Well guys I hope you're sitting down for this tale and apologies it's so long winded..............
I've been dealt a bit of a curve ball.
I went to Tasmania for Christmas and had a great week relaxing with my wife's side of the family, it was great!
Got home and for the whole of January I had flu like symptoms, sore throat and felt run down and weak, I even had a couple of days off work sick.
I went and saw a doctor a couple of times, something I hadn't done in over 7 years (I'd never seen one since emigrating).
15 days ago I went back to the docs (visit number 3) and got a blood test done.
The very next morning a rather worried pathology doctor called and said get yourself to a hospital immediately, I will call them so they know you're coming but get there as quickly as possible!
I thought shit that doesn't sounds good, I must have a virus or some nasty infection, but no worries, I don't feel all that bad!
Got to hospital and after waiting in an emergency department for a while a doctor told me I'd got acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL)!
F******g blood cancer!
The last 14 days have been a constant roller coaster of vertical ups and downs.
But despite this unfortunate diagnosis there is a lot of reasons to be positive!
-It has been caught and diagnosed very early (I could easily have struggled on for a lot longer, I wasn't exactly dying I just felt run down and weak mainly).
-I have a type normally found in children and rarely seen in adults and in children the cure rate is over 90%.
-My cancer cells have a rare mutation and in patients with this mutation the cure rate increases substantially.
-I'm youngish, fit and otherwise in perfect health, don't smoke, barely drink, healthy weight, no other health issues or allergies.
-I'm in Melbourne where we have some of the best specialist doctors and treatments on the planet. The hospital I'm in has over 25 full time research doctors just working on blood cancer and all of the nurses, doctors and staff caring for me are amazing!
-I have the support of lots of family and friends and it's been overwhelming!
My mother in law dropped everything to came and stay to help Bec with Sam the very day I got admitted!
And my folks flew out from the UK a few days later. Becs friends and work colleagues had a whip around and kindly donated thousands of dollars to help us out and have begun cooking and freezing dinners so that she can continue to mother, work and visit me without having to worry about cooking, they will also be helping out with Sam once my folks fly home.
-I fortunately had income protection insurance so when it kicks in after 60 days off work the mortgage and bills will be covered until I'm 60 (if needed). So I don't have to worry about money.
-And last but not least........ I was fortunate enough to meet all the criteria for a clinical trial taking place in which I'm being given treatment that is usually used to treat leukaemia in children, where by the chemo is administered in smaller doses over a longer period rather than the short heavy doses usually used to treat adults.
They believe this will result in a better outcome as children usually respond much better to this treatment and they don't believe it's not just because of age.
The other part of the treatment is to give me an amazing drug called Blinatumomab, which is currently only licensed in Australia as a drug to be used when all other treatments fail or the disease comes back.
Studies in the US and Europe have shown that using this drug early on in treatment along side the chemo drugs has been shown to yield amazing results.
At $90k a dose it's not cheap and I may need up to 8 doses, but fortunately it is all being donated by the pharmaceutical company for the trial.
It feels amazing to be part of the trial, knowing that what I am doing will help many people in the future, all over the world, going through what I'm going through, especially as I know my own chances of survival wouldn't be anywhere near as high as they are, had it not been for the thousands of trial patients before me, to whom I'm eternally grateful.
The chemo has knocked me around the last few weeks, there is no denying that and the best way I can describe it is like having a permanent bad hangover with a headache and sensitive tummy. But I have many months of treatment ahead of me yet so I will of course fight on!
I'm 100% confident I will beat this and being 100% honest I'm not in the slightest bit worried!
My determination and tenacity is unshakable as there are simply too many positive reasons for me to not believe I will fight and beat this!
I'm going to be in hospital for at least a few months, off work for a year + and the treatment will take up to 2 years.
So as you can imagine it's a bloody big inconvenience as we had pretty much planned the whole year with work on the house/garden, the Toyota's, 4wd trips and even a trip to the UK next Christmas for my sisters wedding, all of which is now of course on hold!
But in amongst all of this something amazing happened...........
In order for Bec to be able to get Christmas off work (which is hard for nurses here) we decided in January to try for another baby. We had one shot at it so it would be born and be old enough to fly before Christmas. Despite feeling dreadful and incredibly weak and not in the mood in the slightest we managed it twice and low and behold 2 days after the cancer diagnosis Bec revealed she was pregnant!
The fact that there is a high chance I will be infertile after the chemo and IVF would have been our only option (they got me to freeze some swimmers before the treatment started) and the fact if we hadn't been going to the UK for Christmas meant that we otherwise wouldn't have tried for another baby until much later in the year, by which time it probably wouldn't have been possible naturally, makes it all the more special.
The baby is due in October and we're over the moon!
But the morale of this long post is this........
If you work hard all the time and achieve a lot, for gods sake don't take a week off and relax, because that's when you're going to get sick! Don't slow down! Never bloody slow down!
