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What was the Allogeneic Stem Cell Transplant like?
It was the 23rd of January when the countdown to receiving my donor's stem cells began. It was actually more like a countup (if there is such a word), due to the way in which, with stem cell...
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How did the Allogeneic Stem Cell Transplant affect my blood?
For the duration of my Allogeneic Stem Cell Transplant (Allo-SCT), I kept track of some of the results from my daily blood tests. Why would I do that? Well, putting aside that it's pretty boring being...
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The journey to day +100!
As I mentioned in an earlier post, when I was discharged from the hospital on day +22, i.e. twenty-two days after the donor's stem cells were infused into my blood stream, I was hardly the picture of...
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Every cloud has a silver lining
Today marks day +121 of my allogeneic stem cell transplant, and quite a few things have happened in the last few weeks. Shortly after my previous post, I started with a skin infection that looked very...
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Prevention is better than cure
As you may remember, a week ago on Monday I was due another check-up and monthly dose of Pentamidine. Fortunately, the hematology clinic was really quiet that afternoon, hence it was all over and done...
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Treating GVHD of the skin
As you may remember, it was just under two months ago when I first started with a rash, which a few days later the doctors diagnosed as Graft Versus Host Disease (GVHD) of the skin, and I was started...
View ArticleWhat is Extracorporeal Photopheresis (ECP)?
Extracorporeal Photopheresis (ECP) is a type of therapy that is primarily used in the treatment of Graft Versus Host Disease (GVHD) and Cutaneous T-Cell Lymphomas (CTCLs). For GVHD, ECP is a...
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Do I need ECP?
For the last six weeks, the question of whether I need Extracorporeal Photopheresis (ECP) has been discussed at several of my hospital appointments, and, in that time, four different doctors have...
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A year in the life of a cancer patient
As you perhaps guessed from the title of this post, I thought that it might be interesting to look back over the treatment that I've had in the last year, as a way of remembering what the NHS has put...
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What was the first ECP treatment like?
In my previous post, you may have noticed that I sneakily slipped-in the news that my skin GVHD does need treating with ECP, after all. Therefore, it probably comes as no great surprise that, after...
View ArticleWas the second ECP treatment any different to the first?
It was the 24th of September (day +236) when I started on my second ECP treatment, and, just like with the first, it all went smoothly and has been free of any noticeable side effects. It is possible...
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Is the ECP treatment starting to work?
I've had both the third and fourth ECP treatments now, but it's still a bit too soon to say whether it's really working. Having said that, despite my steroid (Prednisolone) dose being reduced from...
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The joys of being immuno-suppressed!
As you may have guessed from my previous post, things didn't exactly go smoothly between my third and fourth ECP treatments. In fact, it was actually the night before starting my third ECP treatment...
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How national is the health service?
Over the last seventeen months, my cancer treatment has taken me to five different hospitals in the National Health Service (NHS), and I've been quite surprised by some of the things that vary from one...
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The great ingrowing toenails saga!
It was probably in the middle of August when I first noticed that both of my big toes were a bit sore. As they gradually got worse, I started to apply a bit of Sudocrem on them, in the hope that it...
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When do you try tapering-off the ECP treatment?
Since October, my care seems to have mostly focused on treating infections, i.e. the Hodgkin's Lymphoma and skin GVHD has almost seemed incidental. That's not too surprising though really, given that...
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How was the hickman line issue resolved?
During the eighth ECP treatment was when an issue with my hickman line was discovered, but, to quote one of the nurses, despite trying me in more positions than in the Kama Sutra, drawing blood from it...
View ArticleThe hidden scars of cancer treatment
For many cancer survivors, particularly those that had hematological malignancies, if you were to bump in to them at the beach, you would likely never know what their bodies had been put through. The...
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How do you know whether the ECP treatment is working?
It has been roughly a couple of months since I last mentioned how my skin GVHD is responding to ECP, and in that time I've had a further three treatments, bringing me to a grand total of twelve; The...
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What was having your big toenails removed like?
In an earlier post, I promised to share some photos of what my big toes looked like after the nails had been permanently removed by an orthopedic surgeon. You might wish that I'd forgotten about my...
View ArticleHow can I help save someone's life?
As you may know, on the 31st of January 2013, a complete stranger's stem cells were being dripped into my bloodstream. The hope being that once they had taken over the production of my blood, I might...
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Hodgkin's Lymphoma - Take Four!
A couple of days after my previous post, I woke-up in the middle of the night with pain in the right side of my chest. It was actually the second time that I'd done so; The first time was a few days...
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Sidelining cancer!
Given that a PET-CT scan had just confirmed that my Hodgkin's Lymphoma had relapsed, you might be asking yourself what spanner could I possibly throw in the works that would put cancer on the sideline....
View ArticleHow do you treat relapsed and/or refractory Hodgkin's Lymphoma?
For the vast majority of patients diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma, the cancer is cured by the first-line treatment. However, for some patients, the cancer returns after the treatment (relapses)...
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James had started a new post entitled MRI Scan, which is where I should begin. (James words) For a few years, I'd been hoping that my treatment would one day require me to have an MRI scan; I'd been in...
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