Having problems with message search?
Hi Everyone
Mark and Liz here...Mark with his AAIII tumour since Feb 1994...
But now looks like he is heading into round 3 of his battle/our battle - the latest scan shows the tumour has grown back - with significant swelling as well.
So that's pretty tough - but we were pretty much expecting this. We will see a visiting oncologist (from Palm Nth) on the 1st of October - and start to organise what happens next...
Mark is also under Dr Muthu who visits from Waikato Hospital - a neurosurgeon - and he will probably want to operate to do a bit of debulking.
We are not sure if, in view of the dangers of debulking, whether it would be worth operating at all! After Mark's last surgery and biopsy/debulking in Auckland 3 years ago, he had a cerebral haemorrhage and was really ill and incapacitated.
So maybe we will ask to forego surgery and go straight to chemo. We are thinking of trying BCNU chemo again - as it had a pretty good effect last time with 2 1/2 years remission... or use Temodal - we can sort-of afford paying for it ourselves - as Mark's life insurance has now been paid out (after the recurrance 3 years ago) - though losing some of it in finance company collapses is not entirely helpful!!!
Mark is having to take 3000mg of Epilim as well as quite a bit of Dilantin because of increasing numbness and lack of awareness of where his right arm is. He is having a bit of trouble with conversations and reading and a lot of trouble writing...thoough he is still keeping fit - ran his favourite 18 km track the other day - over the nearby hills - though he admitted it was rather a slow jog!!!
His white cell count has been a bit low too - maybe too low to manage taking many rounds of chemo - so that might be a problem. His white cells (esp neutrophils) are low because of bone marrow suppresion caused by high amounts of Epilim and Dilantin - but he needs to keep taking these!
So it might be a bit of a rocky road ahead...but we are (mostly) staying positive and I continue to be amazed at how well Mark has done in spite of his illness. Its great to know you guys are with us through all of this too...
Love you all heaps
Liz and Mark
Offline 
Send Email