Seconds out, Round one!

Ladies and Gentleman if you can please take your seats, the
least-anticipated fight of the year has just begun. In the red corner we have
Larry the lumpy lymphoma. In the lime-green corner we have Baxter & Alan –
the tag team. The crowd goes wild when they see Baxter & Alan, its obvious
who the favourites are in this battle! Ding ding ding!! The battle has begun. There
is not much movement from Larry; he’s already delivered one big fat blow to the
head in the last battle. Now he’s out of moves, but the tag team has stepped up
to the machine. Baxter is feeding into Alan trying to get Larry to forfeit his
fight against him. Only time will tell to see who will come out on top.

Did you catch all of that? I would assume a bit of explaining is in
order, unless you’ve visited Greenslopes in the last 24 hours! First off, why
lime green? In Australia the lime green ribbon is the colour for Lymphoma, naturally the colour suits us well.
Secondly, we’d like to introduce to you Baxter. We haven’t quite worked
out if Baxter is our friend or not. Baxter is the machine feeding the chemo
into Dads body – friend or foe? In the near future we think foe, but at the end
of the day, he is just trying to be our friend! :)

Baxter

FINALLY FOR SOME NEWS! Thank you for following the blog thus far, the
update you have been waiting for has finally arrived. There are two main grades
of Lymphoma – high grade and low grade. Due to true Mellon form – we don’t
follow the crowd, so naturally, Dad has middle grade Lymphoma. With the low
grade cancer the chemo treatment would have been more of a social time for Dad,
coming into hospital for the day, getting the chemo and being discharged at
night.
Unfortunately with the mid range the chemo is slightly more vigorous,
meaning that the chemo will be being fed in over a number of days. The repercussion
of the chemo is that dad’s immune system will be almost abolished. So for at
least the next couple of weeks 31-14 will be his new home. He will be closely monitored
to ensure that he will not be picking up any diseases or infections etc.

Delightful Donna in her Daffy Duck outfit with the first Chemo and Lei Lei to her right.

The hardest part of it all of course is that if Dad is to come home our
house will have to be spotless – the hardest challenge we have faced yet! (Just
kidding Mum) Thanks for all your support so far, I’m sure you will be hearing
from us soon!
Hayley & Kyle :)

Freeze frame.........

Well it's been a little while since I've written. My chum Hayley has done an excellent job of keeping you all up to date. 

It's Sunday here in Bris Vegas, breakfast is cooking. The update is really about  the last few days and the goings on.  I had the 4th biopsy on Wednesday evening, which has been the largest, being the removal of a lymph node in surgery.  I was fortunate in that once Dr Tony Blackwell, my oncologist, found that the earlier biopsy would not give him the results he needed, he immediately arranged for me to undergo the surgery. This was with Dr O'Connor, a respected surgeon, before he disappeared for a couple of weeks.

That night I slept well with no pain at all, thankfully, apart from the discomfort from the double 'port-a-cath' in my left shoulder.  After that night in hospital I was discharged into Hayleys care!  So what next?  Tony expects to have the biopsy results on Monday, but has asked to see me on Tuesday.  It is likely that I will then undergo chemo shortly after that. 

Liz and I are avidly reading lots of literature all about managing this illness,  and beneficial compementary actions that we can adopt.  We'll let you know more once we know more!!

Your support and well wishes have been fantastic - thanks.

Techy tale - to post a comment you must be registered with google.UPDATE settings changed anyone can post -  I have registered my non google (aol) email as a google account, so I don't need another email address. When you post successfully it tells you so.  I'm moderating comments each day - so if you see nothing, it may have gone wrong!  Commenting is really strange because it keeps telling me I can't comment on my own blog - stick with it, and if all else fails e-mail me.  I'll try and chat to a blogger friend and find out more on this irritating subject!!

Alan

Its photo time!

Just incase up until now you haven't been 100% convinced we are telling the truth (although that would be quite a sick, horrid joke) here is some photo evidence!

Just an update - the doctors still haven't been able to completely diagnose dads entire condition, the biopsy that we were waiting on for results, unfortunately did not deliver what the doctor needed. As I type this Dad is in surgery (or nearly anyway) having a lymphnode removed for more extensive testing, before he can come home tomorrow. HOORAY!

Only to go back in on Monday for the first day of chemo. waah.

Enjoy the photos - gotta have a bit of a giggle when you can :P just kidding Dad!

Dad looking sexy with his two new tubes put in yesterday - these are where the drugs, chemo and everything else they are pumping in his body will enter.

Note - flaunting his fake tan gone wrong! Obviously needs a lesson from me... :P

All taped up across the chest and the arm so he can have a shower! Hopefully get rid of some of that pink!

While the cats away, the mice will play... Hopefully this isn't a sight we will be seeing any time soon!

Keep you updated soon!

Hayley :) xxx

Checking in at Greenslopes!

As many of you know, a sense of direction has never been one of my mother’s strong points. So when dad text the two of us with just the simple words “I’m in 23-6” the dreaded thought of trying to navigate our way through the hospital overcame me. None-the-less we managed to traipse through long corridors and up and down elevators before arriving at ward 23; bed 6.

At first I was sure that our lack of directional skills had landed us in the wrong place. We weren’t in the oncology ward and the patients I could see in the room, looked rather… well old to tell the truth. But there he was, hanging out on bed 6, headphones in and eyes fixed to the TV screen. I was a little shocked to see his chest stained pink with two tubes poking out and another on his hand. Then again the past two weeks have been filled with a lot of shock, so the feeling passed as soon as he opened his mouth and started blabbing away like his normal self.

Over the next hour of chatting we discovered, well nothing. Dad seemed to have no real idea what was going on & apparently neither did his surgeon when they debated exactly what line they were putting into his body before the morning op. Tomorrow Dad’s oncologist will check up on him in the morning and hopefully shed some much needed light on exactly how long until he can come home, what type of lymphoma he has and what the treatment will be.

Hopefully there will also be a spare bed on the oncology ward for him so he can move out of what mum and I have renamed the “dementia ward” after hearing one of dads roomies ask what day it was three times in a short space! We also got a bit of a laugh when I played dead in the bed while dad went to pee in a jar.

After a couple of hours of causing mayhem we finally decided it was time to find our way out of the maze. Day one – over! Time for some sleep so we can wake up and do it all over again tomorrow!

Loveeee!

Hayley :) xx

Road to success?

Well I've been sitting here at the computer, chatting to Kathryn on Skype in the USA. Then I looked at November on the calendar. So far November has not been too good, 8th was the date of diagnosis! So this is what the calendar said..... (I hope it is prophetic)

Testing Testing Testing

So last week was all about establishing exactly which Lymphoma I have.  At the moment I still don't have this information, however my oncologist should now have this and it will drive his plan for my treatment in the coming weeks and months.

I was admitted to hospital on Tuesday evening to be ready for a bone marrow biopsy on the Wednesday morning. Well, those who have spent a night in hospital will know the disturbances you get, however the nil by mouth thing and the very dry atmosphere was dreadful. By the time of the biopsy my mouth was as dry as a scottish bar after hogmanay!!  The biopsy was interesting, as the anaesthetist pushed the sleep juice into my arm the nice lady doctor started pulling down my underwear!! Well would you believe it, next thing I knew I woke in a different room 10 minutes later!

The following day after an echocardiogram to check out my heart (to make sure I was up to the chemo to come - this was the hour of chest rubbing!) I was discharged to return the following day for a PET scan.

A PET scan is like a colour CT scan, you must starve prior, then are injected with a sugar solution containing a radioactive material.  The scan gives multiple images of your body. Areas where the particular injected 'radiopharmaceutical' accumulates (for example, fast-growing cancer cells) appear ‘brighter’ than normal tissues on the images.  The worst part of this was that you must lie with your arms above your head for 10 minutes!  Now I'd done a CT scan no problem, however this time my arms ached almost immediately and I really had to focus to keep still and deliver the required images. Anyway what is 10 minutes in a lifetime!!  After the scan my upper arms were pumped like Arnies - very interesting!

Final test was another biopsy to gather more details for the Oncologist (I learnt this term from 'House'!).  Thankfully they chose to biopsy my groin (1 hour recovery) rather than my chest (4-5 hour recovery) although the next thing I knew was a $700 charge!! Something else to sort next week.

At this point you should understand that it is not cheap being ill!!

Well next week I'm into hospital to start the journey proper and will get the update on which Lymphoma I actually have.  This will set the tone for the next few weeks. So call in next week for an update.

Moving on - the first week

Well would you believe it! it is only just over a week since I was told "it's lymphoma, can you come into the hospital today"
You would not believe how much has happened in that time both physically and mentally.

My first hurdle was of course having to tell my immediate family - Liz briefly thought I was joking - which surprised me because I kid about many things but I do think I know when to draw the line!

Hayley 18, our youngest daughter, misunderstood what her Mum told her (I was in hospital at the time) and when told again obviously got upset.  Kyle 15, well he set out to chat with a friend - he chose well, his triathlon coach Jamie who gave him some great advice which was later echoed by Warwick the club senior coach. Thanks to Jamie and Warwick. 

Then it was touching base with Kathryn 20. She is currently at Uni. 30mins south of Pittsburgh with a busy school / training / social life!  We got to skype with her at the weekend. Being a super hero - I got Liz to tell her.  To be honest this was the best thing I could have done. The only time I have been emotional over this illness was when thinking of her being such a long way from home. In an email to work colleagues I said that "I wish my arms were 15,000 miles long to reach out to her".  Liz did a brilliant job - calmly telling her everything that we knew, that I am physiscally well (!) and etc.  Liz struggled but did not shed a tear - well done Liz as usual you're my hero.  Once the dirty deed was done I joined the conversation and we agreed certain things most importantly that Ruggles (Kathryns teddy bear) would cuddle her each day on my behalf.

So last week was busy, two nights in hospital undergoing tests, Liz's birthday on Thursday, my sister Pat came up from Iluka, about 3 hours away, to make sure I wasn't fibbing to her about the state of my health.  I'll write some more about the tests later.......

This was the photo that the four of us had framed up for Liz's birthday last week.

The start of a journey....

Hi friends and family, thanks for following the link to my new blog.

Is starts a bit like an alcoholics anonymous session
"Hi I'm <insert name> and I'm an alcoholic"
Well I'm not (an alcoholic) but my line is
"Hi I'm Alan Mellon and I have been diagnosed with Lymphoma"

Slight pause for you to gather your breath..........

Yep - I'm afraid so - early days at the moment, lots of testing and lots of questions.
So the actual type of Lymphoma is awaiting discovery and with it the type of treatment I require.
I'll know better about this in the week commencing 21st November.

Over the last few weeks I have been scanned, prodded, poked, had an attractive young lady rub my chest for an hour and have seen the inside of a hospital for myself for the first time in my life.  Ho hum..

If you know me and would like to leave remarks - feel free (I've turned moderation on for now - so be patient), I know most people will be wishing me well in my journey so thanks for that.

I'll update this a little bit more over the weekend and I've invited some Ghost writers to help me for when I'm undergoing treatment and not necessarily feeling 'up to it'

Catch you later - Alan