Friday 7th January 2011
After such wonderful news last July and a period when John began to recover, we had the worst news possible last Thursday. The cancer has come back.
He was beginning to feel really under the weather with pain and bloating which got steadily worse so we phoned the hospital to ask what we should do. The trials nurse spoke to him and arranged for blood tests and a scan and a follow-up appointment with his Consultant.. I was trying to tell myself that his symptoms were down to the daily Clexane injections and couldn't believe that the cancer would come back so quickly, but it wasn't to be.
The scan revealed that the tumour had returned, plus the spots on his liver that had been there before, and that he would need more chemotherapy. We were both absolutely stunned by this news, as you can imagine. All I could think was - here we go again!
The chemo will be different this time and there will be no trial drug involved. I didn't actually catch the name of the drug they will be using because my brain shut down for a while but it will be as before, 8 courses of chemo which will include three weekly infusions and pills in between. The Consultant said that the type they would be using would no be so debilitating as the one used previously because they don't think John is strong enough. But I couldn't help wondering whether this means it is less effective and will it all be worth it?
Nevertheless, John agreed to go ahead and treatment begns on 25th January.
Meanwhile, he's feeling more and more under the weather and spends a lot of time lying on the sofa and worrying about all his symptoms. We have a doctor's appointment this evening so I'm hoping they will be able to prescribe something to help him.
So it wasn't a very happy new year for us because this year looks as if it's going to be much the same as the last one - absolutely c**p!
What has he done to deserve this?
