Chemo 6 - apologies for the delays in updating

Hi folks,It's been just over a month since my last update & that was pretty brief! I've noticed a few of you asking whether I'm still out here & surviving - well the short answer is yes.  Originally Hayley was going to write this update to give some variation and her own personal style, however Uni. assignments and a workplace that thinks she is always available has meant this is not going to happen.

At last update I was at home on day 6 of Chemo 5, today is day 19 of Chemo 6 each round being 21 days.  Well that Chemo 5, an A cycle, went pretty well with us being able to find time for a few days away during my "Up" time and to celebrate Kyles 16th birthday. We went north to the "Sunshine coast" to watch Kyle in the triathlon Australian Youth Championships where he came 8th. He performed really well and was happy with how the race had gone.  On the first day it hammered down with rain (liquid sunshine?),  making watching the event damp! In the afternoon we ended staying in our apartment watching the rain & reading / web surfing / tv watching.  Strangely this was good because it was somewhere different & there were no chores etc to complete.
Below is a picture of the weather & lake from our balcony and of Kyle in the event.  In Mooloolaba there was localised flooding with kids having to be evacuated from their day centre & water rushing through peoples garages and homes!!

We spent the rest of the time away watching the various triathlons in Mooloolaba - the World Cup races and the olympic distance Mooloolaba triathlon - where club members competed for themselves - similar to the marathon type events we see worldwide but in triathlon.

After this it was back to hospital for Chemo 6, B cycle - the not so friendly cycle.  I started this round on 27th March.  As usual I get loaded with fluids & the chemo cycle.  Hospital food whilst ok, becomes unpalatable during the treatment, with, at one stage, even the mention of food making you vomit.  I tend to get to day 4/5 and choose to not eat for a couple of days, being just capable of eating a weet(a)bix breakfast  (luckily I have sufficient energy stores (fat) in my body to be able to do this).  In fact day 4 is a complete waste of time, I doze, lie on the bed, don't read, don't watch TV, don't do anything - apart from have to pee every 45 minutes to 1 hour!!  Liz did say "you looked worse than you think you did" - so obviously I felt 'ok', but was actually pretty rough. 

To sum up the hospital phase of Chemo 6/B, I don't think it hit me as badly as the previous B cycles, I had two down days and then felt good!  The Doc. chose to keep me in over the weekend, due to a raised temperature and potential of infection - days 5 & 6.  I did however get to escape on the Sunday afternoon for a few hours, where I met my cousin Julia who was up from Ballarat in Victoria and later friends Dawn, Ben & Harry who were over from Perth (for Ben who was competing in the Surf Lifesaving Nationals - known as "the Aussies").

  A couple of piccies with Julia at the "City beach" - I thoroughly enjoyed that afternoon, the company & escape to a warm Brissie afternoon away from hospital aircon, was great. You'll note I still have my red hospital admission band on my right wrist!  The following day I was weighed in hospital, I'd lost a kilo in a day.  However I kept telling the nurses that I'd eaten fish n chips, strawberries, cream and ice cream, plus chocolate AND lost weight - they didn't talk to me for a while!!!

I had to be back into hospital that evening (Sunday) and was released the following evening after receiving blood and platelets - to support my system.  The following Saturday (Easter Saturday) I was back in for a few hours for routine blood tests and some further platelets.  After this I kept myself to myself til the Tuesday after Easter because I was neutropenic and didn't have a white cell to my name!  However all that changed on late Tuesday afternoon with the arrival of Pat, Sarah, Abbie,  Lochie and Hope. They visited for a couple of days keeping us entertained and made good use of the pool (some even in their pyjamas).

Since then I've been out a bit but taking it easy, the B cycle does mean that my blood counts really drop hence being cautious and avoiding infection risk (check out the red line on the chart in an earlier post).  Today Saturday 14th April - day 19, I'm due to see Tony the oncologist on Tuesday and start chemo 7, same day.  I'm not sure whether my platelets will be high enough however.  I say this because (you learn!) the chemo makes me itchy - I presume associated with the rash - as I scratch my itch  (!!) I get bruises, this is an indication of a low platelet count and Tony will require my platelet count to be around 100 to start chemo.  (My count on Easter Saturday was around 30, so if it dipped further after then, it has further to recover!)

A quick update on the Mellon family - just to prove that life goes on!  Liz, Hayley and Kyle have been on Easter school break, so they start back on Monday, it will be business as usual from then on!  Kathryn is still at Uni. in the USA, she recently broke the school pool record for the 1650 yard freestyle event, plus other positive achievements  - so she is happy. 

I start round 7 potentially on Tuesday so can definitely see light at the end of the tunnel. I'm 3/4 of the way through now with just one of each cycle to go - yippee.  Of course after that I'm expecting testing and hopefully the R word (remission) - fingers crossed on that one please, prayers, thoughts / anything will be welcome!! This will be from late May so we will have to see how we go!

To all reading this, keep well, thanks for thinking of us all, apologies again for the tardiness in updating, I'll let you know how I get on during round 7 - promise!

Alan, Liz, Kathryn, Hayley & Kyle