FOXFIRE update

As the machinery grinds ever closer to actually giving me some treatment for this bastard disease I had to go and have another bunch of tests this week including the inevitable blood tests, measuring my height (why do they do that, does cancer make you shrink or something?) and another spin in the donut of doom. This second spin was so they can get a close up look at where the pesky little liver mets are and also to do a "how cancerous is your liver" test because, according to the consultant, if you've more cancer than liver they can't let you on the trial.

Whilst I was there said consultant went through the gory details of what, if I were allocated the treatment group, I could expect and what could go wrong. It seems at best after each dose of the radioactive spheres patients feel like "they have the flu for a few days" and a few other symptoms too all of which I kind of recognised being a child of the 70's and 80's and growing up with that cold war "Protect and Survive" leaflet.

Basically every month they give you radiation sickness. Whoopee!

And that's just the normal stuff, the "well if it goes wrong / you react badly" bits are even more fun ranging from pancreatitis right through to this irradiating your entire liver which, with classic doctor understatement, was described as "life threatening". You don't say.

Ah what the hell, if I don't do this I'm not going to see my next birthday so I signed all the consent forms and went into the randomisation process. And just my luck... I got allocated the treatment group!

Unfortunately this is a bit more delay as they need to co-ordinate chemo and radiation and to do that they need the specialist radiologist who has to guide the tube delivering the stuff to my liver using an angiogram so he needs to be scheduled. Long story short I'm pencilled in to kick of cycle 1 of chemo on the 31st of March.

Here's to glowing in the dark.

UPDATE
Due to some admin juggling by the wonderful trial secretary Amy things have moved earlier so I'm in for PICC line insertion this coming monday, first cycle of chemo on Tuesday (expect projectile vomiting and curses in Ancient Draconian), a week later I'm back in for angiograms to check the hepatic portal vein doesn't have any strange offshoots (and to close them off if it does) and then on the 10th I get radioactive balls.  What larks!