Oh well, here we go again. Yesterday I picked up my bumper
bag of poisons from the pharmacy at the Beatson, this morning I started taking
them again. Could be fine, could be another five days of unpleasantness. We'll
see.
I should have begun this round of chemo last week, but it
was deferred. My consultant said he was considering that anyway, to give me a
chance to fully recover from May's horrors, when the nastiness didn't stop
after five days but dragged on for a further three weeks courtesy of a wee food
poisoning bug called campylobacter. But when he saw my blood test results, it
was decided – although not terribly low, apparently they were below the
allowable threshold. No chemo for me that week.
This week I'm much better and up for a good old envenoming
once more. I'm a little anaemic, the nice registrar has confirmed, but not
enough to put it off further.
It's harsh chemicals time.
It can't, I reckon, be as bad as last time. May's chemo not only burned its own trail of destruction, but kept my
immune system suppressed enough to allow a bug I would normally have swatted in
a few days get a proper hold to the full extent of its colon-tormenting
abilities. I'm back to normal, now – surely I only have the chemo to worry
about?
Well, as I said, we'll see.
There is always the chance I'll get through it with no
side-effects at all. I'm not betting on that one, but you never know. I had
none until I was moved onto this highest dose – 400mg of Temozolomide every day
for five days, if you're interested – and apparently you can get used to it.
We'll see.
That would be good. Just as last month's little episode gave
me some serious doubts about whether I was going to be able to attend my own
wedding standing up, this weekend my wee cousin gets married. Partly because of
me and partly because her husband-to-be has recently lost a relative to brain
cancer she has decided not to give out favours on her big day but to instead
donate the money to the Beatson. It's a generous sum, and I'm very grateful.
The least I can do in return is pop along and eat and drink at my aunt and
uncle's expense.
But, as I said, we'll see.
Even if I don't just sail through the chemo, with the
campylobacter now battered out of my system I should at least expect to be back
to normal by Monday. Which would be good not only because I've really had
enough time off work recently as it is, but also because the following weekend
some friends of mine have also very generously decided to hold a benefit gig in
aid of the Beatson at GHA Rugby Club. It's a smallish affair, with only around
120 tickets, but they've already sold a lot of them for a suggested donation of
£10 a pop (if it's a donation rather than a price, the Beatson can claim Gift
Aid, too). Combined with a bit of a raffle, they should raise a very decent
amount indeed – they're aiming for £2000. Colin, Graham, and the rest of The
Ginhouse Rocks, I thank you. See their website www.theginhouserocks.com for ticket
info and a link to their JustGiving page for the Beatson.
Which brings me to another point. My own JustGiving page is
currently sitting at £2550. With the proceeds from the gig, plus my cousin's
contribution, we'll be looking at increasing that by quite a lot – quite likely to well over £4000. The sums won't necessarily go through my page, but they will go
the Beatson, which is the important bit.
What would be really nice would be if anyone who enjoys this
blog - either on puregns.co.uk or especially heraldscotland.com readers – chips
in just a little, and we get the combined total up to £5000 this summer. That
would be a tremendous result.
We’ll see what you can do. I'm sure you can.
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