Out of It

Sorry for being missing for over a week. The main reason was a bout of Gastric flu. The whole family has had it in various forms (some coming out of one end, and some the other) lasting a couple of days but not being too bad.. except for my case, I now know what it means to have your immune system messed with by Chemo.

The symptoms were no worse than anybody else on the surface but I basically slept for three days only dragging (or rather being dragged) to my radiation therapy to break up my sleep. I was like the proverbial Zombie. Today I awoke feeling almost normal, despite the continuing squits.

Anyway to other events of the week:

NOVO-TTF
On Tuesday I dropped an e-mail to the Dr. in charge of the Novo TTF trial centre at the University Hospital in Zurich. This is a new tumour treatment that has been showing a lot of promise in early trials by destroying tumours as the cells divide turning them into useless bits of sub-cellular matter. The Novo-TTF device does this by using low energy electric field at specific frequencies and thus interfering with the division process. I'm not currently eligible for the trial because it is for recurrent or progressive GBM's and mine is still going through its first attempt at killing me. But I thought I'd show my interest anyway. I was very surprised to get an appointment with the lady in February to talk about my interest. I know I shouldn't be tempting providence like this but this one sounds cool.

Bought tickets for my son and I to go see "We will rock you" on Thursday... I never made it but my son in law enjoyed it on my behalf.

Professor Neuro
A visit to Professor Neuro on Wednesday (the neurologist who is responsible for my well being) where I got an EEG to see how my brain waves were acting up. After 20 minutes of opening and closing my eyes, bright flashing lights and ringing bells I was returned to Prof Neuro who showed me some abnormality on the left side of my brain, commensurate with the outstanding potential (no pun intended) for minor seizures. He said that the current small seizures were not likely to cause any damage. We then discussed upping my anti-seizure medication (mainly so that I can do some exercise) and after a quick call to chemo man (who has all the ins and outs of my blood state) he agreed to up my Timonil (carbanmazepine) from 900mg to 1200mg per day. So let's see how this goes.

Funny each time I talk to somebody with Neuro in their name my chances of sitting behind the wheel of my X3 or riding my precious F650GS ever again seem to become just that little bit more out of reach

World Cup Final - Rugby

I decided to change the order of my Timonil (Carbamazepine) Retard intake to try and reduce the focal seizures moving from 1/0/2 to 2/0/1 because I reckoned that it made more sense for a retard to be working most during the day and not overnight (I know I should of checked with the Nuerologist first, but....). Ive also stopped taking it together with the Chemo in the morning in order to have it with food an hour later (as suggested on the insert). Had one small seizure (Ian grade L1 at 13:30, but early days yet)

Got a bunch of people coming over this evening to witness the slaughter of South Africa by England in the real World cup final....Rugby. We have South Africans and English in the house so we probably use the Swiss as referees in the living room. In fact my son-in-law played for the Swiss national Rugby team, and I played a little at university (obligatory at Salford) so there is plenty of Rugby in the family.

An almost normal day

August 9th was a very normal Thursday, I had been working in my home office (I work for a large software company) and I'd just had dinner with the family and I was performing the usual ritual of washing up on my own.

At about 7:30pm I got a sudden fierce attack of pins and needles along with an horrendous burning sensation in my right leg which quickly spread across my whole right side. I rushed upstairs to find my wife as I knew something was seriously wrong. I sat on the corner of our bed and tried to explain how I felt, but my speech was failing me. I then fell unconcious.

I came around feeling very confused, to find two paramedics trying to communicate with me and preparing to take me to hospital. By 9pm I was in the emergency unit of Kantonsspital Aarau (Switzerland) being told that I had suffered a Grand Mal Epileptic Seizure.
An initial CT scan showed no signs of Haemorrhage. I was given some tablets Timonil (Carbamazepine) & Urbanyl (Clobazam) to prevent further seizures and told to rest.