Hello ladies
Hope you have had a lovely summer and those dealing with treatment, hope everyone is coping ok!
Well what a year, my last chemo was December and once well enough the holidays began, I went to Amsterdam for a lovely weekend and to research cannabis oil, we went to Iceland which is still the holiday of the year. I did a girls trip to Montenegro, what a lovely place and then we hit south of France for spring bank and well bucket list action at the ready and we saw Lewis win at Monaco, top seat in front of the swimming pool, lots of crashes and action we loved it. Then is escaped with a friend whilst my son was on his French trip and went to port de soller in Mallorca and had a bit of indulgence at the lovely esplendido hotel, we will be going back. I even did some yoga on a standup paddle board! And never fell off! The summer involved 3 trips back and forth to Wales, a week in my tourer, a week in a static and a week in a lovely house looking over Abersoch bay. Great summer, but now the crap begins!
So back in May I was told I was platinum resistant and was starting to grow, 2 spots on peritineum and marker going up from 75, 135, 245 in May, then in July marker shot to 1165 and now multiple spots on peritineum. So doc wants to start chemo, I say no thanks, see you again in September. So doc says I reckon you will be in for 2 drains before chemo and yep I have had 2 drains, one at the start of the holidays, only 1 litre off and didn't ease discomfort. I have a trapped pocket of fluid pressing on the liver, which causes pain and the. The liver presses on the diaphragm which causes a shooting pain in my shoulder. Anyway fluid built up again and felt quite poorly before last drain, not managing to keep much down. Had drain last week and they took 4 litres off and wasn't pleasant. I think the fact I am slim anyway, once it has drained, bloody horrible like having an alien inside you, I ended up having morphine which then scupper my plans to drive home. Anyway drain done and have a huge appetite suddenly which is good in preparation for building up before chemo.
So I went to the doc on Friday thinking I knew what the plan was, but that went out the window. I was going to be offered dose dense carboplatin and taxol which I was a bit worried about as the caries trial where my tumour samples were tested reckoned that carboplatin would not be any benefit to me. But docs still thought this was my best option. I had a second opinion at Christies and singing from similar hymn sheet to Leeds, but he did say he might choose cisplatin. So on Friday I asked a bout trials and there is a new trial involving taxol and a new drug, but to be eligible for the trial I could not have taxol now. The trial isn't quite ready and doc wants me to have conventional chemo before doing the trial, so I am now being offered cisplatin and etopiside. The cisplatin meant to be harsher, the etopiside is in tablet form for 2 weeks. So he is discussing the plan with the rest of the team and I see him in a fortnight. I was expecting my marker to be through the roof but from 1165 to 1280 so could have been worse. I expect I will need another drain before chemo which I am not looking forward too, so need to eat as much. As I can before my belly gets too bloated to want to eat, I am in a mission to put weight on and build up muscle mass before chemo. Diet has been relaxed a bit, I am allowing myself some dairy in the form of good cheeses and clotted cream.
The freezer stock up has begun ready for chemo.
My garden has been amazing lots of organic veggies for my juices. Oh and spa treatments....... Well the best spa day has to be the Coniston Hotel, amazing spa, amazing countryside and fab treatments. For a truly amazing authentic experience the ayevedic spa in wetherby is amazing. They do retreats and specially tailored treatments for cancer patients, if anyone is interstellar, best treatments I have ever had. I am going back on Tuesday.
So when chemo starts I plan if possible to try to get to the hyperbaric oxygen chamber first thing in the morning before chemo to give my cells the boost of oxygen and then will be trying to get as much oxygen as I can depending on how well I am, but ideally I will be doing oxygen 5 days, 3 days at the least. I am also going to reduce my carb intake by at least 20% for the day before, the day of chemo and the day after. I will also be carrying on with the canabbis and the oil. I take the oil and find myself in the same position I went to sleep in, a,axing nights sleep and i started vaping cannabis half way through the last treatment and what a difference it made, gets rid of the sickness, relaxes me and increases appetite. So will be continuing with that.
I have been keeping an eye on developments mirror.co.uk/science/dad-ca.... This is a new immunotherapy drug which is having success in lots of cancers and my onc says that research indicates it is going to be good for ovarian. It hasn't yet been developed but is in the pipeline, so watch this space ladies. If anything is going to work it will be immunotherapy. There are some other interesting developments around t-cell therapy too, but typically can't find where I have saved it.
Battling ovarian cancer (recurrance)
FEELING LET DOWN BY EMPLOYER
Happy Birthday 🥳 and Oncologist update.....
