Nearly There with the Chemotherapy

It dawned on me today that there are only eight days left of the final chemotherapy cycle before surgery.

At this point it is always a doddle, but there is still need for care to be taken.  One of the good things is that I have finished the five blood boosting injections from days 8 to 12. This is an under the skin injection (subcutaneous) rather than intravenous but it is something that you have to get on with rather than enjoy.

I am restaged with a CT scan the day after the chemotherapy finishes and that is when I will find out how well the drugs have worked.

I was chatting it over with Kitten tonight and although I want the tumour to have shrunk the most important thing is that everything is still operable.

What nobody knows is what the rate of the tumour's growth was before treatment started, so it is unknown how much effort has been expended in reversing the situation.

Physically, there was a big improvement in my ability to swallow food after a few days of the first administration of chemotherapy but I cannot say that there has been an noticeable improvement from that point.

I am assuming that I won't know what the results of the CT scan are until two days after it is performed, as that is when  I have an appointment scheduled to meet the surgeon.

Both Kitten and I are relaxed about the outcome and we are looking forward to our week's break in the Isle of Wight, whch is less than three weeks away.

On Thursday we visit the Marsden's child psychologist with the children (they haven't been with us on our two previous visits) and that should wrap things up.  The kids are both back to their usual selves.

Huffty, is much more grown up than the beginning of the year as this has concided with him growing into his personality and Boogle is back to her feisty self but seems much more comfortable with my illness.

We undertook the visits to the psychologist simply because they were available and we wanted to do the best we could for the kids.  They have been helpful and we have managed well as a family so far. The fact that Kitten had an operation on her neck last year will be helpful in laying the path for my operation as the situation will not be unique from the childrens' persepective.

Because my hair is shaved really tightly, the scar from my haemangioma operation is clearly visible.  It is interesting that the kids have never commented on the scar before, given that even with hair covering the top part, the lower part of the scar runs below my ear along my neck in-line with my jaw. 

Boogle noticed the scar from the top of my head to my ear, whilst we were sitting at the dinner table a few days ago, but she still did not connect that it runs down below the ear.

It is funny what kids see.