Peter’s Hospital Diary

I had a quietish weekend after the ‘excitement’ of the last three weeks – my parents visited which was good, and I spent some time getting the house back together after my lengthy absences.

But in reality this was just marking time for the follow up appointment scheduled for yesterday afternoon, when I was hoping to find out the direction my future treatment would take. Would it be the Ibrutinib or conventional chemo?

So it was with some trepidation that I turned up at the outpatient’s clinic to see what was happening – but prepared for either. So it was with some surprise and relief that I have been accepted for the drug on a named patient basis. I think the team at Southampton were surprised as they have not managed to get the drug on that basis, so it was purely by the efforts of the team at Guys. Maybe this will provide an ‘in’ for the Southampton team – I hope so for the sake of other patients who may be in the same position. (I will write a page about the politics and background of Ibrutinib).

So the drug has been ordered and should be here tomorrow or Thursday. It is a tablet that I take once a day at home, and go into outpatients for periodic monitoring. It is well tolerated with few side effects, so a much less unpleasant treatment plan that the alternative.

It is a drug I will keep taking for as long as it works. In relapsed patients tis is typically 2 to 3 years (but typical is a statistical type term and applies to populations, not individuals)

So this is buying more time – but in effect that is what my treatment over the last 20 years has done. This does not preclude any other chemo or treatment further down the line, and there are new treatments under development. But this gives me back some control and ability to plan things for (I hope!) the next 12 months or more (provided I respond well to it – which will be revealed on the next few weeks)

So I will keep you updated with progress. I have also released this to the wider internet for the time being – I’ll see how that goes!

A view over Southampton Hospital

So very much Onwards and Upwards! 🙂