I do wish that this painful procedure
leads to something beneficial for
♥ maggilove ♥
e-mail sent

Yes, I got it, too.
I e-mailed my very best thoughts
and my hope for a miracle to
♥ maggilove ♥
at once.

It has been a week of highs and lows.

Had to call out the emergency doc early Saturday as I was in agony and had been hurling for 36 hours straight, again. After injecting me with diamorphine (heroin) and anti-emetics, he left to organise a nurse to come and fit a morphine pump into my arm. Before that could be arranged, I took a turn for the worse and an ambulance was despatched to collect me. However, the crew were not willing to move me in that state, so administered Entinox to take the edge off the pain whilst we waited for an IRV with paramedic to dose me up with more diamorphine and accompany me into hospital. She had to give me a third shot en route. On arrival, I was still unable to answer questions etc due to the pain and vomiting. In desperation, I asked for some Diclofenac to add to the morphine, paracetamol, hyoscine etc... my GP had refused to prescribe this for me any longer, despite its effectiveness, because a study had linked it to osteoporosis in later life; but as I pointed out, that is the least of my concerns now... and it worked!

The pain and sickness subsided immediately, and I was given IV fluids and a sleeping pill so I got some rest at last, then I was able to come home on Sunday. The Diclofenac is now part of my regime, and means that I get a couple of short periods each day when I am effectively pain free and can function almost as normal. Unfortunately, I am still in a lot of pain in between, and I am already on the maximum dosage of Diclofenac...

On Tuesday, I met with my oncologist for the first time. Dr Mukherjee is reputed to be one of the best in his field, and I took to him immediately. The news was better than I had anticipated.

He told me that my tumour is around four times the size of most newly-diagnosed pancreatic adenocarcinomas, hence the very pessimistic attitude I had encountered thus far. However, the evidence suggests that it is entirely localized, which is all but unheard of, and which gives cause for cautious optimism. He thinks I might have another 10-12 months, which is considerably longer than all previous estimates... at one point, it was suggested that I might not see Christmas.

Normally when pain is an issue, chemotherapy is combined with radiotherapy. In my case, however, the tumour is so massive that the combined dosage required would be toxic in itself. Therefore, he is proposing to start the chemo, and to feed in radiation cycles separately as required. I have my pre-chemo assessment on Friday of next week (11th November), then my first chemo session the following Tuesday (15th November).

Please keep up the prayers/positive thoughts... I know they are helping.
Mags xoxox

- and I e-mailed
♥♥♥ maggilove ♥♥♥
of course, and am sending thoughts all the time
It could be you ... or me ....
but right now it's
♥♥♥ maggilove ♥♥♥
- and I feel powerless

Got it too, JP
- and e-mailed
I'm happy for her
that she was granted
a very good Sunday
((( ♥♥♥ maggilove ♥♥♥ )))