The results are in......finally

I am pleased to be able to tell you that we have received the results from Paul's scan and they have confirmed a definite reduction in the cancer.  We are both very very pleased to have this news but, like all things in our lives at present, getting there has not proved easy!

Yesterday after my post Paul started with a headache which turned into a migraine and by 2pm he was being sick.  I of course rang our hospital urgent number to find out what we should do.  They said to phone our GP if it got any worse.  I rang our GP after Paul had been sick 3 times.  After an hour waiting for them to call back (and Paul being sick again) I phoned them back, only to be told that Paul was a non-urgent case.  After 3 hours they rang back but luckily by this time Paul had improved and had managed to keep some tablets down which had helped with both the migraine and the sickness.

This morning we had an early start as the trip to Cambridge in rush hour is not the easiest.  Paul wasn't feeling 100% but Ok to travel.  He had his usual bloods taken and then we were called through to see his oncologist.  Unfortunately he had been unable to compare Paul's scan last week to the one pre-chemo as that scan had been done at Papworth and not at Addenbrookes.  He had therefore compared it to a pre-diagnosis scan take in September and said he could see a little improvement.  Not really a lot of help bearing in mind Paul had a major op in November to remove as much as possible of the tumour.

We came away feeling a little disheartened and were told they would obtain the scan from Papworth and call us if they felt the cancer was not responding.  Paul had been asked if he wanted to continue with chemo or postpone his next session, and I am so glad we decided to leave it booked in for this week.

On our arrival home we decided we weren't greatly happy with how things had been left.  Paul put in a phone call to one of the lovely Specialist Nurses at Papworth to see if we could move things along a little and maybe get a bit of a better answer sooner rather than later.  I am so pleased we made that call!  They managed to get the right scan to the oncologist for him to look at and he reported back the 'definite reduction'!!

I think this first bit of good news since diagnosis will spur us both on and give us the boost we need to get through another 3 cycles of chemo.  Although I think Paul will be taking it a little easier from now on......