Is it back again? Well, Yes

 

I had my last CHOP treatment on Thursday, 15th August, 2002, and although I had no official confirmation that I was in remission, things had been going well, and we had no reason to assume otherwise.

 

After some weeks, I started to get another rash back on my body, and visited my own doctor, who prescribed hydrocortisone cream to clear it up.

 

My Haematologist, Dr Kyle, had already organised a PET scan to check that the cancer was indeed under control, but when I attended the hospital, they were reluctant to do it, as it shows up blood in the body, and as I had a rash, the readings might conflict. I convinced them and they did it anyway and advised me to see my doctor that afternoon, as the rash was bad, and it need to be sorted out immediately.

 

I made an appointment with my doctor on my return, and was prescribed cream for Scabies.

 

Now Scabies is a skin infestation caused by small parasites called itch mites, which burrow extensively through the superficial layers of the skin and irritate it with their waste products. Such mites are usually transmitted by close body contact with another person; hence, scabies is most common where crowding and unsanitary conditions prevail. It is important to treat all affected family members at the same time, or re-infection is likely. Not a nice thing to have, and doesn’t sound very hygienic, however, of course I didn’t have it. I had cancer. I waited the next couple of days to see if things would clear up, but they didn’t.

 

I had started to suffer from mild sweats and tiredness again, so the thought had crossed my mind that the cancer was back. I made an appointment to see my Haematologist.

 

No surprise then when she told me that she had the results back, and that the cancer was also back, however, a big surprise lay in store as I had, in my naivety, assumed that I would be put back on the CHOP programme, and things would be just kike before. Not so  -  the survival figures were reduced substantially for relapsed Non Hodgkin's Lymphoma, and I was told that my chances of survival were in the 15-20% range. Bad news, but what were the options…  there weren’t any, I would take the percentage. We talked some more about options, and she suggested that we should go for a regimen called ESHAP, which is used for relapsed cases, and then follow that with a Stem Cell Transplant.

 

Now, although most of you won’t know me personally, I can assure you that I am a very outgoing type of guy, and most things will never get me down. The last cancer most certainly didn’t, and I was sure that I would beat it.

But…    I was driving home from the hospital: thinking about what was happening, when I suddenly found my self crying uncontrollably, and had to pull my car off the road, and onto the grass verge. I had conjured up a picture in my mind, from where I know not, of my daughter, (only 12 then) walking down the aisle with her husband to be, and me no where in sight (presumably dead).

 

This was not like me, but it did get the better of me, and I had to telephone my wife. She got out of work immediately, and we met up, and I cried some more. The two of us just sat there, parked on the road, crying.

 

This depression (for want of a better word) lasted roughly 3 - 4 days, after which I got my head around the whole thing, and started feeling normal again, determined to beat the cancer by whatever means necessary.

 

I scoured the web with a vengeance looking for sites on relapsed NHL, and you can see the sites I found on the links pages. Some of these show very new drugs, which aren’t even available in the UK at this time, but I would, if necessary, travel to use them, if ESHAP doesn’t work.

 

14th November I started CHOP again, three months all but a day since my last treatment.

 

My consultant decided on 2 CHOP treatments; 3 weeks apart, with ESHAP starting 3 weeks after that.

 

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