Well this May has so far been pretty shitty, to be frank.<\/p>\n
Losing Scrumpy unexpectedly has turned our world upside down. I see her everywhere, all the places she was so often. Under our feet, around the house, barking at the front door, bringing toys to any visitor, sniffing the flower beds, lying belly up for tummy rubs, trying to lick our legs dry when we came out of the shower, waiting for us to say \u2018up up\u2019 so she could get on our laps, by my side on the inner edge of the sofa, cruising for dropped crumbs, bugging Mojo, bombing around the common, in the car boot, pinching apples in the cottage garden, romping through the brook, chasing any ball she could find, scrumping tomatoes off the vine, curled up in her bed – and in our bed. You got out for a second and she'd be in the warm patch, hoping she could stay there all night. The list is endless. And now, it\u2019s more a case of seeing what feels like hundreds of other dogs all day when I\u2019m out, but none of them are her. <\/span><\/p>\n Animals are such a huge part of life when you have them and lose your heart to them. Who knew that annoying, not-listening, seemingly untrainable puppy would turn into my so much loved daily shadow? But here we sadly are.. She will be forever loved and missed. And thank you for all the cards and flowers from those who knew just what a member of our family Scrumpy was.<\/p>\n And May also seems to have been the medical month of total arrsssse as well, so far. (All of which I\u2019d gladly have sucked up if we could have had Scrumpy back, but that\u2019s just wishful thinking).<\/p>\n I\u2019m now nearly three weeks into having broken my 4 ribs, falling on the boat. So they\u2019re much improved now, but it\u2019ll probably be three more weeks till they are fully mended. In the meantime, plenty of painkillers, not too much twisting and the dream of being able to sleep on my right side again one day\u2026<\/p>\n And then there\u2019s suddenly been a barrage of other dull medical stuff, mostly planned but all coming in quick succession. An x-ray on the ribs. My regular PET CT scan to check for myeloma progression (looking ok so far). Double chemo on Monday. My 6 monthly bone marrow biopsy yesterday (results pending). The dentist and hygienist this morning – think god I was finally in the hairdressers this afternoon, the self-care list ended on a relative high!<\/p>\n And H is home tonight for his planned one weekend back, the mid point of the 2 month sailing trip. He\u2019s got blood tests tomorrow then we are off to Harrogate to see David & Mands, with a 1 night pop away for me to see Sarah Hutton, who now lives an hour from them. Looking forward to catching up, checking out her new country pad and a cuddle with Otto the dog..<\/p>\n So, for us and for me this is a time of adjustment to life without Scrumpy. And a bit of thinking, as I sometimes do, about what the future might hold. <\/span><\/p>\n I also had a first consultation with the blood bloke at King\u2019s Hospital last week, to see if they will conduct another stem call harvest, in case I one day need another stem cell transplant. A conversation he said he never has, as it\u2019s almost unheard of for a patient to be in a position of possibly having a third bite of that particular cherry.<\/p>\n Most people get say 4 years remission from a first transplant, and the average rule of thumb is you might then get half that amount from a second one. Hence they rarely do a third as.. you do the math, it wouldn\u2019t be worth it. So for me to have got 6 years post SCT1, and now to be 5.5 years since SCT2 and still in remission, plus being only 53 and otherwise in relatively decent health, it makes my case a very unusual possibility. <\/span><\/p>\n Downsides are that having been on solid chemo for the last 6 years, I may not have many stem cells to gather. Even though you spend a week before injecting with drugs to hyper-mobilise the cells, not enough still might emerge. There is an additional drug that last time I was given on night 3 of the harvest to max production for day 4, and we got enough then. But even this might not squeeze out many. There are some old Scotty stem cells, <\/span>literally on ice somewhere from both the previous harvests, which might be enough when added to whatever a third harvest now might come up with..Anyway, he\u2019s taking my case to the MDT (multi disciplinary team) for them to decide. Should know in a week or so\u2026 it\u2019s not a very nice thing to go through but if puts an option in the bank then it needs to be done.<\/p>\n He was very thorough on running through my treatment options for when Dara stops working. And while there are certainly some, perhaps not as many as one might hope for. He clarified the current situation re CAR-T cells, for example, which have been in the press much of late. In a nutshell they are providing I think it was 40% of leukaemia patients with an actual cure (a cure!!), and there was another curative figure for another blood disease, but in Myeloma at present, none. Disappointing to say the least. But it was good to hear a second opinion as my monthly meets with Prof are cursory to say the least re discussing the future. Clearly, he can't read it, and I don't often want to think about it. The reality is just too worrying.<\/p>\n But yes, in a way it was good to understand that there are still a few other treatments, as well as the possible 3rd SCT, so we will see. The word 'cure' remains a pipe dream, and I just have to keep hoping that progress is made in time. Selfish, but you can't blame me for hoping..<\/p>\n And so far Dara is doing an amazing job. Long, long, long may that please last x <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Well this May has so far been pretty shitty, to be frank. Losing Scrumpy unexpectedly has turned our world upside down. I see her everywhere, all the places she was so often. Under our feet, around the house, barking at the front door, bringing toys to any visitor, sniffing the flower beds, lying belly up […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-178","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n