At Last - Cancer Update

Here I am, alive and well and I'm sorry if my recent long absence from blogging has had anyone worried about my status(ie alive or dead). No - just too damned lazy to write.

After months of vomiting and feeling weak as a newborn kitten, I was told in July that the chemo I was getting was to be stopped, both because I wasn't tolerating it and because it wasn't working. A recent CT scan had shown the cancer was progressing and my CEA numbers were up (rememember the carcinoembryonic antigens from the first thrilling instalment of Cancer Redux? So it was on to Plan B, which required testing an alternative drug on my cancerous tissue. This had to be done by the BC Cancer Agency, who demanded a biopsy. Three months and several frantic phone calls later, I finally had the biopsy of a lymph node in September and approval to start treatment was given. I had the first one last week and all went well. This one targets cancer cells directly and a scan after two or three treatments will indicate effectiveness so I won't be hanging around wondering about its efficacy.

The side effects of this one are fewer and not as nasty as the last one, which means I'll no longer need to keep a vomit bucket within reach at all times. As with the other chemo, there's no end date, unfortunately. Regular scans will monitor effectiveness and the best I can hope for is remission. Keep me in your prayers people, please. The long respite from the other chemo (almost two months) allowed my body to heal itself and repair some of the damage done by the other drugs rampaging through my system, destroying everything in their wake and I actually feel quite healthy now. I've always had a propensity for fretting and this is the biggest worry I've ever had in my life so I've had to develop tricks to stop myself from going crazier than I already am. Distraction is the most effective trick - usually with books and television and when I've had enough of those, I resort to daydreaming about a whole new life for myself. A life where my left hand and arm work, where I can walk safely and easily without my leg brace and I wear a pair of clean, healthy cancer-free lungs and lymph nodes. And of course, my brain is free of epilepsy so I can drive and be independent. This must be where my body was before I took it to its new life in Edinburgh five years ago. Actually, that's not quite true; at the time of my departure, there had to have been an infant tumour growing in my colon, waiting to be discovered in an Edinburgh NHS clinic. That one didn't cause me nearly the extent of stress the lung ones have because I knew excision of the tumour would go a long way towards solving the problem. Excision of the lung tumours isn't an option because they're distributed throughout and the only surgical option would be to remove both lungs which, of course, isn't practical. I know I'm kind of like Wonderstroke and all but not without me lungs.