Monday 19 October 2009

Gavin: A new diagnosis


The results are back from the world's leading histopathologist and Sonny doesn't have Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma but Hodgkin's Lymphoma, a completely different strain of cancer that requires a completely different treatment. Of course, it's also a lot rarer which is completely in line with all the other bloody rare things Sonny has had during his treatment so far. Basically, the effects of either disease are the same and although there are plenty of differences in the two, we've learnt that it's irrelevant - our goal remains to get Sonny better and we'll worry about the rest after that.

The eleven or so weeks he's now spent with the wrong diagnoses isn't too drastic as many of the drugs at the start of the treatment would be used for this cancer. And, although we stopped therapy for around 5 weeks, this was due to his complications and would have been the same regardless of which cancer he had.

The only real change at this stage is that we now fall under the Oncology team rather than the Haematology Oncologists ('He-mongs' as they're referred too). We've met our new consultant who seems good (you know, he looks bright and when you google him there are lots of letters after his name) and of course, there's plenty of crossover between the teams which means we're not starting completely afresh.

Tomorrow there's a big MDT (Multidisciplinary team meeting) over at UCL where lots of incredibly bright people will work out a precise protocol for Sonny. This will ensure that future problems that may be caused by a generic protocol are avoided and to make sure everyone agrees a way forward before the bleeping of infusers starts again.

To top off this great news (it is, trust us), Sonny is doing physio every day, standing up on his own and (gasp) sitting in a chair for over an hour while putting away all the match attax that are gratefully coming in. Our physio has said he should be well enough to hit the gym at the beginning of next week. Maybe that visit from Batista will spur him on after all.

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