I haven’t been blogging of late – a combination of laziness and the craziness of life (I know, the contradictions!).
For those of you that follow the Dear Melanoma Facebook Page, you will know that I am in the process of starting a new clinical trial. I say process because I am currently jumping through a million hoops to secure my place. I have signed the consent form, but I still have to have a million and one tests/scans etc to tick all the boxes before I am officially eligible for trial.
As you can see, the clinical trial process is complicated.
I am not new to the world of clinical trials. In February 2014 I started a clinical trial for Keytruda (now on the PBS) and was on the trial for almost two years.
I didn’t really blog much about my feelings and experience of being on a trial, but I have decided that I am going to start a little blog series called, ‘The Musings of a Lab Rat’.
Read MoreI wrote this a few days ago mid meltdown (see my post over on facebook to hear all about it!)
In December 2014, 12 months after being diagnosed with Stage 4 Melanoma, a terminal prognosis, I wrote about my struggle with living life in limbo. I had gone from meeting with palliative care in January 2014 and planning my death, to December when I was responding to treatment and feeling well. Yes, I still had terminal cancer, but I was faced with the potential of this new immunotherapy treatment extending my life by years.
My husband and I had spent months ‘living in the moment’. Serge stopped working to spend as much time as possible with me. We got married. We went on holidays together. We just enjoyed our time together as much as we possibly could.
Read MoreThis is probably the most boring post I have ever written with very little emotion or passion mainly because I am not letting myself go to that place. So, a short post to update you on my health.
I think I have been in the frame of mind that if I don’t write about it, I don’t have to deal with it.
I finished radiation to the lesion on my adrenal gland two weeks ago and I was super lucky in that it didn’t make me very sick (except for some very hilarious vomiting incidences – lets just say, thank goodness for the empty soft drink cup in our car!). I finally feel that I am getting back to my normal self, back to work, the gym and pilates. I still have a lot of back pain, but that will take some time and lots of massages!
Read MoreI started writing this blog post yesterday and it was titled ‘desperate and dateless’ and after a doctors appointment today I needed to change the title.
I know many of you have been waiting to find out the results of my PET scan that I had last Friday and I apologise for not updating you earlier. It has been a really hard week since finding out last Wednesday that treatment was not working and waiting for my PET scans to establish how bad the situation is. I needed time to process the information, but also have the time to communicate the news with my family and friends. To be honest, I also didn’t know how to tell you the news.
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