18.2.16

Its been a busy old week!
Dr Jack, rang me on saturday morning. Its definitely hodgkins lymphoma, back again, with no invitation.
There are 3 options for treatment.
1. Radiotherapy which he feels will do the job but there may be return on the edges.
2. Brentuximab which may work.
3. Autologous stem cell transplant which is the best bet for a cure, but have to make sure my heart would cope with the treatment. So I'm awaiting an appointment with my lovely cardiologist that i teased wickedly during my last lot of treatment. He's in for another treat!

As you can tell, option 3 is best and I'm jogging along nicely preparing myself for it.
Its an expensive hobby this cancer treatment malarkey.
I have bought a new thermometer, a must when having chemo. I have bought a small router/dongle for entertainment during my hospital stays. I have bought pyjama style clothes for lounging around during my incarceration. Sweets. Ive bought sweets for sucking for if and when i need some sustenance. Digestive biscuits which were used as anti emetics (anti nausea) when i was pregnant, and then again during chemo. Anti bacterial gel.
I have had appointments like its going out of fashion.
Monday - GP.  I was signed off sick for 3 months with an expectation of more time off.
Tuesday - dentist (a must before SCT).
Wednesday - day off
Thursday - hygienist
Friday - Echocardiograph followed by an appointment with the nice cardiologist three and a half hours later, so a bit of hanging around.
Saturday - the lovely Lyndsay, hair dresser extraodinaire who will be cutting my hair short before it starts to thin. Followed by a curry in the evening.
Sunday - a sad day where i deposit my doggies at Chris's house for 3 or more months. Thats the only bit that makes me sad. I will miss them, and I'm sure they will miss me. But i can't have them home whilst trying to stay spotlessly clean, i may well be unable to walk them, and when I'm on a hospital stay, what would i do with them?

The plan of action for treatment is as follows:-
Tuesday - Insertion of hickman line for administration of chemo as well as for drawing blood for analysis. Not looking forward to this. Followed by my admission to the ward, Cell Block HL, for 5 or 6 days. Constant chemo infusion. Its gonna be a blast! During this time i will be given daily jabs to stimulate my bone marrow to make extra stem cells. The stem cells will be harvested as a dummy run to ensure there will be enough when the time comes.
Then i go home for 2 weeks to recover.
Back in for another 5 days the same as the first admission, with the 2 weeks off again. In that time i will have my stem cells taken for real. They will be processed and frozen. Birds Eye Stem Cells!
Then i have a PET scan to check I'm in remission. If not, more of a different kind of chemo, so hopefully i will be!
Then the transplant.
Im more unsure of exactly what happens here. I know i have 7 days on hideous hideous ultra hideous, chemo. Then the transplant followed by 3 weeks of varying degrees of feeling sh*t. So a hospital stay of 4 weeks approximately where i have to be ultra ultra ultra clean cos any bug can put me in ITU. Im not planning on seeing many people, other than nurses, doctors, phlebotomists, etc so as to lessen my risk of infection. This is the time, if any, that i will lose weight. Theres always a silver lining! As well, of course, as the silver lining where the treatment saves my life, hopefully!