Here I am Monday 8th of April 2013 (yes April, not December as it may appear!) and it is the day before my final chemo of this course. As I reported last time, things have gone well and I feel positive that this will be my last one for at least the rest of 2013. It is hard to imagine, a summer free from the day in, day out hardship of active treatment. Less hospital visits, less sickness and maybe a chance to build up some fitness and enjoy this oppurtuity I have of being in a new country with so much to explore. Obviously I will still have my problems but they have to seem less when you take the chemo out of the equation!
While I am sat here feeling very happy about my own situation I am also dealing with a deep, deep sadness about what is happening to my step dad right now. As you know he had his biopsy 2 weeks ago today and since then I have been waiting and waiting for the chance to bring good news. Unfortunately this is not going to happen so here is the situation now. The surgery went well but took a little longer and was a bit more difficult than they hoped. He came out with 13 staples accross his head but feeling reasonably OK considering! It had been hoped that once the pressure had been rlieved the seizures would stop but sadly this was not the case and 2 days after the surgery these returned with avengance. So rather than the predicted 3 day stay post surgery discharge he did not come out until yeterday, just one day off being two weeks. He has been seen by a neurologist and his meds switched about and the seizures, touch wood, have stopped for the last couple of days.
Friday brough news of the biopsy result and sadly the ews was not good. We were all aware of the possible worst case scenario and it seems that is what he has been dealt. The biopsy showed the tumour to be a grade 4 malignant glioblastoma. Pretty much the most aggressice brain cancer you can get. They are going to treat him with radi and chemotherapy. As we already kew the tumour is not operable although they thing they got about 90% of it out during the biopsy which is positive. The cancer is terminal but they hope to buy some time time with treatment. At the moment the doctors are reluctant to commit to a time frame but it could be months and is unlikely to be more than a year.
I think at the moment we are all in in shock, Mum is being very pragmatic and trying to get on with running daily life. Obviously there is now the job of telling Evie to face. This I can't even imagine doing, I cry everytime she pops into my head, she worships her Daddy and the idea of her losing him before she is even 10 is too much to bear. Luckily kids are resilient and hopefully with the right love and a lot of luck she will be OK. As for me I'm not sure what I will do. My gut instinct was to go home straight away but having talkied it through we are going to play it by ear and see how he goes with the treatment. No point me dropping everything if he is going to be OK for a while. I have to say it is pretty tough not being there right now though.
So, there we are, another tough road ahead, its a good thing we are all well practiced these! Now he will get to meet the oncologist and the radiologist etc at Lincoln and find out his regime but I reckon it will be pretty brutal. Treatment can't start for another 3 weeks as it has to be 5 weeks post surgery else the radiation will blow the wound apart!!! Nice!
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