8th July - Final Diagnosis

So today’s the day I find out the full diagnosis and and what the next steps are regarding treatment.  After a very long wait (approaching two hours after my appointment time) in the waiting room where I was getting more and more anxious, I thankfully received the news that the CT Scan showed the cancer had not progressed beyond stage 1.  This was the first slight piece of good news I'd received since my journey had started.  I can't tell you how relieved I was!!

However, as I already knew the variant of cancer (EC) coupled with the signs of ‘vascular invasion’, this means that whilst the cancer may now be entirely gone, my chances of it not returning with the next two to five years are only 50/50.  Therefore, the strongly suggested treatment is for adjuvant (upfront preventative) chemotherapy. 

At this point this was good news for me in that I will only need two cycles – best case scenario I had prepared myself for given my pathological report that I’d received.  On top of this, I’ll be able to start in only a week’s time so I don’t have to wait even longer with any worrying drawn out.  Sure, it would have felt amazing to walk out of the hospital that day knowing that I was choosing not to have chemo, but to then have a constant 50/50 cloud hanging over me for many years to come would have been mental torture.  In that sense it's much better to suck it up now and have the chemo with a view to reducing future risks of recurrence down towards the low single digits.

The consultant also reassured me that provided I’m up to it, I can have the chemo administered as an outpatient with hopefully no need to stay in overnight – which I was very happy about.  He also made it critically clear how important it is to flag any changes in temperature, fevers or even minor bleeding as what would usually be classed as minor ailments can become life threatening due to my immune system being shot.  I was however more positive in that he said I could interact with Lyla and didn’t have to be so worried about coughs and sneezes, rather it is more viral problems I need to be aware of.

The CT scan also happened to show that I have an issue with my thyroid which is something I’ll need to get checked out once this whole cancer episode (finger crossed) is behind me.  Almost like a 'buy one, get one free' diagnosis - what is going on with my body!?

I had a follow up with a really nice nurse called Danny who I got on with far better than the nurse the previous week.  Danny talked me through the next steps and what was going to happen over the next week before my treatment started.  He confirmed I was booked in to start chemo on 15^th July (a week from today) and beforehand I need to pay two visits to the sperm bank as the chemo in a small number of cases can mean that my swimmers wouldn’t be able to reach the intended base on a long-term basis. 

I was also booked in for the Tuesday morning (day before treatment starts) to have my PICC line fitted.  This is a tube like device which will be inserted in my arm which I’ll explain later.

All in all I was relieved with the news I received today and it came as a relief to my parents too when I told them later as I'd prepared them that it could be a long treatment road ahead.