Back in Melbourne

The flight back to Melbourne was uneventful and only slightly delayed. It was a late evening flight so we didn’t get back until 2am. We went straight to bed.

While we were at Brisbane airport we briefly checked our email. We noticed a new blog comment which made me feel quite emotional. A long time ago I explained the rationale for calling our boat Dignity. It was very much down to a song titled ‘Dignity’ by a band called Deacon Blue. Probably best for you to read the comment yourself to see why.

Gordon has put a clip from the video taken from his phone onto youtube. Take a look.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TudHanl7AT8[/youtube]

Today we had no lie in as we had to be off to Moorabbin to see the haematology and radiology specialists to discuss treatment options. They’d also had a bit more time to look at the numerous MRIs taken at the hospital to give us a more definitive analysis of the treatment so far. The high level summary is that I have had a ‘good response’ to the chemo which is nice to hear but not a ‘complete response’ which is what we would have liked to hear.

The continued treatment plan is essentially what we had been told before but we learned some more detail about the things happening soon. We have a busy schedule ahead. On Thursday we go to Alfred Hospital to kick off the stem cell harvest. I won’t be staying in the hospital straight away. I’ll be shown how to self administer the drugs (which we pick up tomorrow, Wednesday) that will liberate stem cells from my blood. This will start straight away and continue over the weekend.

On Friday we go back to the radiologists to begin the prep work. In order to hold me really still during the treatment they need to make a face fitting mask. This work starts on Friday.

On Monday I go back to Alfred hospital to begin the stem cell harvest. I understand this is very much like dialysis where they’ll plug me into a machine for the day which takes out my blood, extracts the stem cells and puts the blood back in.

If they collect enough cells I’ll be out that day otherwise I’ll stay in the hospital for another day or two until they have enough.

Tuesday or Wednesday, depending on the above, I have a second appointment with the radiologists to complete the prep work. During one of these two visits I’ll have a few small tattoos put on me to make lining up the machine consistent and accurate.

Soon after starts the radiology. The current thinking is that I’ll have 20 rounds of low dose treatment over 4 weeks. Each round of treatment will only take about an hour with only 5 minutes on the machine.

There is a strong chance my bone marrow will be affected and it’s possible that this could be quite bad. If so, the harvested cells will be put back in.

A short time after all this finishes I get two more rounds of chemo, this time on a different drug to what I’ve had before. Then, I should be done.

This evening we are back having dinner with our extended family.  It was really nice to see Russ, Ros and Jack again.

I’ll leave you for now with a picture of my new hairstyle. I don’t have long to get used to it as the radiologist assures me it’s all going to fall out.