Back on the rollercoaster.......

 Hi all,

After having all of about two weeks of full health it seems we are back on the rollercoaster that is chemo.

The good news is they haven't found any more cancer, its still clear. The bad news is that during the scans taken to determine the radiotherapy site they discovered my oesophagus (sp!) and upper digestive tract are very enlarged due to my autonomic problems. This means they would be in direct contact with the radiation which would cause severe long term side effects to these organs. So much so the radiologist who does all the Hodgkins treatment has refused to do it. If the happy trigger radiologist refuses you know it could be bad!

So the only alternative is three more months of chemo, the standard recommended treatment for a patient who does not have radiotherapy. As you can imagine a big blow for us all when we thought it was all over. But it could be worse, the prognosis is still the same, it would just seem that the Roebucks' bad luck is still running.

So, it looks like chemo will be starting in the next week or so and running through to the end of May. Obviously we have had to cancel a lot of plans to go away and see people and we will be battening down the hatches and just trying to get through the next few months hoping that this will really be the last of it.

What I have to hold on to is how much better I have felt over the last few weeks. Its taken a good month to recover from chemo but the last few weeks I've been eating well, put on a couple of kilos, been able to look after the children a lot more so I have to hold on to how good it can be when the going is good.

We will be updating the blog during this time (and trying to be a bit better about it) so keep in touch and we will keep you updated.

Love to you all,

the Roebucks!