Monday 27 May 2024

Update on Me: Good News

Do you want the good news, the bad news or the really good news first? 

The really good news is that I had a PET scan on 8th April and except for a couple of non-reactive spots on my liver, the lymphoma was GONE!  I’ve had two rounds of chemotherapy since then, so those spots should be gone by now.  I even got to ring the bell to proclaim that I’d had my final round.



The t-shirt reads “Science is magic that works”.  True.  I’m living proof.  

Oh, and I get my PICC line out tomorrow - that’s the thing in my right arm.  I have my first follow-up appointment on 2nd July.  I guess this means that I’m officially in remission.

The bad news is that I really have lost all my hair!  






You can even see the scar on my scalp, where I was hit by a Number Board, which fell off the wall and landed on me in Grade 1.  It’s on the right of the back of my head.  I remember that it bled everywhere and that the GP glued my scalp together.  I so was disappointed not to get stitches. What 6 year old wouldn’t be?

The good news is that I’ve lost my excess weight and am down a dress size.  No, that wasn’t planned and I’m not really sure I should celebrate it, since most of it was due to the tumour occupying all the space my abdomen and making me feel full really quickly.  It was either the tumour or the ascites it induced.  (That’s fluid in the abdominal cavity.). Anyway, over the course of November, December and January, I lost two stone (28lb, 12.7kg). While I put on a couple of pounds once I left hospital, I now weigh 8st 12lb (124lb, 56.2kg) and have maintained that weight since February, without doing anything.  No dieting; no watching what I eat; nada; zilch.

What this weight loss means is that I’m back wearing clothes that I haven’t fitted into since the 2010’s, and that is something to celebrate.  This time last year, I couldn’t fit into the Science t-shirt above.  Now I can and I’m so glad I wore it when I rang the bell.

- Pip

1 comment:

Jackie said...

I am so glad that you got to ring the bell. You also have a lovely shaped head. Mine is pretty flat in the back.

God bless.