Tuesday 3 March 2009

Mesothelioma Action Day

Was I pleased to be able to make Friday at Gateshead, Action Days are important as they push forward what is happening with treatments and research on this terrible disease.



I was pleased to meet up with Debbie who was there to discuss mistletoe and chemo embolisation, Dr Rob Allcock who wants to make surgery and other treatments more available to sufferers and of course Chris and Anne. I was truly surprised that I would make it as it was only 6 weeks after surgery but when I set my mind to something there's no stopping me. I was still writing my presentation at 9.00 pm Thursday evening. I had planned to have it all finished by Wednesday but one thing led to another. Then on Thursday I was interviewed by both the BBC and ITV to discuss both cryo-ablation and surgery.


I am still all for cryoablation first but if you do have far to many tumours I honestly think surgery is the next best thing. Chemo usually takes longer to recover from with no guarantee that it will work with you. Saying that you can be turned down for surgery too!


I had to go into Darlington hospital on Friday night and get a couple of units of blood, not to mention get my feet and legs reduced in size I had suddenly developed tree trunks for legs and feet. Then Wednesday I went down to Sheffield to see John and find out exactly what is going on. Seems once again I baffle the experts.


Although when they say heart and failure in the same sentence it does make your ears prick up quite a lot. Seems my right half of the lung is overworking. I have gained 10 lb in excess weight which we are putting down to the fluid, my left lung has air, loads of fluid and a little space left to take in oxgyen for feeding my body.


Although its 8 weeks this Thursday and I am still not fit I would still go through this again, if for no other reason it helps a surgeon understand more complications then it has done something. If the operation hadn't happened I would be pushing up daisies earlier than I would want to, so I haven't lost anything apart from Quality and how much longer would that have lasted? We know its a silent sneaky killer but I guess the last 8 weeks aren't the most pleasant. Anyway enough about death we need to be enjoying the living.


I received an email this morning with another good result for Debbie, so fingers crossed that her treatment will give full remission. It was good to meet the person you read about and put a face and voice to it. Although Debbie had had an extremely long journey upnorth she looked fresh and more importantly fit. Friday's Action Day was an extremely busy event, and it was nice to see some faces from last year, especially Mrs Eggerton, we sat by her the year before. I do apologise if I didn't recognise anyone but my eyesight has deteriorated alot, I am hoping it will come back a bit so haven't been to the opticians, infact everyday it has changed.

My HB is still down in the 10's, why I have to be losing blood somewhere is a question within it self but Doc has advised 3 iron tablets a day, I have only being taking 1 a day for the last week along with water tablets. Unfortunately the water tablets keep me up most of the night going backwards and forwards, I know I'm complaining again but hey its my thought process going on here!

I am going to try and get some work done for a change so will leave it here for now, take care everyone and remember keep your chin up.

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