May 19th

We are at the end of a very tough and difficult week this week!  We are at the end of a full week of trips to London - on Tuesday for an MRI scan of my brain and a CT scan of my body.  They called us back in on Wednesday for a consultation and said that they had found a number of things;

- Firstly, the oral chemotherapy that they have been giving me for the last 2 months hasn't helped with controlling the disease in my lungs. While it is continuing to grow, it hasn't grown dramatically and they have other drugs that they know know should be much more effective in combating it so they hope to start that in a few weeks time.


- Secondly, they discovered that the breast cancer tumour has now spread to my brain. Obviously, this was quite an alarming message to get but they said that it is treatable.  The have referred me to the Cromwell Hospital in London where I will see a specialist in Gamma Knife Radiotherapy.  In the meanwhile, they have taken me off the horrible painkillers the GP gave me and put me on steroids to reduce the inflammation around the brain.


- On Thursday morning we got a call to ask us to be in London for 1pm to see the consultant. I am amazed by how quickly they all work together here and how quickly they saw us!  The consultant is a specialist from Sweden and works in the UK every 2nd week.  He went through the options of surgery, Gamma Knife radiotherapy and also doing Gamma Knife followed by surgery.  Their plan at the moments is to reduce the swelling over the next 10 days and bring me in for radiotherapy on the 28th May, and stay in for 1 or 2 nights.  


In the midst of the difficulty there are a number of good points coming through, sometimes there are a number of spots on the brain but this one seems to be quite localised. They have checked my optic nerve and it looks like there's no issues with this so assuming the headaches are controlled and the swelling stays down, we will go ahead on the 28th. And also they said that the inflammation was quite large but the tumour itself isn't that big. When we were back in Cork at Easter we sat down with my brother & his wife and planned a weekend in London for the 25th to the 28th - we are just amazed by the timing of this and how it's all worked out!! 


While this is such a difficult time, we are continually surrounded by love and care from so many people and we appreciate it all so much. Thank you!