News from oncologist appointment

Our 11.00 am appointment turned into a 1.00 pm appointment! Two hours of waiting to see the oncologist Dr Harpreet Wasan! Reminded me of my Reading experiences again.As I expected there was some missing gaps in the information that he had - that's what you get when you have to go to so many different hospitals.

He advised that as they had found some cancer cells in one of the lymph nodes, there is no way medically that they can identify whether any more rogue cells are floating around my blood system. The scan that they did in Sept showed that there was no sign of the cancer in my chest or abdomen and the results from the op showed that they had successfully removed the tumour leaving healthy margins around the join and there was no sign of cancer in the liver and other organs in the pelvic area. So as a precaution Dr Wasan has advised a 3- 6 month chemotherapy programme to attack any any cancer cells that may be floating about. This is quite normal for cancers that were at the stage that mine was at and Mr Cecil had warned me that this might be the case.

I know that this is the best course of action and it is better to do it now and beat the cancer completely as if I don't will I have peace of mind?  and if the cancer came back then it is more difficult to treat a second time. I am apprehensive about this next phase as this is a more aggressive form of chemo. Dr Wasan said that the chemo I had last year on a scale of 1-10 was 1-2 where as this will be 5-6! Slightly disappointed that there is another cycle of treatment to have to go through - but then I have to if I am to have the best chance of getting this cancer beat.

I start the chemo in 2- 3 weeks time. It will be for 3 to 6 months ( 6 being the desired amount of time, only less if I get too  sick from it ) given in 3 week cycles. Starts with an intravenous 2 hour injection at the hospital in Windsor followed by 2 weeks of tablets. Then a week off. Then the cycle starts again. Just waiting for the appointment to start - could be 2 Feb unless there is a cancellation.