Well it should have been cycle 4 this week but hubby was too under the weather to be treated, so he had a blood transfusion, which took over 9 hrs and eventually was brought home at 11.30pm. We thought it would all be over two weeks ago but this is the second time his chemo has been suspended due to him being too unwell. In all the years he has been being treated for cancer/s this 'new chemo' has to have been the worst in its side effects. Even the stem cell transplant was not as bad as this - chemo, surgery etc has never really been able to keep hubby down for too long but this one is nasty. The docs are going to reduce the levels of methatrexate down again next week as it leaves hubby with some bad problems, last week his mouth was so bad that nothing from the mouth washes to oramorph would give him relief and after about two weeks of a really horrible smell coming from his mouth and him being unable to even swallow water he went to try and clean his mouth and basically all of the dead flesh just fell into the sink. The good news is that the AFP is down to 24 after cycle 3 so hopefully it will drop to normal after cycle 4, and then it is on to the daily stuff again, not quite sure of the details yet but it will last another year so that will be three full years of chemo by the time that finishes. Please, please can we have a gold clock at the end of it all because it will be 15 yrs by then. A young man in the shops looked at hubby last night with that look of horror at seeing a chemo patient, I explained that hubby could not follow him at his speed because he has cancer. 'Oh, I am sorry', said the young man,'is it the first time?' he asked. 'No, this is nos 7', I replied in a nonchalant manner. The young man looked astounded and said, 'I have never heard of any one having it that many times, upto three times and then you die'. I thought to myself how little people know about what is now happening in the world of cancer, people are living longer and basically living with a chronic illness rather than critical illness.
The young guy patted hubby on the back and told him he thought he was some sort of hero. Hubby said 'no hero' just someone who is too frightened of the alternative.
Hoping next week goes to plan and all goes well.
