All good news

Well all my treatment is now finished!! Yippee!! I still have to see the heamatologist (weekly) and cardiologist (quarterly) but at least there is no more treatment to attend. We had a little scare last week. My blood test results weren't so good and there was a concern that perhaps there was a new tumour. I had a CT on Thursday and not only did it show there were no new tumours but it also showed the mass that was showing on the last CT was even smaller and the shadowing that was showing on my lungs and liver last time was no longer there at all. So basically it was even better than we were hoping for. I'll have a few more blood tests on Tuesday to help work out what is going on but at least it is not the cancer. My red blood cells are down a bit and not recovering so I may be up for a blood transfusion but I dont mind that as I always feel so great afterwards. My immunity is not picking up so well so I also may have to have monthly transfusions of something called Intragam which will give my immune system a little help until it works out how to recover on it's own. Basically at present I have the immune system of a 2 month old baby without the benefit of getting a mother's immunity from breast milk. It is all quite fascinating really (I'd find it more fascinating and less scary if it wasn't happening to me!!).

Energy wise I am feeling better each day. I am waking before 10am most days now which is a big improvement on my 11am to 1pm waking time of only a few weeks ago. Slowly I am eating more although my weight is still dropping a little (43.5kg at the moment - my doctor is not too happy with me). I am spending quite a bit of time at mum and dad's and that is really helping with both the resting and the eating side of things. They are both great cooks and they really look after me - I couldn't ask for better parents.

We are looking forward to next week. Mum, dad, Tiernan, Arielle and I are going away to Kings Beach (Sunshine Coast) for the week. We are staying in a unit opposite the beach and it will be great fun. They are off water restrictions up there and there are some fantastic water play features at the beach which Tiernan will just love. There are lots of rock pools and beautiful sandy beaches as well as a great kids sea water pool which is all under shade sails. There are also jettys that you can fish from. It is going to be a lovely holiday and we cannot wait. Tiernan keeps telling dad to remember to bring his fishing line as he wants to go fishing and catch a snapper!!

Well not much else to report. As usual I have posted some photos of my two adorable children. The first is of Tiernan and I at Seaworld (mum, Tiernan, Arielle and I went last week) and the second is of Arielle balancing her bowl on her head (and being very proud of her trick).

Things here are going quite well. On Wednesday I finish radiation and hopefully that will be the end of my cancer! The radiation has been a walk in the park compared to chemo - the biggest hassle is having to go into the Mater each day. So far I have had no skin damage and no sore throat although they said the side effects will peak 5 - 10 days after treatment finishes. As for tiredness, I am always tired anyway so I haven't noticed much of a difference!

The kids are going well. Arielle and Tiernan are the best of friends and it is so lovely to see them playing together. Arielle is pulling herself up to standing on anything that will sit still for a minute. She loves reaching up on things and then throwing whatever she can reach.

Not much else to report - I hope you enjoy the photos and video of the kids.

Arielle's Birthday

Hi

Our darling little Arielle turned 1 on Wednesday. I think she knew it was her special day as she was in a super smiley mood all day. She got some lovely presents for her birthday and she loved trying to eat her birthday cards (I did type that correctly – for some reason she likes trying to eat cards). She also ate a little bit of her birthday cake. Tiernan was a fantastic big brother and helped her open presents and blow out her candle. He was not at all jealous and was even more excited than Arielle was. We got her a Fisher Price dolls house and her and Tiernan just love playing with it together. Last Sunday a tooth appeared so she was not a gummy bear for her first birthday!

Not much news

Well there is not much news to report which is a good thing really. I saw Kerry today and apart from my neutrophils being a little down everything else was good. I had to have two blood tests today. The first one was the normal one which I have to have every time I see him and the second one was to check my serology. Arielle is due to have her 1 year old vaccinations which includes some live vaccinations. Before she has the injections we need to know what my immunity to these diseases is and then they can determine if I can be near Arielle after she has the vaccinations – nothing is easy when you have cancer!!

I start my radiation on August 27. I am not looking forward to having to trek into the Mater each day but it is only for a month and then hopefully my visits to the Mater will be infrequent!

Well not much else to report so I shall sign off for today.

Good results

Well it is nice to be able to report good results from my PET scan. The PET scan showed no active tumours!!! Yippee!! That means no more chemo. There is still a small area of something but they are confident that if it is any left over cancer cells that it will be treated with radiation. The radiation starts at the end of August and goes for a month and after that all I need to do is go for regular CT scans. My heart is still giving me a bit of trouble. The cardiologist would like to increase my heart medication as it is still beating too fast and working too hard (I still find it strange that this is called heart failure) and the medication slows it all down but unfortunately my already low blood pressure has been lowered by the dose of medication I am on, so he cannot increase the dose any more. We will just have to wait and see if it gets better on its own.

So that will be it from me for awhile. I will write again once radiation is underway. Bye for now!

Still no answers

Well unfortunately the CT I had yesterday did not give any definitive answers. It still showed masses there but they cannot tell if they are cancer or scar tissue. Unfortunately the doctor who reported on the CT did not provide a whole lot of information and did not say the size of the growths which was pretty disappointing. So next Wednesday I will be having a PET scan and that will give a definitive answer on whether there is any active tumour.

I saw the radiation oncologist today and he is going to start radiotherapy soon. Hopefully even if there is some cancer left this will obliterate it.

Arielle and I were on tv tonight in an interview about faith and healing - click on the link below if you would like to see it.

http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/up/player/popup/index.php?cl=3469111

It's been awhile

Well it has been awhile since I updated my blogg - no real excuse other than laziness! I managed to get out of hospital on the Saturday and went up to mum and dad's for the weekend as Cam was at rescue helicopter. I spent the majority of the week in bed, either asleep or resting. For the first time in my life I actually woke up in the afternoon. Prior to this a sleep in for me would be 8am, so to sleep into the afternoon was a total shock for me! All of my muscles still ache and I get puffed doing even the smallest thing. Last week I can say I had no improvement at all - if anything I felt I was going backwards as I was getting quite down about being so sick. I knew I was going to be tired after the double stem cell transplant but definitely did not expect to feel so sick for so long. I told Kerry so when I saw him this week and he agreed I looked rotten but said it was to be expected. My tummy troubles continue to plague me and that is probably adding to the exhaustion. This week I think I have made tiny, baby steps and do feel better than I did last week. My mood has lifted too and at least this week I don't regret having the second stem cell transplant (last week I totally regretted having it as I was unprepared for how sick I would feel so long after the transplant).

On Thursday this week I had to have a heart monitor put on me for 24 hours to allow the cardiologist to look at how my heart is working and make sure everything is going ok with the heart medication I am on (he changed it last week). During the 24 hrs I had to record if I undertook any activity that could impact my heart, such as exercise or pain. They then compare the notes to the heart recording to see if any abnormalities match up to anything specific. Obviously I told Cam to stay well clear of me on Thursday night as I did not want to have to explain any night time activities!!

Next week is my tell all week. On Thursday I am going to be having a CT scan. I am still having night sweats so the CT scan which is usually just my chest, has been extended to my pelvis and abdomen to make sure there are no problems there. I will see Kerry on Thursday afternoon for the results and based on those he will decide if I have to have a PET scan (determines if there is any active cancer). On Friday I am seeing the Radiation Oncologist and he will work out with me when the radiation is supposed to start (Kerry said probably in about a month as I need to get some more energy in reserve for them to zap).

Hopefully next week I will continue to improve, even if it is in baby steps. I am loving being at home and enjoying everybody's company and enjoying eating home cooked meals. I even did a grocery shop last week for the first time in months and it is sad to say but I actually enjoyed it. It was nice to feel slightly normal again (I was exhausted when we got home). Well I had best be going - I will write again once I have the results on Thursday.