Tuesday, 24 June 2008

My mission

Now I just have to temper all the excitement in regards to these results. I haven’t really explained to you how this will cancer will play out – but this is probably what will happen. As the cancer appears to be dying with this treatment I will possibly hit this tumour for touch. However what usually happens with this kind of aggressive cancer is that it returns. We then attack again, probably kill it, then it likely returns, we attack it again, we kill it, it returns and so on and so forth. Eventually the cancer becomes chemo resistant or the chemo becomes too toxic for me. At this point treatments stop.

So for me the central issue is how long it is absent each time – this is the big unknown – but this is my key to more time.

So my mission is to be around so long that you all eventually say “good god woman, you said you were dying, you’re getting really annoying, enough already”. Once you’ve all done this, then my work here is done.

6 comments:

Elijah Lineberry said...

Ha ha..yes, I do hope you are attending my 63rd birthday party where you spend your time telling jokes to Peter and Lindsay!

Annie Fox! said...

No probs - it's a date.

Anonymous said...

As I have stated in a comment before Anna, that I am confident you will beat it again (and again...).

Anonymous said...

Good GOD women - you DO have the attitude. Love you.

Lea White said...

Hello,

Just discovered your blog and read a few entries and will now read a bit more. Whilst I am not able to understand in the slightest what your experience must be like, our own experience is with my 5 year old who was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia last year 2 weeks before turning 4.

Since Bianca was diagnosed I have not researched a subject more than I have researched leukemia. One of Bianca's drugs she gets is methotrexate which she currently gets once a week in tablet form and once every 3 months she gets methotrexate injected into her spine via lumbar puncture. And then apart from that she also gets Mercaptopurine / 6MP every single night also in tablet form. She is supposed to get Dexamethasone once a month for 5 days, but because it activated shingles in her (or so they suspect) they have taken her off this for the time being. This is our maintenance therapy until September 2009. The intensive treatment for the first 6 months included higher doses chemo and hospital treatment more often.

When Bianca was diagnosed I was desperately looking for real stories so I set off finding various blogs and journals and so ended up with so many links that I created a website (http://bravefighters.synthasite.com). Would you be happy if I added your link?

Our own site is http://whitesinnz.blogspot.com and here is a link of Bianca's first year of treatment http://nz.youtube.com/watch?v=jFKlYEy4WAY

Do keep well and I will keep you in my prayers and thoughts as I follow your journey. You are such an inspiration!

Lea White (Bianca's mum)
http://whitesinnz.blogspot.com
http://bravefighters.synthasite.com

Annie Fox! said...

Hi Lea,

The ladies in my ward are all Leukemia patients, so I'm beginning to appreciate the length and difficulty of the treatments that Bianca is going through.

My niece was diagnosed with Hodgkins at 2 years of age and then at 4 years her liver failed and Hodgkins was found again. So although it wasn’t my child, I think I can understand the stress and grief you must have gone through. Six years on we are having our first problem with her bile duct. She’s been in hospital for a month now, but the liver is not rejecting, so that’s all good. Hodgkins hasn’t returned to date.

I’m up at Starship everyday I’m in hospital and I really enjoying watching the kids deal with their illnesses. Actually it is usually more of case of ignoring the illness, as they just solider on and enjoy their lives.

To be honest I think that it is harder for family and friends than the patient. I think it’s because they feel so helpless. But it’s the doctors and nurses that do the hard work – everyone else is just there for the amusement factor.

I know you would probably rather Bianca was on some Dexamethasone, but I’m jealous she isn’t – it is the hardest part of this treatment – which tells you that my treatment is not that hard at all really.

Feel free to link to my site – I’ve added you to mine.

I look forward to reading all your old blogs and keeping up-to-date with Bianca’s ongoing story. She really is very cute.

Kind regards
Anna Woolf