Cancer Rollercoaster

Hi everyone. Long time since my last post, but will back blip for most of the missing days. Today's photo is of a wonderful sailing trip on Lyttelton Harbour with friends Nancy and Matt and their two little girls this morning. Thanks guys - I thoroughly enjoyed it.

We had a great holiday taking it slowly to Wanaka camping near Fairlie then Tekapo and night sky tour, then 4WD up the Ahuriri Vallery and an overnight tramp of 1.5 hrs one way to Shamrock Hut. Lastly to Wanaka where we stayed about 5 days with two sets of friends, visited some others and did a short kayak trip on the lake. All of this was the good part of our trip.

At the end of our time in Wanaka I became dehydrated, constipated and my nausea and vomiting got worse. I had  some IV fluids in the Wanaka Health Centre, but this wasn't enough. We drove back to Christchurch where I was admitted to the Christchurch Hospital for a few days. While there, they gave me more IV fluids, but then I became very bloated so they did another CT scan. This is the bad news.....my cancer has come back. with new metastases in my peritoneum (lining of my abdomen), lungs, and liver. The peritoneal metastases were causing the fluid retention which was extremely uncomfortable. They drained off 4 litres of fluid! Imagine carrying around two 2 litre bottles of milk in your tummy. I was finally discharged and able to come home yesterday.

We are still reeling from the news, as only 3 weeks ago we posted about a scan showing the treatment medication was working and most of the original cancer had gone. We are not sure why it has turned around like this but tend to blame the fact that just one week before  the good scan, we were told that the second treatment drug we were taking was no longer available due to a manufacturer supply issue. So I haven't been taking this drug for one month now.

The next step is an appointment with our oncologist on Thursday 5th March to discuss other medical treatment options. We hope that either he can obtain the second treatment drug somehow, or that we might get access to another very new treatment for advanced melanoma (PD1). I will keep you posted. Meanwhile we are completely gutted at the speed of the turnaround, but wanting to stay grounded and optimistic, remembering that no-one knows what will happen in the future.