Maintenance Treatment 1


On Friday I trod the now all too familiar path back to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in King's Lynn. I was there for my first maintenance treatment. As the chemotherapy worked in killing the cancer cells in my body, and as the type of cancer I have means that medical science can not completely cure me. They expect my cancer to return. By having 2 years of maintenance treatment the hope is that any possible relapse will get pushed further and further away.

My maintenance treatment is much shorter than chemo. It only takes three hours as opposed to all day!

I arrived at 12noon with some bacon sandwiches that I had brought with me - the hospital ones still make me nauseous as I has plenty of them during chemo sessions!

I had another cannula inserted, but this went OK. No fainting this time. I still had to have pre-meds that consist of paracetamol and antihistamine to help my body not react badly to the medication.

Half and hour after this I have the 2 hour drip of Retoximab which is my maintenance treatment. I had Retoximab as part of the chemo cocktail, so my body is already used to it.

Everything went well. It felt strange leaving empty handed - no bags full to bursting with medication for me to continue to take at home.

I was also feeling fine. No nausea, just a little fatigued - which is about the only side effect of this maintenance treatment, apart from a slightly lowered immunity but nothing as bad as when I was having chemo.

After a good sleep, the next day I was fine. Energy levels were pretty much back to normal and I was able to do normal activities. I even helped run Messy Church with 60 people visiting!

Thank you for your continued prayer. I am starting to come to terms with my situation now and am safely on the road to recovery.

Comments

  1. A dogsbone - to CHEW on, to PICK on...8 December 2016 at 06:40

    I will continue 'maintenance prayers' that there will never be a relapse, every week. Been praying that you'll live to be a great grandpa!

    ReplyDelete
  2. A dogsbone - to CHEW on, to PICK on...22 March 2017 at 17:46

    Keep focused on Him ! Your ministry will keep you going. But eat the right foods though, research on it . It's a weary journey no doubt but God is with you all the way.

    My grandnephew succumbed at age 11 to osteosarcoma 2 weeks ago , only child in the family too. But they celebrated his full life as a star golfer, footballer, Basketball player, singer guitarist & rubic cube winner.

    ReplyDelete

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