects of the steroids and the radiotherapy and will gradually reverse, provided I eat sensibly and get plenty of exercise to the limits of what I can do without over doing things. This is the reason why they leave the start of the chemotherapy for at at least 4-5 weeks to give the body time to recover.
This timetable takes us to Easter when we plan to be up in Anglesey for a few days (and Rhiannon will be away skiing with school) so we have agreed with the hospital that treatment will start on 8th April. In fact, it starts with a series of additional blood tests, and feeding me with various vitamins to ensure that the body is ready and willing to take the treatment.
Each treatment lasts for virtually the whole day, with the drugs being drip fed into me through a line (fuller details will be found on the Treatment Plan page). Likely and possible side effects run to several sides of A4, so should be fun to find out which, if any, I'm prone to. Then, assuming all goes well, treatment two will be a repeat run, three weeks later. Just before treatment three, I will have a complete check-up which will include a full scan to monitor progress. If this is OK, then we will have treatments 3 and 4 and all should be completed by early June - Yippee!!!
Meantime, I'm reducing the steroid doses by 2mg each week, taking Calcium supplements to ward off further cramps in my hands, and adding some additional vitamin C to my daily pill popping (currently 14 tablets per day in total) to try and make sure I'm in the best possible position for the start.
I have a couple of additional visits between now and the start, perhaps the most important of which is to meet my cancer team who will look after me 24/7.
Next reports will be after those, so thanks everyone, once again for your continued support, I may not always get back to you but its good to know you are all there for me.
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