Tuesday 24 November 2020
A cautious telephone call about the CT scan and the bloods, with good news but not quite a We Hey moment. Gradual improvement or no change ..... all a bit too level headed to get excited about. The main thing is I have not got worse !!!!!
The “complex mass has reduced”.... ( I can feel a song coming on here ) which was the main tumour apparently encompassing my pelvis, my ovaries, my fallopian tubes and my womb. They cannot really differentiate between them in the scan! At the beginning it was over 100 mm then it went down to 99 millimeters and now it is 77 millimeters Hooray !
My liver was not mentioned in the report so it is classed as normal Yey !
My lungs .... there is a small node on the right lung and a node on the left lung. As it has not changed since last time so that is good news. “The lungs appear otherwise clear.” says the doctor.
Doctor thrombosis man did say it would take till January to recover from blood clots and possibly longer for the body to re-absorb them.
My Red Cells are at 110 a little higher than before
My white cells are 2.4 which is much better than before
My platelets are now at 222 which is much better than before
My neutrophils are now 1.2 which is much better than 0. 2 (I wasn't aware I had any..... A type of white cell that helps to heal damaged tissue and resolve infection / bone marrow)
The CA125 result has not come back yet but last time it was 12 which was well within the normal range.
They can see small lymph nodes in the armpit. “They are of doubtful significance and remain unchanged from the last scan.” How non committal is that? Nobody mentioned them in my last scan. Apparently different radiographers notice different things or choose to mention different things. Because it is unchanged it is good news.”Just because they can see it and then mention it, it does not mean anything bad.” says the doctor. (Whaaaaaaat?)
I have had 4 Avastin maintenance drug treatments and I am allowed 18 in total, still about a year's worth of treatment to go. Now the chemo has stopped will the tumour still shrink? The Avastin can sometimes continue to shrink the tumour but they don't really know. It is completely different for each individual. Because I have responded well to Avastin the best they can say is that they can keep the cancer at bay for a year whilst having treatment. After that, nobody knows how long a respite from chemo I might have.
So this phone call was not quite the definitive dramatic news I was hoping for ( you are cured !!!! the cancer is all gone !!!!!!) Its a case of, little by little we go and hope for the best. I still am to consider myself in the high risk category especially as covid-19 is still around. Apparently about a month after the end of treatment in a sane world your bloods might be back to normal. “But then white cells can take years to recover completely after chemo in some cases”. Says the doctor (Ooooooooh )
So there will probably not be an EUREKA moment where I'm cured completely. It is much more about managing the disease through treatments and positive will and energy. Now I do remember the first time I spoke to a consultant and she emphatically told me they cannot cure a stage 4 cancer this advanced but they can reduce it and manage it with treatments and repeats of chemotherapy if it is needed. The words “palliative care” were mentioned. I conveniently forgot about this and started imagining a different scenario altogether only to be brought back down to earth with phrases like “unchanged” and “reduced” ha ha that will teach me.
Meanwhile here's a video of strange things that have been happening in Splott and down the bay these last few days. Best listened to loud with headphones.
