Living With Cancer.....

Yesterday was the big day when I received my scan results, they wanted me at Charing Cross hospital as early as possible so I had to get up at the ungodly hour of 07.00!!

Brother Russ came with me as to be honest I wasn't expecting any good news so it is good to have someone with you to take in all the info.

We caught the train and tube which is by far the best way to get there it takes about one hour 15 mins from my door to the hospital.

First I went to the oncology unit so they could take some blood, reason being if the news was good I was going to have another chemo session.

We then went to see Danii the consultant oncologist, she is a lovely lady, I have always told her to be up front with me and that I wanted quality of life over quantity. She positively bounced into the room and said the news was all good.... the tumours on the lungs had shrunk considerably, the ones on the liver had also virtually gone and the ones on the spine hadn't changed.  It wasn't the news I was expecting, but it did put a big smile on my face.

The upshot is nothing really has changed, I have stage 4 lung cancer that is incurable, so the bugger will get me one day.  I asked about my longevity which was 6-12 months and that was 3 months ago, basically she cant answer it, I also asked her about going into remission which she said in my case wasn't going to happen.   

Her answer was I am Living with cancer!!   So there is no end date as such.  I will keep on having chemo every 3 weeks on a maintenance drug called permatrexed. I will also be on the lovely term active surveillance which basically means seeing how I go with every day life etc.

I will keep on this regime until it stops working,  I will be scanned after every 3 sessions.  the side effects should and I really hope should be minimal. 

After our meeting Russ went off to the science museum whilst I went off to have my chemo. The actual chemo drug only took 15 minutes to drip in but there are lots of drugs infused before that to stop nausea and strengthen my bones etc 

We left the hospital at 15.30 and had an uneventful trip home, if we had drove we would have still been sat in bank holiday traffic.

I am happy with this its the first positive news I have had since this crap started back last October.

Im so happy that I have been looking at flights to Mojacar in the next few days !!

Another bit of good news is that my flat sold in Sydney link here  We only bought it as an investment when we sold the house as we wanted to keep a foothold in the Sydney market. I have never seen the place let alone live in it.  We bought it in 2013 and it rented really well and we also made a good profit on the sale.  One of the reasons I wanted to sell it is that I wanted to tidy up all my affairs around the place so that when I do shuffle off this mortal coil it wouldn't be too hard on the relos to sort out my affairs, so getting rid of seemed to me to be a no brainer.

So that is the last link to Australia gone, I have no regrets as we had a brilliant 32 years there and without living there I wouldn't have been able to retire early and travel around the UK and Europe etc.

Having said that, I would have never got the support in Oz like I have had here, we had plenty of friends in Oz but I wouldn't and couldn't  expect friends to help me and Elaine out like family does.    Plus even though we were insured it would have cost an absolute fortune paying the gaps in the medical insurance. Being ill is one thing, being ill and skint is a whole new ball game.

So onward and upwards, Mojacar here we come..... You are now stuck with me a bit longer !!!