In February 2009, Alan reached the milestone of eighteen months post Cyberknife treatment. We can’t believe how the time has flown.
Although Alan remains well overall, he seems to have hit a bit of a brick wall. His appetite isn’t back to what it was and unfortunately, is no longer putting weight on. This is a big stumbling block for Alan as he is still 2 stone underweight and he hates the fact that he still looks so thin as he feels it reminds him of the days pre-Cyberknife when he really was ill (I wish I had the same weight problem..if only!)
We have put all this down to the fact that Alan still requires Morphine to control his pain; he has been unable to lower his dose despite several attempts. Before Alan had his Cyberknife treatment, the doctors at Georgetown did advise us that due to the location of his tumour and the fact that once the tumour becomes inactive it may not shrink but stay the same size, Alan may always experience pain. This has unfortunately appeared to be the case for Alan.
Despite of all this, we are completely sure in our minds that Alan would not have reached the 18 month milestone had he not had Cyberknife. We know we made the right decision for him to have the treatment and we don’t regret it for a minute.
Alan’s 18 month milestone was marked with the dreaded CT scan! Thankfully we only had to wait a week for the results. The results showed that the tumour that was treated with the Cyberknife had remained unchanged; no growth, no shrinkage (only 60% of tumours treated with Cyberknife shrink as a result. Typically, I think Alan will be one of those in the 40% bracket!) We were absolutely thrilled with the news about his tumour but unfortunately I spotted the dreaded word ‘metastases’ on the scan report. My heart stopped beating for a second; I had to do a ‘double-take’. Metastases?? After all we have been through – how could that be???
Alan’s surgeon quickly talked us through the report, informing us that there were several areas of ‘suspicion’ on his liver. He was as shocked as what Alan and I were; we just couldn’t believe it. When would this damn cancer give us a break? Alan’s surgeon advised us that Alan would need to undergo a liver biopsy to determine the nature of these ‘spots’ on his liver. We left the clinic lost for words, absolutely dumbstruck. On returning home, I immediately telephoned the doctor at Georgetown for his opinion. He, like Alan’s surgeon in Manchester was surprised that Alan could possibly now have liver metastases. He agreed that Alan’s type of cancer does not normally spread to the liver. He suggested that these ‘spots’ could even be a new cancer! Gosh! I couldn’t even bare to think about that! Surely God wasn’t that cruel?!
Alan underwent the liver biopsy a week later. Although the procedure went without any hitches, Alan, as per usual, experienced a considerable increase in abdominal pain following the biopsy. We then had to endure ten days of waiting for the results. Those ten days felt like the longest ten days of my life. It’s amazing how you soon forget how we have had several anxious waits like that over the course of Alan’s illness. You soon forget that; this wait seemed like it was the worst ever!
Ten days after the biopsy, we received the long-awaited news. I could hardly breathe when I picked up the telephone but I think someone was looking down over us this time – the results were negative! No cancer! No metastases! Just ‘fatty deposits’; all that stress and sleepless nights for ‘fatty deposits’!! But who cares? We were in the ‘all clear’ once again!
Our next hurdle is to try and get Alan to be finally pain-free. We have talked at length with Alan’s surgeon about how this can be resolved and we have decided that Alan is to undergo a small procedure known as a ‘thoracoscopic splanchnicetomy’. We have been advised that this is a straightforward procedure which is often used to treat people who have chronic pain from conditions such as pancreatic cancer or pancreatitis. He will have to have a general anaesthetic and then the surgeon, using keyhole techniques, will introduce a small camera into Alan’s back to identify the splanchnic nerve, which will then be cut. The procedure will give 85% of people who undergo it, long term pain relief. We hope Alan will be one of those 85%!!
Despite all the stress of the last few weeks, we can now get on with our lives for the next 6 months at least.