Christian had the bone biopsy today, it all went fine and they got a good sample. We will not get the results until next week so the Hickman line insertion is going to wait until then. He was in pretty good form all day, the biopsy was quite intrusive so he’ll be a bit sore for a few days.
Tag Archives: Christian’s Story
The Bone Biopsy
Posted in Blog, Christian's Story. Tagged with Bone biopsy, Christian's Story, Stanmor, The Second Round.
Hope
We met with the Doctors at the Royal Marsden today to discuss Christian’s treatment. He will start his chemo shortly after the biopsy and the fitting of the Hickman line next week, maybe as early as Friday 24th.
His chemo will be a lot more aggressive than the last treatment with a strong dose every three weeks for 21 weeks. At the end of this he will get a very intensive dose which will completely wipe out his bone marrow and he will then need a bone marrow transplant. We will have prepared for this by taking some of his healthy bone marrow out in a few weeks. Christian will need to be admitted for this final dose and is likely to be in hospital and very sick for a month or so before he recovers. After this other treatment may be required, including radiotherapy and/or surgery.
Christian is now strong and healthy and we are confident he is in excellent hands, this gives us hope for the upcoming year.
Posted in Blog, Christian's Story. Tagged with Christian's Story, hope, The Royal Marsden, The Second Round.
MRI and CT results
Wednesday 15th November 2006
The good news is that the MRI scan and the CT scan results show that there has been no spreading anywhere beyond his lower left femur (knee).
In order to confirm the fact that it is a return of the clear cell sarcoma he needs to have a bone biopsy which will be done in Stanmore Hospital early next week. The results from that should take a couple of days, but they would be very surprised if it’s anything else.
Christian is already booked into The Marsden next Thursday to fit a Hickman line (like the portacath he had before but with two points of access) and they will take a sample of bone marrow at that time to check if there has been any spreading there.
The exact protocol for treatment will be decided after the results of the bone biopsy but is likely to be every three weeks with alternate drugs. One of these will be an outpatient treatment and the other he will have to stay in overnight. After a series of courses (in about 18 weeks) he will be admitted for intensive chemotherapy which will be administered as an inpatient at the Royal Marsden over two weeks.
Claudia and I would like to thank all our friends and family for their support, it really makes a difference. I will try to keep this site updated with the technical stuff as quickly as possible.
Posted in Blog, Christian's Story. Tagged with Christian's Story, Clear Cell Sarcoma, Kidney, relapse, tests, The Royal Marsden, The Second Round.
Shattering News
Friday 10th November 2006
After a year of peace, Christian had a Bone Scan on Wednesday because he has been having a sore knee. It appears that there is a “an area of increased uptake on the Lower Femur of the left knee”. The most likely reason is that the same cancer he had has come back in his bones. He is booked in for a MRI on Monday and a CT scan on Tuesday, after that they will hopefully be able to determine the best next step.
He is likely to need a biopsy and then secondary chemotherapy. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news….
Posted in Blog, Christian's Story. Tagged with Christian's Story, hope, relapse, tests, The Second Round.
All is good
All is good in the Blandford household at the moment, Christian has become a dancer…
Thank you
Sunday 23rd October
Christian had his last chemo three weeks ago. He got a temperature on Thursday evening when he was still neutropenic from the chemotherapy. We took him into St George’s and he has spent the weekend in and out, getting regular intravenous antibiotics. The doctors think that it is probably viral and will therefore not be a problem for his body to fight but it takes 2-3 days to discover if an infection is bacterial. The protocol is to treat it as though it were bacterial (hence the antibiotics) until proven otherwise. Hopefully by this evening no signs of bacteria on the blood samples taken on Thursday will mean that he is in the clear and we can stop the course of antibiotics.
He was quite poorly on Thursday but has been fine for the last couple of days. Hopefully this will be the last time that we have to go into hospital for something like this…
On a side note, it is very rewarding to go back to St George’s and speak to the nurses who are so happy with the money I was given as sponsorship. The money has not yet been spent but I am convinced that it will really help. Thanks again for your generosity.
Posted in Blog, Christian's Story, Fund Raising. Tagged with Christian's Story, St George's Hospital, The first round.
Christian’s Birthday
Well he’s home. We need to pop back to the hospital tomorrow to make sure he’s recovering from the chemo leak but are still hoping to fly to Spain in the evening .
He’s enjoying his birthday so far and we’re having a little party for him later.
More Chemo
The chemotherapy went ahead at The Royal Marsden today. Unfortunately there was a complication with one of the three drugs. One of them is a slow drip over 4 hours and the needle slipped out of his portacath in the last few minutes and leaked into him. Bizarrely enough the chemotherapy is far more dangerous out of the bloodstream than in it and so Christian will have to stay in overnight so he can be monitored. He needs to have cream applied every 2 hours, it will feel, to him, like a burn beneath the skin.
Claudia will be spending the night with him but we have been told he should be released in the morning. We hope so as tomorrow is his second birthday. We have no real plans as we were hoping to be in Spain but we’ll certainly have more fun at home than at the Hospital…
Posted in Blog, Christian's Story. Tagged with Chemotherapy, Christian's Story, The first round, The Royal Marsden.
2 Hospitals…
We’ve had a couple of nights at St George’s with Christian and he has been put on oral antibiotics and sent home. It took that much time because the doctors wanted to make sure that it was not a serious infection which would need more heavy duty antibiotics and he kept “spiking” temperature.
We will be going to the Royal Marsden tomorrow and if he is well enough they will give him the chemotherapy he didn’t have Friday. Henry is very excited because now that it’s school holidays he’ll be coming along, and they’ve got great toys there.
Claudia keeps bleating on about the fact that she and Christian were taken from The Royal Marsden to St George’s by ambulance and I haven’t mentioned it. Apparently it was very exciting.
While I was at St George’s, I spoke to Francis, the nurse who will administer the money we have raised. As the amount raised has grown, its effect will become more significant. They, apparently, got turned down a year ago for a grant to improve the treatment room which is seriously in need of modernisation. This will now be possible.
They are also getting a new waiting room (until now parents have had to wait in the kids play room until a bed is available). Whilst the room has been allocated for the waiting room, the money wasn’t there for chairs and curtains and so it has been delayed. This should now be taken care of.
Posted in Blog, Christian's Story. Tagged with Christian's Story, St George's Hospital, The first round, The Royal Marsden.
