Not just another cancer blog

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“There is no sign of the Myeloma.” Alan Brooker of the Colour Therapy Clinic as he folds his divining rod.

Almost immaterial whether that will be shown in the blood tests, the momentary euphoria showed me what a dark hole I have been in. There was suddenly, sparkling light, there was my tenacious support friend, there was love, joy, a future, wow what a flip side and what a revelation.

It has been an existence in neutral since September 2016, a process of fulfilling the protocols, the only signs of life being my terroir support friend KK and family popping in daily. I thought I was handling it all well, huh, not exactly depressed but barely alive, short tempered, self-absorbed, existing.

How did we end up here.

Monday 5^th September 2016, 9am call from Paddy O’Brien, GP, to report to A&E ASAP that morning, this following blood in urine reported on the previous Friday. After a few hours in A&E ended up in the ward under Urology, starting blood tests and waiting in line for x rays and scans. About the 5^th day we ended up under Haematology with possible Myeloma and possible lung cancer due to shadow on the x ray. The tissues were passed through the curtain, gone by Christmas was a theory at this stage, lots of gallows humour with gathered family, funeral pyre on the front lawn, fishing boat burial at sea and so on.

Another x ray discounted the lung cancer, “a virtual death sentence” according to charge nurse, the kidneys had stopped pouring blood and Haematology had confirmed Myeloma.

About day seven with very little discourse it was into treatment for Myeloma, standard protocols, proven to have a very good remission rate, remission being the end all as myeloma cure is not on the table with traditional methods. We had little argument, the whole DHB team had been fantastic, being just one of the very many in the machine we were still treated with the utmost professionalism and compassion.

Day 8 was a medical flight to Palmerston North, initially a bit of a worry, but was hitching on anothers flight, for a bone marrow test make absolutely sure they had nailed it.

So began 3 months of weekly injections, pots of pills, our DHB lifestyle so to speak.

Just another cancer blog? We hope not. Am hoping there will be more to talk about than process, some things that the DHBs did not deal with. Diet, possible alternatives to chemo for some and the incredible cost of these treatments. Now that the standard treatments have brought a remission the next thing is finding a possible cure? Why not? Hunt it down. Further interest perhaps for this blog.

Then there is the just plain sorting out the head, putting together a couple of coherent thoughts. Cancer blog interspersed with some China travel, will be a good work out in itself.

See how we go.

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