29-Apr-2011 - THE Wedding

29-Apr-2011 - THE Wedding

Hi,

I'm afraid although I saw the occasional snipet which was brilliantly done, I took little notice and Lee went to Rachel's to watch the pageantry.

My mouth is still saw but if that is the price of treatment I'll cope!

I just want to say sorry for copping out at times and leaving Lee and friends to cope!

Any help and support YOU can give her will be hugely welcome.

I do make a lousy patient!

.
If YOU want to follow my fight against Cancer from when it started and I first presented with symptoms see The TAB just below the Header of this Blog. called >DIARY of Cancer< just click and it will give you a long list of the main events in chronological order.
.
Thoughts and comments will be in chronological order in the main blog and can be tracked in the >ARCHIVE< in the Right Sidebar. You may find the TABS >MEDICAL LINKS< and also >CANCER LINKS< of help.
.
YOU are welcome to call me if you believe I can help in ANY way.
.

Posted by: Greg Lance-Watkins

tel: 01291 - 62 65 62

of: Greg_L-W@BTconnect.com

on: http://GregLanceWatkins.Blogspot.com

Related articles

• Understanding and Coping with Cancer Recurrence (everydayhealth.com)

28-Apr-2011 - St. DAVID's NURSING aka MacMILLAN

28-Apr-2011 - St. DAVID's NURSING aka MacMILLAN

Hi,

well having stumbled off to bed this morning at 10 to 7 around 10:50hrs. I woke up with a sore mouth and really horrid tummy ache - I can't work out whether the stomach ache is some sort of side effect or maybe just a product of swallowing too much air with my ffod as I gulpped it being unable to chew or swallow properly - either way it wasn't until the following evening that it finally stopped being a pain!

I malingered and felt sorry for myself in bed until about 12:30hrs. when I heard Lee doing something in the kitchen - I am so restless she has given up trying to sleep in our bed and usually when I wake up she has slid off to sleep in peace and comfort without being kicked and elbowed and is in the spare bedroom - who can blame her.

Yeah, Yeah, Yeah those thoughts ill become you!

I got up chucked my 2nd. dose of mouth wash for the morning in and swished it about for the required 3 minutes! The instructions on that bottle say take 15ml. and swish around the mouth for 3 minutes - one wonders if the chap who wrote the instructions had ever tried it with mouth ulcers - 10ml. is no problem but with mouth ulcers the second you put 0.2% solution of CHLORHEXIDINE GLUCONATE in your mouth the saliva glands go into overdrive!

OK so after about 1 minute it seems like you have at least a cup full in your mouth and after 2 minutes you have no choice but to spit some out!

Then off to the office - about an hour later the phone goes and it is Nairn from St. David's Nursing they largely fill the role in Monmouthshire and Wales of MacMillan Nursing in England - she is just down the road and can she pop in.

PANIC - I'm still in a dressing gown so Lee meets her and I throw some clothes on!

I remember Nairn clearly when I see her, as I had meetings with her when Lee's Mother had Brain Cancer and during those 3 cruel months.

We sat outside on the bench for a while chatting, although I'm not meant to go in the sun, yet another side effect of chemo!

Nairn went through the various ways she could assist Lee and I during this battle and it is surprising what doors she can instantly open.

The main thing from my point of view is the knowledge that Lee now has a competent support situation if I do suddenly get ill in the battle, and they will help her through it until I recover.

I've managed to beat this bastard disease4 for 13 years and just 'cos the Book Makers only offer 5-15% survival if people only backed certainties the entire racing business would collapse!

We don't expect it to be easy but over the last 13 years with Lee's Mother, both my parents and my Aunt all having far from simple deaths we really don't expect easy! Also we know so many people who have been in contact with me as a result of the help line I have offered both sufferers, fighters and carers not least of whom was our good friends Rosemarie and Peter and the cruel and savage death of Peter from Prostate cancer at 60 just as they were both about to retire.

My parents house keeper and help Pat is battling at the moment and she has served the family for about 30 years - her husband was doing some part time building for Lee and I and put a new flat roof on my parent's house for us and suddenly in the middle of another job, just before Christmas he developed a cancer on his neck which he was firstly treated with chemo for but it wasn't too wonderful and so he finished a course of radio therapy just a fortnight ago and we are all keeping our fingers crossed.

Then of course there is Robin who had a radical prostectomy and has regular treatment now to try to control his metateses! We chat on the phone regularly and take the mickey out of our respective situations.

Then there is Roger who we have known for 30 years and he has so far lost a kidney, an adrenal gland, some intestine and half his liver to RCC (Renal Cell Carcinoma) he is struggling his way through his 2nd. or 3rd. course of Sutent under the same specialist as I am at Velindre.

Then there is Stuart Archer and having beaten bowel cancer once it has come raging back and his chemo is beating him about harshly and although he knows his prognosis is not good he is fighting it all the way with hopes for further treatments if this round of chemo lets him down.

Just to add to it there is Alan - my Father's younger brother who was fast losing his voice and they have now found a lump on his lung which was crushing the nerve to the vocal chord - at 83 he is fairly pragmatic about it but all too well aware that Brenda could not cope if he was incapacitated and their only son is now an American citizen as he and his wife Paula (whose Father has cancer) live in West Virginia.


I guess Cancer burst into my life with my cousin John who died after an 11 year battle when he was only in his early 50s 15-Jul-1994 and I guess the next was Mike Slinn and so on and on and on!

Would it be fair to say there does seem to be a lot of it about!

I just want to say sorry for copping out at times and leaving Lee and friends to cope!

Any help and support YOU can give her will be hugely welcome.

I do make a lousy patient!

.
If YOU want to follow my fight against Cancer from when it started and I first presented with symptoms see The TAB just below the Header of this Blog. called >DIARY of Cancer< just click and it will give you a long list of the main events in chronological order.
.
Thoughts and comments will be in chronological order in the main blog and can be tracked in the >ARCHIVE< in the Right Sidebar. You may find the TABS >MEDICAL LINKS< and also >CANCER LINKS< of help.
.
YOU are welcome to call me if you believe I can help in ANY way. .

Posted by: Greg Lance-Watkins

tel: 01291 - 62 65 62

of: Greg_L-W@BTconnect.com

on: http://GregLanceWatkins.Blogspot.com

Related articles

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28-Apr-2011 - CLOCKS ARE FOR OTHER PEOPLE

28-Apr-2011 - CLOCKS ARE FOR OTHER PEOPLE

Hi,

I appreciate that chemo has strange effects on people but all it seems to have done so far is break my circadian clock and given me horrid mouth ulcers!

Sorry I memtion the mouth ulcers all the time as it is hard to acoid their omni presence and I'm very conscious of how hard Lee tries to produce palatable food - it must be so demoralising for her to go to all the trouble and then watch me with tears rolling down my face with the discomfort as I struggle to eat the food taking well over an hour for the simplest of food.

I am however determined to eat every last morsel put in front of me both out of respect for her efforts and also as I am aware there may come a time when I am too ill to eat and I will need the help of food eaten now to get through that battle and recover the other side.

After chemo yesterday I was feeling bushed but needed to catch up on my 'e'Mails and a few phone calls and also read up the papers on the computer so I did that whilst Lee made an early dinner. Gammon steak cut into tiny weenie pieces, mashed potatoe, brocolli and eggs - Lovelly Jubbly even with regard to all the razor blades in it!!!

The strange thing was after just over an hour struggling through that I was wide awake!

No that is an understatement - I was completely wired and it was not until 06:50hrs. that I went to bed!

I just want to say sorry for copping out at times and leaving Lee and friends to cope!

Any help and support YOU can give her will be hugely welcome.

I do make a lousy patient!

.
If YOU want to follow my fight against Cancer from when it started and I first presented with symptoms see The TAB just below the Header of this Blog. called >DIARY of Cancer< just click and it will give you a long list of the main events in chronological order.
.
Thoughts and comments will be in chronological order in the main blog and can be tracked in the >ARCHIVE< in the Right Sidebar. You may find the TABS >MEDICAL LINKS< and also >CANCER LINKS< of help.
.
YOU are welcome to call me if you believe I can help in ANY way.
.

Posted by: Greg Lance-Watkins

tel: 01291 - 62 65 62

of: Greg_L-W@BTconnect.com

on: http://GregLanceWatkins.Blogspot.com

Related articles

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27-Apr-2011 - 14:00hrs. Velindre CHEMO TREATMENT

27-Apr-2011 - 14:00hrs. Velindre CHEMO TREATMENT

Hi,

lunch was pleasant in the canteen which is just across the driveway from the CDU cardboard box so when the time came I wandered in to be plugged up with no waiting time.

The chemo nurse was brilliant as she had made me up a prescription for yet more mouth washes for the Mouth Ulcers, with much reassurance that they would have me eating toast in no time!!! She lies so charmingly ;-)

As we came in she asked Lee if she would mind taking the prescriptions around to the pharmacy which she was good enough to do - I gather it is a VERY busy pharmacy and prone to major glitches due to under manning - as ever management seem unable to get the logistics right on staffing or 'kit', much too busy on ego projects squanderring money that should be spent on the core service on footling politically correct stupidities and rebadging to make childish points!

Well this time it was into the chair and a cannula in the left hand - I just have this feeling that if they manage to damage a hand, nerve whatever I am much better off with it being the left hand - I am VERY non ambidextrous!

Fortunately needles never seem to be a problem with me and very rarely are they painful or bleed (Well So Far!).

A quick proving sluice into the vein of saline solution and then the bag is switched to the gemcitabine which is the chemo drug with the saline carrier where as the carboplatin is using a glucose carrier and is light sensative. So just the gemcitabine this time which was over fairly rapidly (about 40 minutes).

Whilst the last of the gemcitabine was being run in the sister kindly rang up Dr. Lester's secretary for me as I had a request!!!

I would like copies of my skeletal bone scan and the precedingCT Scan - surprisingly in all the years she has been working at Velindre apparently no one has ever asked for them!

I explained that I wanted to put them onto my blog so that people could see exactly what I am talking about - it is easy to put 'similar' examples from medical texts and the internet up but I thought my own would be more informative.

She has promised to give Neville Hall in Abergavenny, who hold the CT Scan, a call and Janet at The Royal Gwent in Newport who have the bone scan also to ensure there are no protocol problems.

Janet has already told me there are no problems fr4om her end - after 13 years dealing with me she has got used to me having odd requests ;-)

just as that call finished Lee returned with her tales of woe and confussion from pharmacy where every muddle conceivable seemed to be taking place with quite ill people waiting for an age before they could start their journeys home.

Whilst Lee told me of pharmacy the nurse washed out the vein with saline and disconnected me removing the cannula.

Free to go!

Although the treatment took quite a while - well from about 11:00hrs to gone 15:30hrs. there were no glitches.

Well that was my third visit to velindre and my second chemo over and I really must comment just how cheery the staff are - neither Lee nor I have run into a single staff member who hasn't been prepared to go that extra 9 yards to help. Not knowing our way around the hospital every time you ask for directions they don't just point nebulously and send you on your way they always lead you to the next junction and show you which corridor to take, with a smile.

So very much better than hospitals like The Gwent which have become huge, impersonal, intimidating and not to mention filthy!

On the way home we stopped off at Boots pharmacy in Chepstow where they had been unable to fill one of my prescriptions before we left this morning, we stopped off for a bit of shopping and I parked the car and by the time I had sat down for a coffe I was on the verge of nodding off again!!

I am increasingly noticing waves of tiredness - fortunately Lee and I have no consequential time commitments other than the regular hospital visits so I tend to sleep if I need to.

I just want to say sorry for copping out at times and leaving Lee and friends to cope!

Any help and support YOU can give her will be hugely welcome.

I do make a lousy patient!

.
If YOU want to follow my fight against Cancer from when it started and I first presented with symptoms see The TAB just below the Header of this Blog. called >DIARY of Cancer< just click and it will give you a long list of the main events in chronological order.
.
Thoughts and comments will be in chronological order in the main blog and can be tracked in the >ARCHIVE< in the Right Sidebar.

You may find the TABS >MEDICAL LINKS< and also >CANCER LINKS< of help.
.
YOU are welcome to call me if you believe I can help in ANY way.
.

Posted by: Greg Lance-Watkins

tel: 01291 - 62 65 62

of: Greg_L-W@BTconnect.com

on: http://GregLanceWatkins.Blogspot.com

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27-Apr-2011 - 11:00hrs. Velindre FOR FULL BLOODS!

27-Apr-2011 - 11:00hrs. Velindre FOR FULL BLOODS!

Image of Platelets (purple) via Wikipedia

Hi,

well it was schlep off to Velindre - initially I thought at a sensible time!Well I suppose most people are OK with mornings but I tend to write at night once the phone has died down so I am not very good on mornings!

The appointment for today started out as chemo at 15:00hrs. which seemed perfectly reasonable - no rush to get up, a leisurely shower and when we got around to it a gentle putter down the M4 - OK 32  miles is no big deal but when you start the day feeling dead headed any effort isd so much easier to put off!

Anyway I have to be there at 11:00hrs. for bloods - YES it does take best part of an hour to have them done and then have a coffee whilst we wait, in the canteen (praise be it is very good coffee).

Then saunter over to The CDU cardboard box and check in with the staff to be sure the results are through so we are now running at about 12:00hrs.

No problems as I gather all my various blood checks are seemingly OK - Woopy firstly I have it confirmed they haven't killed me yet with this toxin they are poring into me - SECONDLY I can have my next dose of chemo. I have this, sadly all too rational fear that they may say - Sorry the response on the bloods, or what ever, is wrong we have to stop the chemo!

I wonder if that would be a death sentence!!

Well I'm OK this time although the platelet count is a bit low [Platelets, or thrombocytes (from Greek θρόμβος, "clot" and κύτος, "cell")] - so Lee and I decide to have lunch whilst we wait for the chemo to be made up to the right dose for me in the Pharmacy.

Lunch was actually very good value although eating anything is becoming ever more of an eye watering experience due to the increasingly sore mouth ulcers which are well under way - particularly inside lower lip, inside lower jaw and on either side of my tongue and across the back of the tongue.

I gather this is all part of the fun of chemo! FOR SOME PEOPLE.

Please don't think that if you have been prescribed chemo your symptoms will be the same as mine:
FIRSTLY:
There are many types of chemo and they come in different dosages.
SECONDLY:
Chemo is NOT an exact science and everyone seemingly reacts differently to the drug and the dosage.

So I may well have mouth ulcers whilst another person has hair loss, headaches or nose bleed.

I gather nausea is fairly standard but I've avoided that SO FAR and lethargy is also standard - which explains my feeling tired.

Lunch for me was a generous prawn salad (COOL & just about swallowable!) Lee had an equally generous and well filled baggette (I wish, but the crust would have been like a mouth full of razor blades - the salad was sore enough!).

Pleasant as the canteen is and friendly as the staff and other diners are it is not somewhere I would by choice spend almost 3 hours trying to pass the time!

Well its just gone 14:00hrs so back to CDU.

I just want to say sorry for copping out at times and leaving Lee and friends to cope!

Any help and support YOU can give her will be hugely welcome.

I do make a lousy patient!

.
If YOU want to follow my fight against Cancer from when it started and I first presented with symptoms see The TAB just below the Header of this Blog. called >DIARY of Cancer< just click and it will give you a long list of the main events in chronological order.
.
Thoughts and comments will be in chronological order in the main blog and can be tracked in the >ARCHIVE< in the Right Sidebar.

You may find the TABS >MEDICAL LINKS< and also >CANCER LINKS< of help.
.
YOU are welcome to call me if you believe I can help in ANY way.
.

Posted by: Greg Lance-Watkins

tel: 01291 - 62 65 62

of: Greg_L-W@BTconnect.com

on: http://GregLanceWatkins.Blogspot.com

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26-Apr-2011 - Nairn from St. DAVID's - A First Foray

26-Apr-2011 - Nairn from St. DAVID's - A First Foray

Image via Wikipedia

Hi,

I tripped over the map of cancer morbidity from lung cancer for men in 2006 and thought it might interest.

Today Nairn from St.David's phoned me and we had a chat - she has joined those reading my blog!


I'm fairly sure sure I know her but I can't place her accurately, but she confirms we have met, and she also knows Lee from when Lee's Mother Jean Rowland was suffering from terminal Brain Cancer - which was far too young and much too ugly!

Nairn is St. David's nurse based in Chepstow and only too willing to help in any way she can.

We were discussing prognosis, treatment and side effects and when I explained my mouth ulcers and the fact that nothing seemed to make them much more bearable - even when I asked if mouth wash came in 50 gallon drums to save on packaging - I'm still using the two mentioned in an earlier blog but although they help it is none too wonderful - Nairn was really helpful.

She suggested a couple of products and then said since I had not tried them she would have a chat with one of the Doctors and get a prescription phoned through.

I'm really pleased that Wales has opted for free prescriptions - not that pay prescriptions were too scarey but just for mouth wash on Saturday I spent £20 and having drawn ZERO income since we shut the shop almost 7 years ago cash is at a premium! I have been loath to draw on Government and benefits as foolish as it may seem to some we can cope without State aid - it may be a struggle at times now that I have been off work with cancer for over 10 years!

It is a great relief that we bought our property and have thus kept our bills down and it was why it was so particularly vile of UKIP as a political party to abrogate on political argument and resort to dishonesty and lies to try to silence my opinions and the facts I publish on CLICK HERE the dishonesty in their inability to act with honour and integrity was beneath contempt and tells you all you need to know about UKIP and what a vile prospect they offer if ever elected.

If you want more details of their dishonourable and contemptible behaviour CLICK HERE these unpleasant cowards are only too happy to use any underhand method to silence the criticism of their supporters and there were even woops of glee published by at least one member of UKIP's leadership team when my cancer was announced.

For more details CLICK HERE

There has been no apology nor censure from UKIP, The CIB or the debased Freedom Association (still trading on the reputation of its founder Norris McWhirter!) Yet the comments were clearly endorsed by these three organisations.

Fortunately such filth are in a minority in life - significant but a tiny and contemptible minority.

I was spared the exposition of another blue bell blown up ad absurdum to show a photographic fault had there been a possibility that the bell would have dwarfed those of Notre Dame and look what that did to Quasi Modo!

The phone rang and Nairn has sorted a prescription which will be with Boots in the morning and I can thus pick it up on route to Velindre for the next dosing of chemo.

As you can see from the >CANCER DIARY II< on the >TAB< at the top I have to be at Velindre by 11:00hrs. for a full set of bloods and as the lab insists on a full close for lunch from 12:00 to 14:00hrs. I shall then have to hang around until the results come through to the chemo cardboard box to start my infussion but as I recall tomorrows dose is a single chemical 'gemcitabine'.

Tomorrow will tell! Though I do admit that having Nairn available to hand hold or to help Lee or I does make a difference - especially as much of the battle is to keep confident and have a positive attitude.

I just want to say sorry for copping out at times and leaving Lee and friends to cope!

Any help and support YOU can give her will be hugely welcome.

I do make a lousy patient!

.
If YOU want to follow my fight against Cancer from when it started and I first presented with symptoms see The TAB just below the Header of this Blog. called >DIARY of Cancer< just click and it will give you a long list of the main events in chronological order.
.
Thoughts and comments will be in chronological order in the main blog and can be tracked in the >ARCHIVE< in the Right Sidebar.

You may find the TABS >MEDICAL LINKS< and also >CANCER LINKS< of help.
.
YOU are welcome to call me if you believe I can help in ANY way. .

Posted by: Greg Lance-Watkins

tel: 01291 - 62 65 62

of: Greg_L-W@BTconnect.com

on: http://GregLanceWatkins.Blogspot.com

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25-Apr-2011 - Efforts To Prove My ID to be able to die!!! Even If I Don't Want It For Years ;-)

25-Apr-2011 - Efforts To Prove My ID to be able to die!!!
Even If I Don't Want It For Years ;-)

Hi,

I probably only spent a total of 6 or 7 minutes in direct sunlight on Saturday in and out of a few shops and friends' but I was aware of a sore (not very) scalp on this morning when I brushed my hair after a shower.

I shall have to be even more carefull of the side effect of sensitivity to the sun!

ME sensative to the sun!!!

Well off to Cribbs Causeway (shopping center at Junction 17 on the M5), Lee drove as she needs the practice in case I am unable to drive for her at some stage.

What a revolting concept shopping centers are, with their erzats blandness and impersonal sameness - it is extrodinary as one walks towards a shop assistant how, like some photo electric cell sensitive doll, they stand up straight gaining at least 2" and develope plastic smiles to go with their part trained modulated offers of assistance!

We were able to get what I wanted but not a staff object in sight! I wanted some photos for a new passport - you would be astonished at how much ID is needed for legal forms and payments - Funny but no one has ever asked me for ID when they extort money FROM me.

Lee wanted a larger memory for her Olympus camera - probably to justify all the lenses!

She is struggling to come to terms with both the new technology AND the new camera which seems to do everything but make tea!!

Me technocrass so I avoid all settings on all cameras and try to work out what >AUTO< is but Lee feels a need to work out what all the buttons do and in howmany different ways!!!

I have a Canon IXUS130 which is small enough to carry in my waistcoat pocket and has a huge screen big enough for me to see. Yes I said see - there is no implication therein that I understand what I see!

Photography to me is strictly point and press despite having owned 10s of £1,000 of cameras over the years - I have NEVER had much interest in viewing the world through a view finder.

Whatever! Well we upgraded the memory so now I presume Lee will feel a need to upgrade her understanding of the complexity, which may explain why she is getting up early in the morning to act as a guid for Simon and a couple of friends who are near professional in their ability. Off to a few of the very impressive bluebell woods and view points around Speech House in The Forest of Dean.

On the way home we dropped in to see Gerald & Carol as being a Financial Adviser he is kindly sorting out various details for me - whether it is the illness, the treatment or just that I have an excuse now I just so hate 'Bumf'. I lose patience witjh it in a matter of minutes.

Eventually we left at about 21:00hrs. as I was starting to flag a little, I lack energy which strangely comes in waves!

My mouth and swallowing are both very sore with ulcers as a side effect of chemo and the mouth washes etc. are doing little to control the discomfort nor the feeling my tongue has doubled in width and is raw - which produces extra saliva which means yet more painful swallowing!

Yes I'm being self indulgent and complaining but I have been immensly lucky as apart from a rather jaded feeling and a sore mouth I seem so far to have avoided the expected side effects and the pag of various anti sickness pills remains unopened!

Do remember this blogs aim is to tell the story warts and all to help others facing down the Grim Reaper with a deck stacked against them. Whatever the bastard's disguise:

I have age and general fitness on my side and also 13 years of practice so lets see if we can beat the bastard for another 13 years!

Alan, my Father's youngest brother is now 83 and as a result of losing his voice a couple of months ago has recently been diagnosed with cancer on the lung which is putting pressure on the nerve controlling the vocal chords.

As yet they have no firm treatment plan for him but let us hope it is a slow acting version at his age as with Simon (his son) living in West Virgina and now an American citizen to loose his voice and not be able to speak with him would be an added irritant. Simon's wife Paula's parents live locally to Alan & Brenda but although younger her Father is having his own second battle with The Reaper - so that is the three of us with cancer - woopy doo!

I just want to say sorry for copping out at times and leaving Lee and friends to cope!

Any help and support YOU can give her will be hugely welcome.

I do make a lousy patient!

.
If YOU want to follow my fight against Cancer from when it started and I first presented with symptoms see The TAB just below the Header of this Blog. called >DIARY of Cancer< just click and it will give you a long list of the main events in chronological order.
.
Thoughts and comments will be in chronological order in the main blog and can be tracked in the >ARCHIVE< in the Right Sidebar. You may find the TABS >MEDICAL LINKS< and also >CANCER LINKS< of help.
.
YOU are welcome to call me if you believe I can help in ANY way.
.

Posted by: Greg Lance-Watkins

tel: 01291 - 62 65 62

of: Greg_L-W@BTconnect.com

on: http://GregLanceWatkins.Blogspot.com

Related articles

• Cancer Facts : Nanotechnology in Cancer Treatment " Attorney ... (attorneylawyermesothelioma.org)
• Deadliest cancers in research funding gap: report (cbc.ca)
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23-Apr-2011 - SO FAR SO GOOD - WELL 'ISH!

23-Apr-2011 - SO FAR SO GOOD - WELL 'ISH!

Hi,

firstly what a wonderfull day and such a change for the Millions who normally sit and watch the rain for Easter - not just sunshine all day but completely out of character in terms of temperature.

To see so many people out enjoying it was great.

Sadly when IO got up I was feeling a bit jades - no particular malady but just a feeling of having a hangover with achey eyes and a sort of 'squinty' feeling from a mild headache.

Hence so far so good 'ish.

Also I am not allowed out in the sun as I gather the chemo makes my skin particularly sensative!

As the day progressed my mouth deteriorated but that was expected - the sides of my tongue and other areas are becoming increasingly raw.

I've been using Corsodyl mouth wash and can continue but the chemist has supplied VERY soft heads for my electric toothbrush and also an additional mouth wash 'Aloclair' which is great and leaves a coating of protection which is soothing.

It may well be St. David's Day but I don't feel much like dragon slaying today and in fact I feel rather more as if I have been doing a fire eating act and breathing flame!

Either way may I both remind you of the day 2h3n on th 23-Apr-303 St. George died and wish you one day a return of the freedom he risked his life to grant these United Kingdoms - Free of the Dragon!

On the subject of temperature, which we weren't really - I actually unpacked the thermometer that Velindre supplied to ensure I could take my temperature.

Astonishingly the leaflet is printed on both sides:

74cm. x 42cm.

Double Sided!

There is also a double sided printed leaflet 40cm. x 23cm. telling me how to protect the environment by the manner in which I must dispose of the battery!

I wonder just how many pages of instructions weren't followed to achieve the catastrophy in Japan - a catastrophy which risks the possibility still of a Catastrophic Gamma Ray Incidence.

Either way good luck all and there is absolutely no truth in the rumour that Japan is having difficulty in getting my dose right!

Sadly there is truth in the fact that if the 60 tons of spent fuel and the rods from Reactor 4 do go to thermal melt down - still a possibility the first deaths from gamma rays will be in about 12 seconds and there is every reason to believe that South Island could become uninhabitable for over a Century and with losses in days of around 90 Million - the Fuckushima incident IS that dangerous and WOULD be that catastrophic - it does make one feel very selfish thinking of how I can keep my cancer at bay when there are so many bigger problems!

Well my mouth is so very sore I think I shall toddle off to bed soon and hope it has settled by the morning.

Spot the deliberate mistake - cold meat salad was difficult but OK - Pineapple cubes in juice and cream was not such a smart idea and Lee's generosity with her fresh orange was a very painful mistake!

I can't complain at least in this beautiful weather I'm not feeling sick and up chucking!

I just want to say sorry for copping out at times and leaving Lee and friends to cope!

Any help and support YOU can give her will be hugely welcome.

I do make a lousy patient!

.
If YOU want to follow my fight against Cancer from when it started and I first presented with symptoms see The TAB just below the Header of this Blog. called >DIARY of Cancer< just click and it will give you a long list of the main events in chronological order.
.
Thoughts and comments will be in chronological order in the main blog and can be tracked in the >ARCHIVE< in the Right Sidebar. You may find the TABS >MEDICAL LINKS< and also >CANCER LINKS< of help.
.
YOU are welcome to call me if you believe I can help in ANY way.
.

Posted by: Greg Lance-Watkins

tel: 01291 - 62 65 62

of: Greg_L-W@BTconnect.com

on: http://GregLanceWatkins.Blogspot.com

22-Apr-2011 - GREAT EXPECTATIONS - A GOOD DAY!

22-Apr-2011 - GREAT EXPECTATIONS - A GOOD DAY!

Hi,

Well what a strange day chemo. + ONE!!

I took none of the tablets because I felt OK yesterday and I was convinced it was going to come in like a storm across an oily sea - to hit me with six tons of 'sh*t' and the aim was as soon as symptoms came on I would grab the pills and take myself to bed to sleep off the effect IF possible.

NOTHING!

Eventually I went to bed and it was almost 5am.
When I woke I was still OK so I got up at around 11:30hrs. and had a pint of yoghurt and honey and a large coffee.

I still feel remarkably OK and still no tablets.

Eventually I rang the Tenovus help line (they are the local equivalent of Macmillan Nursing).

A great chat with Mary, who is oncology nursing background. Her comments on the tablets was she couldn't advise but she could inform:
'the perceived wisdom amongst the nurses is that one should take all the tablets as a prophylacti'

Obviously they have been missing out on their own advice as clearly at least two of the chemo nurses hadn't been taking their pills and are expecting babies imminently!!

She also said:
'The Pharmacy on the other hand advise that one should only take the tablets if needed'.

It was not fence sitting on Mary's behalf but informative and when asked what she would do in my position where I almost never take tablets as what toxins we put into the body our kidneys have to take out and now I'm down to one I am acutely aware that I don't have a spare!

Mary's comment was:
'she would NOT take the tablets but be aware they were ther and take them IF sickness started but in the realisation there may be a period of feeling very sick before the dosage became systemic as a suppressor'.

I have therefore ONLY taken the one 8mg. ONDANSETRON tablet that was to be taken within 24 hours of the chemo. the rest I hope can stay in the care pack!

My temperatuire has been 35.7 & 35.9 on the two occasions I have taken it and two more meals later I still feel OK although Lee thinks I may be a bit off colour as I'm a bit yellowy which would imply my kidney is struggling and also the flushed look is not temperature so I checked my BP at 23:00hrs. and it is a bit high BIT!!! 140/79 which is VERY high for me I'm usually around 120/75 with a pulse of about 67 but it is currently P71.

Classification of blood pressure for adults

Category	systolic, mmHg	diastolic, mmHg
Hypotension	< 90	< 60
Normal	90 - 119	60 - 79
Prehypertension	120 – 139	or 80 – 89
Stage 1 Hypertension	140 – 159	or 90 – 99
Stage 2 Hypertension	160 - 179	or 100 - 109
Hypertensive Crisis	≥ 180	or ≥ 110

Nothing alarming and now it is time for a shower and off to bed as it is 02:20hrs.


Let's hope tomorrow is also symptom free but I am glad to be 36hrs. on and so far so good!

FINALLY FOR TONIGHT:

We really do appreciate the many phone calls - literally from around the world but also from all over Britain they are so very supportive and all a bit embarrassing!

Also thanks for the fantastic flowers to Peter & Christine (Christine assures me that Interflora wouldn't send just one dandelion for me so she had this wonderfull bunch for LEE instead!) - they are still as fresh as the day they arrived a week later!

Also thanks to Wendy & Andrew, Jean & Harry and others for the cards.

I was sorry to miss Pat's birthday on the 19th. & Diana's on the 21st. but I did at least remember Niall's on the 20th. Many Happy Returns in good health and my VERY best wishes to Pat's husband Dave who we have known for years as Dave has cancer of the neck and the battle is proving pretty tough with Radio Therapy after his chemo. it is all conspiring to kill his appetite and make him feel fairly rotten.

I just want to say sorry for copping out at times and leaving Lee and friends to cope!

Any help and support YOU can give her will be hugely welcome.

I do make a lousy patient!

.
If YOU want to follow my fight against Cancer from when it started and I first presented with symptoms see The TAB just below the Header of this Blog. called >DIARY of Cancer< just click and it will give you a long list of the main events in chronological order.
.
Thoughts and comments will be in chronological order in the main blog and can be tracked in the >ARCHIVE< in the Right Sidebar. You may find the TABS >MEDICAL LINKS< and also >CANCER LINKS< of help.
.
YOU are welcome to call me if you believe I can help in ANY way.
.

Posted by: Greg Lance-Watkins

tel: 01291 - 62 65 62

of: Greg_L-W@BTconnect.com

on: http://GregLanceWatkins.Blogspot.com

20-Apr-2011 - THE DAY HAS COME - CHEMO. DAY ONE!!!

20-Apr-2011 - THE DAY HAS COME - CHEMO. DAY ONE!!!

Hi,

well the day has come!

I can't say I am not concerned but it would be a huge exageration to claim I'm scared of it - I am anything but as chemo may prove to be my very best friend and save my life - despite all the grave warnings of sickness, hair loss, being ill, feeling terrible and the like - all give you a temperature be it a bit high or a bit low failure leaves you COLD!

So this is the first step to recovery, even if due to the sheer incompetence of the National Ass for Wales management of what was once a National Health Service - and was meant to be just that under the Beverrage Plan until the idiot Aneurin Bevan was given the job of implementing the policy which having failed to understand it - in part from inate stupidity but much as a result of his Champagne Socialist prefferences and idiology not to mention the input of his Marxist wife Jenny Lee.

The result has been that The NHS has become an over managed, mismanaged political football surrounded by Political idiologies and acting through its multi layered Kleptocrtatic QUANGOcracy as little more than a sponge to mop up unemployable quasi socialist middle class management of clearly low grade.

How come I find 3 stories of A&E in a pile of cardboard boxes as a permanent potacabin encampment at The Royal Gwent if it were not for missmanagement?

The huddle of cardboard boxes bolted onto the Velindre Hospital as a CDU (where I have my chemo.) with ramped bits of board to join up the levels on uneven ground. I gather this cardboard city was a temporary measure whilst further facilities were built but 3.1/2 years on there is no sign of the building and the ceilings in the cardboard boxes is buckling and breaking up.

One only ever notices ceilings in Hospital Beds and Honey Moon Suites!

This is a product of The Devolved Irresponsibility of The risibly over styled dump for useless space wasting of The Welsh Assembly Government.

A useless QUANGO in itself - merely a means of rubber stamping EU Directives and bribing yet another army of unemployable lick spittles who have, so I am reliably informed in print by The equally idiotic Lib.Dims. have wasted £1Billion of health SERVICE money in the last 12 months!

Sadly I am not surprised - When you note the huge amount of time, effort and investment that has been put into re-badging The Gwent Hospital Trust as 'The Aneurin Bevan Hospital Trust' and kitting out all the nurses in new uniforms and re-liverying all the Hospital and Trust vehicles - Did this help a single patient? Did it clean a single filthy ward? Did it save a single life?

I believe you will find that every question gets an emphatic NO.

However for lack of competent management and utter dishonesty and failure to supply the hospital with the requisite CT Scanner or for that matter manage additional shifts to ensure clinical needs were met - I for one may prove in the long run to have been killed by the self serving utter incompetence of Health Care Wales which sees itself as a job creation and marketing organisation designed to display the incompetence and irrelevance of most forms of Consultancy and Administarion, when particularly exempt from accountability as is too often the case in the feather bedded world of The Snivel Cervants.

Well off to Velindre we left with time to spare expecting to arrive at 12:45hrs. for 13:00hrs. - NO SUCH LUCK!

Just before the Coldra Roundabout the traffic ground to a halt - so we phoned to say we would be late but no idea when the CDU was great and just reassured us it would be OK they would fit us in. As a result of some rather 'rapid' driving after we passed the single lorry sitting undamaged in the center lane about 5 miles on, we were a mere 20 minutes late!

No problem we gather as Pharmacy is running 1.1/2 hours behind (A Management problem due to lack of allocation of resources in staff numbers to maintain the right output for clinical need) - IS THERE ANY PART OF THE NHS NOT BEING DESTROYED BY ITS OWN USELESS MANAGEMENT?

Well after much time wasting eventually we set off on the treadmill, so to speak.

Bed allocated and then the tedium of signing my life away admitting I knew the risks and knew this was not a cure and knew etc. etc. etc. and now sign this form.

I kept thinking if they can't manage to keep the ceiling boards up and house the unit in something more solubrious than a glorified packing case wjhat chance they had a clue what they were doing with the medical treatment!!

Anyway medical steps:

01: Place fist and forarm in a bucket of hot/warm water for 5 minutes to relax and open all the veins (that'll fool them!)

02: Find a suitable vein on the back of the hand and see if you can make it hurt as you insert a cannula needle:

03: Flush the vein for a few minutes with saline.

04: Switch to a bag of chemo that goes in at 999mg an hour so about 40 minutes!
      The first bag was the Gemcitabine which is using a saline carrier - no effects discomfort or pain

05: Flush the vein for a few minutes with saline.

06: Switch to a second bag of chemo that goes in at 999mg an hour so about 40 minutes!
      The second bag was the Carboplatin which uses a glucose carrier base and is in a black bag cover as it is light sensative (I hope I have these two the right way around! More to the point I hope they did!!!!) - no effects discomfort or pain.

07: Flush the vein for a few minutes with saline.

08: remove needles/cannula & tapes and away to go ;-)

09: WELL NOT QUITE!
      More 'debriefing' this time with a care packet and warnings that I may have all sorts of dire consequences like sickness & heavy periods!! well that's what the leaflet says! diarrhoea, flue like symptoms, temperature and durance vile!!
So here is a big bag of specialist anti sickness pills and our phone number 24/7 if you have ANY queries.

Well let the lions into the arena and as a gladiator about to do battle salute the Emperor:
'Those about to die Salute you Caesar'

It was more convincing in The Colosseum than in a cardboard box set up as a Welsh NHS chemo clinic I'm sure!

Well off home expecting to be ill at any moment and shiver and ache with the ague!

Eventually I went to bed at about 04:00hrs. having waited until I was feeling ill so that I could THEN try to sleep on and sleep through it - but no sign of the ill bit, so I gave up and went to bed!

I do feel sorry for Lee - I have no option but enjoin the battle but she has the onerous task of watching and hoping that all will be well, it must be very scarey for her after more than half of her life with me!

I just want to say sorry for copping out at times and leaving Lee and friends to cope!

Any help and support YOU can give her will be hugely welcome.

I do make a lousy patient!

.
If YOU want to follow my fight against Cancer from when it started and I first presented with symptoms see The TAB just below the Header of this Blog. called >DIARY of Cancer< just click and it will give you a long list of the main events in chronological order.
.
Thoughts and comments will be in chronological order in the main blog and can be tracked in the >ARCHIVE< in the Right Sidebar. You may find the TABS >MEDICAL LINKS< and also >CANCER LINKS< of help.
.
YOU are welcome to call me if you believe I can help in ANY way.
.

Posted by: Greg Lance-Watkins

tel: 01291 - 62 65 62

of: Greg_L-W@BTconnect.com

on: http://GregLanceWatkins.Blogspot.com

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18-Apr-2011 - VELINDRE for MY FIRST CONSULTANT CLINIC

18-Apr-2011 - VELINDRE for MY FIRST CONSULTANT CLINIC

Hey ho - a strange event to inflict on Lee's Aunt Heather on her last full day with us but she wanted to come and see Cardiff before she leaves to fly back to SA tomorrow on the 19:00hrs. Heathrow to Johannesburg flight and then on another 2hrs. to PE.

So we left arriving about 15 minutes early but it took a while to find parking and by the time I had aimed Lee and Heather at the canteen I was about perfect timing for a 13:45hrs. appointment.

First I get sent off to be weighed and measured!! Just how different can I be to Thursday in the same hospital - well it seems I've shrunk another inch so when queried I grew it back!!! Weight was almost the same - so I guess I can't blame gain or loss on Heather's deserts!!

When I came back to the waiting area Roger & Anne had arrived (his appointment is with Dr. Lester also but at 14:30hrs.) Had it just been Lee and I coming we might well have picked them up en-route as they only live in St. Arvans. They had stopped off for lunch at The Holly Bush carvery and then met Lee and Heather in the canteen by accident over a coffee.

What a riotous life cancer provides!!

Roger has had a bit of a rough time and over the last week had to stop taking his drugs - he is on (was on) 50mg. Sutent - it was making him feel grotty and sleep all the time with no motivation and just depressed - No way to fight cancer, but you can't fight the drug side effects and he has been very lucky, avoiding Sore Hand & Foot syndrome and the mouth ulcers that often go with Sutent.

Anyway then I was called for yet another set of bloods but R&A were still there when I came out.

A short weight and off to see Dr. Lester - allegedly my kidney function results were excellent even considering I only have one kidney.


He believes that if there is a chance with chemo. I have better odds than most as my body has kept the disease at bay, with some mechanical intervention, for 13 years now and I have no other underlying health issues.


I gather realistic odds are around 5-15% and on that one would hardly bet ones shirt on a racehorse in a field of donkeys but I have every intention of beating the odds - I have to date!


Lester asked if I had any questions and did I understand the chemo. leaflet he gave me last time (lightweight and a bit uninformative springs to mind) I did ask why he had removed one of the pages as look as I might I couldn't find the Guarantee Page!


I guess it doesn't work that way ;-)


I also asked if it was OK to take pain killers as my back was giving me a lot of pain, unrelated to the cancer.


I'm not sure how to take his answer ;-o apparently as that is the least of the problems take whatever I want!


Later when I told Roger this he related having asked what he should do about his diabetes diet Dr. Lester said eat what you like we will just control the diabetes for you.


Feeling he might be onto a winner Roger asked whether he could drink alcohol having been off of it medically for 3 years.


Dr. Lester is claimed to have paused - looked at him and said you've had a piece of gut removed, you've had chemo and we have removed a kidney and an adrenal gland and also half your liver and you are on Sutent - what the hell you might as well be half 'pissed' - perhaps a little apocryphal but it gave me pause for thought relative to my doubts about pain killers!

Well the last task was to book an appointment for the next clinic which will be 09-May

So that is chemo on Wednesday 20-April then again on 27-April then 04-May BLANK (Two weeks on and one week off!)

I presume that means back on for chemo on 11-May and then again on 18-May and the 25-May off, with a CT scan and the next clinic around the last week of May.

Eventually we left the hospital and I drove Heather all over Cardiff - even stopping to get some pictures of The Millenium Stadium for her to have for John (her husband). Then on to The Bay which really is deeply unimpressive and one can just imagine how seedy it will look in 10 years time - it is all too childish a statement of insecurity and inadequacy!!

I have always found Cardiff to be a seedy and rather silly City with its desperate pretence that Welshness has any significance or ever did have - anything that is so insecure it has to keep leaping up and down to be noticed probably wasn't worth noticing in the first place. Such a tragedy really as there are some stunningly beautiful areas of Wales to more than compensate for its inadequacy and quite palpable failure!

We then drove out of Cardiff and via a detour up the Rhumney Valley headed around the edge of Newport, yet another spectacularly unpleasant little town!

Back to Chepstow and Heather's last night with us - it is such a pity she couldn't have stayed as she would have been a huge boost for Lee who is understandably concerned about the next few months.


& HERE for John as he waits for Heather to come home:
Image via Wikipedia

I just want to say sorry for copping out at times and leaving Lee and friends to cope!

Any help and support YOU can give her will be hugely welcome.

I do make a lousy patient!

.
If YOU want to follow my fight against Cancer from when it started and I first presented with symptoms see The TAB just below the Header of this Blog. called >DIARY of Cancer< just click and it will give you a long list of the main events in chronological order.
.
Thoughts and comments will be in chronological order in the main blog and can be tracked in the >ARCHIVE< in the Right Sidebar.

You may find the TABS >MEDICAL LINKS< and also >CANCER LINKS< of help.
.
YOU are welcome to call me if you believe I can help in ANY way. .

Posted by: Greg Lance-Watkins

tel: 01291 - 62 65 62

of: Greg_L-W@BTconnect.com

on: http://GregLanceWatkins.Blogspot.com

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17-Apr-2011 - Casual Reading AS YOU DO!! 'CISPLATIN'

17-Apr-2011 - Casual Reading AS YOU DO!! 'CISPLATIN'

A recent article in the Mich. State University Alumni magazine (Spring 2011)
talks about the late Dr. Barney Rosenberg who developed the anti-cancer drug
Cisplatin (Platinol) and used with carboplatin (Paraplatin)- these two drugs are
rarely used alone.

" They are key ingredients in many combinations of drugs,
radiation and surgery that make cancers survivable, according to the director of
clinical research of one of the world's top cancer hospitals.

Cisplatin became the backbone of combination therapy for testicular,bladder,lung,ovarian,head and
neck,gastric cancers and recently for triple negative breast cancer and a number
of other less common tumors"

according to Bruce A. Chabner in Rosenberg's obituary published in Cancer Research.

The MSU article further states
"Caplatin and oxaliplatin(developed in Japan) have further extended this range of benefit.

The patients cured by these regiments and those that have benefitted from this
therapy number in the millions." Tumors of the kidney are included in the list
of cancers I found out.

& In Reply:

Cisplatin has been around a long time (1970"s) as a cancer treatment.
It is VERY toxic to the kidneys, causes neuropathy and hasn't shown a great response rate in general for RCC-like 17%. But is usedsucessfully for sarcomas so it is more likely to be used for kidney cancer with sarcomoid features. http://annonc.oxfordjournals.org/content/13/1/116.full.pdf

I just want to say sorry for copping out at times and leaving Lee and friends to cope!

Any help and support YOU can give her will be hugely welcome.

I do make a lousy patient!

.
If YOU want to follow my fight against Cancer from when it started and I first presented with symptoms see The TAB just below the Header of this Blog. called >DIARY of Cancer< just click and it will give you a long list of the main events in chronological order.
.
Thoughts and comments will be in chronological order in the main blog and can be tracked in the >ARCHIVE< in the Right Sidebar.

You may find the TABS >MEDICAL LINKS< and also >CANCER LINKS< of help.
.
YOU are welcome to call me if you believe I can help in ANY way.
.

Posted by: Greg Lance-Watkins

tel: 01291 - 62 65 62

of: Greg_L-W@BTconnect.com

on: http://GregLanceWatkins.Blogspot.com

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