One of the nurses at CCL sidled over to me and said – did you know that this is your 100th cycle of Velcade this month? Obviously, no, as I don’t count the buggers, I just turn up week after week to have them!
I asked if this meant that I would get a cake to celebrate and she checked behind herself to see who was listening and said ‘no, but I could ask Julie to dance for you’. Julie being the very overweight and slightly mad lead nurse in the chemo unit…. I settled for nicking a pack of butterscotch biscuits to enjoy on a later day.
Still – it’s a pretty amazing number to have reached. For each of the last ten years while I’ve been on this treatment regimen I have had 39 single doses of Velcade (not the same as a cycle) and 13 doses of Daratumumab – it’s a charming 52 injections into my (yes always bruised and angry red) stomach each year, plus of course the 13 blood drawings before each cycle, plus the 2 x bone marrow biopsies and 2 x PET CT scans every year. Add in the random bits of crap along the way – like the 3 MRI scans I’ve already had this year, plus seeing the related consultants to get those results and next steps, plus seeing Prof 13 times a year (and H’s oncologist 2-3 times as well!) then you can see why it’s a full time job – minus any sign of a single penny of pay!!!
But as always, thank god it’s still working. I’m about the have the 6 monthly BMB and PET CT so hopefully they will show that things are still on track – will know more in a month or so.
In the meantime, here’s to still being here and luckily not being at all needle-phobic given the number of jabs and blood tests – it’s just those big fat capsules that I still cant swallow! Well, I can’t be 100% perfect, hey?
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