Meso Warriors

Four fellow mesothelioma sufferers have lost their battle this month; this is a bastard disease. My thoughts are with their families.
We all try and support each other and our families, which is lovely, but is sad when another brave sufferer dies.

I am still feeling chemo'd, nauseous and muzzy headed, it seems to be lasting longer this time for some reason, 12 days so far.

I am going to Germany again for treatment for the 4th of October. I am hoping it is the last of this series, I won't know until I get there though.

There is a Mesothelioma Patient & Carers meeting in London on the 2nd of October and Prof. Dr. Thomas Vogl, my doctor in Germany, is coming to talk about his treatments. It will be fantastic to meet up with all the people I am in contact with, regarding mesothelioma, and putting some faces to the names. We all intend to wear matching T-shirt's designed by a fellow meso warrior Cher Bright. Even the Prof. is going to wear one we think. It will show the solidarity and comrade we all feel knowing each other.

There is a local charity that has built and runs a school in Farato, Gambia. They are having a fundraising art exhibition, with mostly professional artists, and I have dared to put in some of my paintings. Thirty percent of each picture sold will go to the charity, let's hope one or two of mine sell too.

Emily, our daughter performed at the 'Her Majesties Theatre', Haymarket, London, that is currently showing the Phantom of the Opera, on Sunday and we are so proud of her, it was a great night. She is also in the regional finals in October for the Open Mic competition and we will be supporting her there too.

Our grandson Joseph has just started at his new nursery and seems to be picking up all new bugs from this new set of children. Poor Joe has had enough of illness.







Today's picture is of Cher's design for our mesothelioma meeting T-shirt.

Frankfurt Treatment

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Just back from Frankfurt where I had my second treatment this time, but 6th treatment overall. The procedure went well but I had a bad allergic reaction to the tracer the Prof. uses to make my blood vessels visible for the Ultrasound scanner he uses during treatment. I got a severe burning in my stomach, then was retching quite badly, then I had difficulty breathing. I was put on oxygen and a Doctor sat with me as I was shuddering on and off for a couple of hours. This was not very pleasant and it was with some relief when it all settled down.

Next time they will give me something before the procedure to prevent a repeat. The Prof. has treated my Lymph nodes plus some pleura this time. I assume the pleura bit is remnants that could not be removed at my pleurectomy operation. I can certainly feel where he treated me.

We met up with some other people having the same treatment; one was having his first and the other having more after 18 months of the mesothelioma sleeping after her last treatment. It was good to be able to speak to others in my situation as the mesothelioma is not that common, and to exchange notes. Constipation can be a problem for the first few days and Movicol seems to be the best solution for me. I know, too much information.

The Prof. has given me a date in October but I just can't find any hotels there under £700.00, as there is a huge exhibition on at the same time. I have asked for another date and await this so I can get the hotel and flights booked.

I asked if the area the Prof. treated last time had improved and he told me it has. So it is a little bit at a time but progress of sorts too. I hope my next treatment is my last for a bit.

I am looking forward to hearing Emily sing at her regional finals in October, if she gets through to the National finals she will compete at the O2 Arena.




My picture this time is a photo of my grandson Joseph in Majorca with us all last year.

Devastating news.

Suffering with a nasty chest infection for the last 10 days, I have now got some strong antibiotics and hope this finally knocks the infection on its head. The Doctor has taken blood to see if my white blood count is OK as I only had chemo (in Germany) two weeks ago.

We had some really bad news last week, my youngest sister has been diagnosed with renal cancer and is seriously ill. She needs operations and drugs to help her. This is a tremendous blow to her and us and I can't believe how unlucky our family is. She is being very brave and I know that, like me, she will fight this with all her might.

We are off to Germany again on the 8th September for treatment on the 9th, hopefully my bloods will be OK by then and I can have the treatment. I will also get the results of the August treatment.

I am losing quite a lot of hair after the August treatment. I had forgotten this side effect to the chemoembolization. Fortunately it doesn't all fall out, just thins a lot.


The picture this week is a photo is of me and my lovely sister taken about 20 months ago.