Brentuximab tomorrow!!

It's minus 2 degrees outside and we are sposed to be doing a 5 mile run this am....change of plan- gingerbread lattes at 9am then run later when temperatures are above freezing!

Went to hospital yesterday for pre treatment bloods and consent, yes it's finally happening! i start treatment tomorrow.........blood results good my iron level is fab despite giving up meat, all those lentils and chickpeas are doing the trick :) saying I have 'given up' meat sounds very virtuous doesn't it? In fact it's very easy for me not to eat meat, I still eat fish and would find that hard to not eat but give it time....I am managing about a 90% wholesome lifestyle at the moment just need to work on that other 10%....

What I failed to acknowledge til this last week is that Brentuximab is still chemo but a combination of an antibody and chemo. The chemo basically piggybacks on the antibody to get to the naughty cancer cells directly and therefore doesn't have as much systemic toxicity as chemo alone... How I see it is the antibody is like a mini jet ski and the chemo is a purple blob creature with a determined face riding the jetski all the way to the bad cells and getting them, there will be a whole army of them speeding thru my body to do battle....yeah!! The thought of chemo again does give me a little shudder so the above visualisation helps combat that!! The other good thing is this is only one drug, the other regimes have been 4 drugs at once so no wonder I was battered!

Whilst discussing side effects with the consultant I mentioned that I had just started training for a half marathon...........his response was, and I quote; "This treatment is going to pretty much fuck up your training....." he then went onto say that he often counsels patients regarding fatigue etc and that when starting chemo it is not the time to start training for a marathon and he has never had someone reply well I have already started... I do like him! He is the quintisencial well spoken, clever sounding consultant and he comes out with some blinders! Anyway I compromised by saying I won't actually register for the half marathon until I have had the first treatment so I know how I will feel.....I didn't mention the street dance class I have tomorrow evening!

Stay warm and happy :)

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