Paul's Health Updates

Had an Oncologist appointment today following a CT scan last week. “Short of a miraculous healing it’s as good as you could hope for” … it seems prayer and chemo are a very effective combo.

Comparing scans side by side it is clear that the liver tumours are much reduced in size and their shape shows evidence of healthy tissue regenerating into the tumours.

CEA markers in the blood also continue to reduce, they were 30 pre treatment, 35 after round 1, 10 after round 2 and now after round 3 are 3.6.

The current plan is to have another 2 rounds of treatment (18 and 31 Dec) and then miss a cycle to have a break to allow 2-3 weeks to enjoy some of the NZ summer without chemo side-effects. Then get back into treatment in the last week of January.

Thanks again for all the prayer and support … it is both humbling and very much appreciated.

Spent last night (Thursday) in hospital after developing a fever.

After a series of tests was discharged early this morning with a course of antibiotics. Appears it is most likely related to the blood clots discovered earlier in the week.

Had no other symptoms other than the elevated temperature, still feeling well other than suffering the effects of a night with no sleep.

I had another CT Scan today in preparation for an appointment with the Oncologist next week. They picked up a blood clot in my lungs on the scan, apparently it is not uncommon with ~25% of Chemo patients getting clots.

Just more medication to add to the list.

Continue to feel reasonably well all things considered. Thanks to everyone for the continued prayers and support.

Expect to get a full read on the scan and the effectiveness of the treatment next week. Will update once we have details.

Days 3-5 – Apologies for the lack of updates in recent days. Been feeling ok, no appetite but think a little less fatigued than previous cycles.

Day 2 – Boring … not really had a couple of visitors and mid week EPL to fill the day. But in terms of side effects etc its all very consistent with previous cycles, appitite is disappearing, bit fitigued but otherwise feeling OK.

Day 1 – Blood counts remained low so Round 3 involved a reduction in dosage.

Treatment started with some unwanted excitement … at the start I had a brief but obviously intense reaction as the nurse activated the emergency button and every nurse in the clinic and 2 doctors quickly congregated in the cubical. Looks like some sort of random event, doesn’t seem to be a drug related reaction so thats good. The treatment resumed and was completed without further incident. Enough excitement for this round … planning on keeping it boring for the remainder of the cycle.

Since the last update the acne breakout has reached new heights … full blown teenager zit face!!! Another series of meds to sort that out … going to make for an interesting summer as I now have a trifecta of sorts … ginger, Chemo which increases UV sensitivity and now the Acne meds further increase sensitivity … if I think about the sun likely to get sunburnt I reckon.

Had an oncology appointment earlier today … blood test results a bit of a mixed bag. Low white cell count, nothing imminently worrying but if they don’t increase in the next 24 hours the Chemo dosage might need to be reduced on Wednesday.

Encouragingly he cancer markers in the latest blood test have signifcantly reduced, while encouraging it is by no means a conclusive means of assessing the affectiveness of treatmeat. There will be more definative answers following a CT scan scheduled for mid December.