Saturday, 25 May 2019

Back again

Hello. Well, here we are again. The last post on this blog was exactly six years ago - May 2013. It was entitled "Done and dusted". Hmm. Right. Turns out we're not.

Since May 2013, a lot has happened (brain-wise). We'd got through diagnosis of a brain tumour, surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy. Regular surveillance head scans were consistently clear, and went from every three months, to every six months, to every twelves months. Then, in 2017, just as we were approaching the '5 years all clear you can go now' stage, a scan showed some new growth. So it was back onto chemotherapy. I did a few more cycles in 2017-2018, and it seemed to have knocked it on the head (ha!). This was extremely good news. So it was back to the old routine of quarterly surveillance scans, working towards the next 5 years clear milestone.

The latest scan was on 1st May. The news was pretty hard to take. Some tumour cells had survived the chemo and, in the consultant's words, were "misbehaving." We're going to need more treatment.

Words were said. Many of which are not repeatable here. Suffice it to say, my Dad said "I've never heard you swear before"!

I am very very cross. It's like the most horrendous game of Snakes and Ladders ever.

We saw the neurosurgeon who had done the first surgery back in 2012, and he's determined to get the troublesome bits out. Clearly it'd be ideal if it could be physically removed, and we feel so much better now we know what's happening. We have a plan. And I like a good plan.

So surgery is happening on Wednesday 5 June. And in the meantime, we're going on holiday. Charge up the batteries, ready to face it head on.

I'll keep posting. I'll set Stephen up as co-poster so he can let everyone know when surgery is done. It's a 3.5 hour operation, compared to 5.5 hours last time. Easy-peasy!

That's all for now, see you on the other side xxx