My Journey (from start to now).

When did it all change. Where did it all go wrong?! Well, the answer is November 2010. Back before then the only health issues I had to worry about was asthma.

So, one night around 10pm in November 2010 my chest started to feel abit tight. As i had suffered with asthma from a child i was able to recognise the signs of an asthma attack coming on. So I made my way to the A&E Dept at the Mater Hospital. There they done what they do an got my breathing under control and back to normal. After which they done the usual chest X-rays and blood work to see if it was maybe infection that brought the asthma attack on. Normally everything came back clear, but NOT ON THIS OCCASION.

The time was about 4am. I had sent Jenna home as it was late and the doctors had said I would most likely be in til the morning anyway. Then it got really busy, they needed the bed so they changed their mind. They decided to send me home.

Infact I was sitting in the outer waiting room waiting on a discharge letter when a young doctor came out to me and said could I follow him back into one of the cubicles. I thought right ok he wants to go over meds or go over whatever is in the letter for my GP, but NO!

The Doctor didn’t waste any time, I had only just sat down and heard the words “Ok so we have found a Shadow on your right lung”. Me, not knowing what exactly that meant said ok. So what is that? The Doctor replies by saying “well it could be loads of things. We need to do some more scans, and we need to do them ASAP”.

My next question was, “how serious could this be”, but ofcourse I couldn’t get a straight answer from him there and then, so I decided to leave it. They still let me home that night because there wasn’t much they could do there and then. Plus sure they said they would be doing things asap (But when they said asap, they actually meant weeks).

So I rang my brother Mark, got him to come down, got picked up, went home, went to bed, Got up the next morning really early (truth be told I didn’t sleep much, as you can imagine) and said to Jenna “we need to talk”. ‘This is ofcourse after I’d done the wrong thing and googled shadow on the lung. (Which btw, I wouldn’t recommend googling symptoms of anything with google, trust me it’s just not a good idea. That and you usually end up with the wrong info) Anyway......

After realising it could be Cancer I decided Jenna needed to know. After the talk, we decided to get in contact with my chest consultant. As I said I had suffered with asthma from a child so that’s how I had a chest consultant, and you know what boy was I glad I had him!

He was brilliant!! He took over from the doctors at the Mater Hospital right away. Ordered all sorts of Tests & Scans, which to be honest didn’t make things any clearer. Except to point out that it wasn’t just a Shadow on my lung. It was indeed definitely a growth of some sort. They just didn’t know wether it was cancerous or not.

The only way we were able to find out what this was, was to do a CT guided needle biopsy to get a piece of it. This was after months of various other scans & tests. The list of which is huge so I won’t bore you all with it, But if anyone really wants to know how they first tried to diagnose me then just pm me. I will be happy to discuss it with you in further detail.

Neuroendocrine Carcinoma (Carcinoid Tumour) was the diagnosis, a very, very rare type of “cancer”. BUT, and this is where things get tricky.

There is a cancerous type, non-cancerous type and a kind off in the middle type, meaning it’s mainly benign but there is some active cells within it too.

Believe it or not, back then, this time mine was the type in the middle. The type that was mainly non-cancerous but they decided that since even this type has a chance of turning completely cancerous it was best to remove it. Esp since at this point it was only in the one location in my body.

But unfortunately it wasn’t that simple. The Growth/Tumour was deep inside the lower lobe of the right lung. So that whole lobe (33%) had to be removed.

So, By Aug 2011 it was time to do just that. The surgeon that took my case on was the leading surgeon in his field in the UK & Europe. Actually it was kind of a big deal to even be considered by him! But, let me tell you he was at the start and continued to be one of most arrogant people I have ever met the whole time I dealt with him. Don’t get me wrong. He was outstanding at what he does, problem was he knew it too!

That said, he did do an outstanding job of the surgery. He done it all via key hole and to be honest the recovery wasn’t half as bad as I thought it was going to be. So for that I owe him a lot. Problem being after the surgery things changed in a big way. The follow up I received was awful! (There is more to it, which will come out further on in my journey).

I was only brought back once. Which was 3 months post surgery and at this one and only follow up appointment all I had done was an X-ray and a physical exam, that was it! No CT scans, No MRI scans, No PET scans. Nothing like that at all.

My surgeons words at this follow up were “it’s not often I get to say this, but we got everything that was there, you will be fine now”. So me being young and naive I believed him.

So that was that, I went on with my life. Yes I still had some adjustments to make. Yes I got outta breath easier and was on strong pain killers for a long time but generally life was good!! Well, for about 2 years.

By around Aug/Sep 2013 I started to be in a lot more pain, started to feel a lot more unwell, even generally. So from around then til March 2014 I was back and fourth to A&E, to my Gp, to my chest consultant too even and everyone kept saying the same thing. “It’s due to the surgery, your body is still recovering etc”. But I knew it was more.

So I kept pushing & pushing until one day i couldn’t take it no more. I couldn’t take the pain or the way I was feeling. I finally broke down in front of my Gp. I more or less pleaded with him for more help. See until then I didn’t meet the right criteria for the likes of a CT scan to be done as an emergency. All any doctor would do was blood test and an X-ray.

But finally my GP listened and wrote a letter for me to take with me to the A&E department. The letter requested that whichever doctor was dealing with me done whatever it took to get to the bottom of this, and hallelujah they listened! FINALLY!!

Now, they didn’t jump right in and do whatever I wanted, but they started at the bottom then worked their way up. Meaning they started with a low grade scan called a VQ Scan. Which is a scan that looks for blood clots.

And guess what?! Lo & behold they found some at the bottom of my left lung and what was left of my right lung. So this finally gave them the criteria they needed to do further scans. But as blood clots alone could cause all the symptoms I was having and are life threatening themselves they kept me in for about 3 to 5 days including over the weekend. During this time they treated the clots with high doses of blood thinners and they finally done a CT Scan, by the Monday I was due to go home.

So, Monday came and in comes a team of doctors!

Doc: “so your for home today Mr. Smyth”?

Me: “yes Doc so I believe”

Doc: “well, yes you are. Treatment for the clots seem to have worked well, you aren’t in as much pain so that’s a good sign. Thing is we also have the results of your CT scan here for you and to be truthful you have thrown us abit of a curveball”

Me: “ok, what does that mean?”

Doc: “well we didn’t expect the CT scans to show anything else because the VQ scan bdidn’t (other than the clots) but unfortunately they have shown up some areas of concern”

Me: “areas of concern meaning what?”

Doc: “well, we believe you have what could possibly be a growth in your middle lobe of your right lung, and what we also believe at this point to be swelling off your adrenal glands”

Me: “ahhhhh Sh*t!!! Are you serious”!

Doc: “yes Mr. Smyth, VERY SERIOUS. now we still have to do a lot more test and some more scans to rule everything else out”

Me: “is the Cancer back?!!!”

Doc: “we need to look into it more first Mr. Smyth, and do afew more scans and tests, there are other possibilities at this moment in time.

Me: “Right, ok!”

But at that point, I knew. So did my family. I could just tell by the doctors body language. By the way he spoke even and esp the look in his eyes. I had seen that look before.

The next thing, a nurse who was dealing with my discharge came in and started going over things for me to go home.

So I said, i’m not sure but after what I’ve just been told i think I’ve to stay in and get further tests. Her words, “yeah I heard it was bad news. I am so sorry about the cancer in your lung & in your adrenal glands”.

At that point I was like, you WHAT!!!!! The doctor just sat and told me basically not to jump to conclusions and that there was still tests to do... How do you know these things? How do you know it’s cancer?

Her words, it’s in your chart!! But I could tell by the look on her face she had just messed up, BIG TIME!

So I said, get the doctors back in here right now! That or tell me the truth yourself. So as it turns out, yes a growth in the middle lobe of the right lung, a single growth on each adrenal gland on the kidneys and the further tests they spoke of was to diagnose the exact type and scan from head to toe to see if it’s anywhere else, plus arrange a biopsy too. But this could indeed be done as an outpatient, so yes that day I did end up going home. This was the 31st March 2014.

So a fortnight past, they done what was needed (scans & biopsy etc) and by the 17th April they had the answers we were waiting on. They rang me first thing in the morning. It must of been about 7.30am Because myself & Jenna where still in bed. They said could I come over to the royal ASAP. The tests had revealed other areas of concern. Which meant on top of having cancer in my lung, and on each adrenal gland of the kidney. I now had it other places too!

So, and I am not ashamed to say at that point me & Jenna both lost it! Totally lost it! I have never felt as lost in all my life! Jenna was just as bad. We just lay there for awhile trying our hardest to console each other! But, by god it was hard! Eventually, Jenna started to ring round the family, the kids got up, family started to arrive to help in any way they could. we had to pull ourselves together and start to make our way over to see exactly what was going on!

When we got there, I’d forgotten I was due to get a camera down my throat that day to get a better look at the tumour in my lung to check to see if it was viable for surgery. But that got called off. They took us straight into a room that I can only describe as a store room. Basically the first room they could find.

Out they came with it. The other areas of concern are 4 different locations in your spine, 2 of which are serious! We need to transfer you straight to the cancer centre for Radiotherapy to those areas! Me, Jenna & my Dad where there at this point and all of us could not believe what we where hearing!

I asked, how serious is this? Obviously I knew this was pritty serious but what I was actually asking was could what is wrong right now kill me. Their answer, YES!

If not kill me, Paralyse me from the neck down. So trust me when I say I totally lost it again. Infact we all did! I was only 29 years old!! 29 years old and two young kids! How can this be bloody happening to me!

So the rest of the next few hours are a blur. We made our way over to the cancer centre. As soon as I got there a doctor was waiting for me. He took me straight to a room with two beds in it. But the other one was empty. He then proceeded to tell me that the treatment I am about to get is pallitive treatment. But once I heard the word Pallitive I freaked out abit. It took them awhile to calm me down and explain that there is a big difference between pallitive treatment & pallitive care.

Yes, both mean terminal. Which meant right from the get go things have been terminal for me. But as mine is pallitive treatment that means that they can and are willing to treat me with everything and anything they can to give me as much time as they can.

Where the other (pallitive care) means all they can do is make me comfortable. Turns out mine is palliative treatment because it’s exactly the same type of cancer I had removed back on 2011. Well, the type i thought I had all removed.

Back when the surgeon said he got it all, back when he only done an X-ray. There should of been a lot more follow up done. I should of been scanned every 3 months for a year atleast. If that had of happened then it’s possible I wouldn’t be fighting the fight I am now! But we will never know. All I knew was I had to start fighting and start fighting HARD!!

THE FIGHT (after re-diagnosis)

It began with the radiotherapy to the spine (for the first time). This was late afternoon on Thursday 17th April 2014. They kept me in for about a fortnight or so while they done the radiotherapy and to assign me an outpatient oncologists. Because as soon as the radiotherapy was done I was meant to start chemotherapy. Well this was the plan anyway.

So, Because my type of Cancer is such is rare type, finding the right oncologist wasn’t easy. So it did take a little while longer than first thought.

But the good news (if you could call it that) is that as well as the cancer being extremely rare, it’s is very, very slow growing aswell. The other good news by that point I had had a Repeat CT Scan during this time and the Radiotherapy I was rushed over for had worked a treat and had not only stabilised the tumours in the spine but shrunk them away down to 1/8th their size.

This told the doctors that this cancer was also very responsive to radiotherapy, well at this point anyway. So that was something good atleast. Plus the scans didn’t show any progression anywhere else in the body either as the hunt for my oncologist drew to an end.

It took til the middle of July until I was assigned an outpatient oncologist who knew about my type of cancer. I had seen two others from April til July but they themselves would of been the first to say they weren’t that comfortable treating me. So you can imagine that didn’t fill me with confidence.

But, my Oncologist Dr. M Eatock is amazing! He is worth the wait and to be honest I have no idea how it took so long to find him as he is a very well known and respected member in his field. That and he runs a clinic for my type of cancer.

Now there isn’t only 3 patients in the whole clinic so ofcourse he sees other types as well but even so, how it took so long to find him, well that part still confuses me.

Anyway......

So first met with Dr.E at the start of Aug 2014. By the end of that meeting I had my start date for my first chemo and was told exactly what I was in for. Cisplantin & Etoposide was the names of my first chemotherapies. I had those for 3 days a month via IV, which took 8hours each day and was done as an outpatient. Then I had an 18 day break, during which time my body went from feeling fine to feeling the worst I’ve ever felt in my life. I knew it had to be done and was only to willing to fight as hard as I could. To most people it seemed i handled it well, but it wasn’t easy let me tell you. But, the anti-sickness meds and Pain meds (morphine) really helped to get me through.

On the 21st day I would be at the clinic for bloods to check everything was ok. To check for signs of white cells dropping or infections etc. Providing everything was ok. I would of started all over again 6 days later. This cycle went on for 6 months, Aug 2014 - Feb 2015.

I was also scanned twice during this time. CT scan of the chest, abdomen & pelvis, aswell as an MRI scan of the spine, every 3 months. They do this to check for progression, growth or spread. Also to check to see if the treatments are working. Thankfully mine stayed stable the whole time while on treatment for those 6 months.

Saying that, those 6 months where not easy! It’s not like it is in the movies now. Don’t get me wrong. Going by the movies, any movie with cancer in it I thought I was going to be bed bound and was due to be spending my time hugging the toilet, but for the most part I wasn’t. Yes there was tough times, yes I wished none of this was happening & yes I had some really low moments, but I got through it. In a big part due to the help from Jenna and the rest of the family.

Infact, My whole family where brilliant! Outstanding even, But Especially Jenna & My Dad. They both where still coming to terms with my terminal diagnosis themselves but managed to be there for me. They never missed a single treatment, scan or appointment. They where there when I needed a hand to hold, an ear to burn or a shoulder to cry on. Infact they still are the same today, I could never, and would never ask anymore of them!

After the above current treatment of 6 months had finished things continued to stay stable for a year. I continued to have scans every 3 months during that year. So that took me to around Feb/March 2016.

At that point a scan revealed that there was some, not a lot now, but some growth and more importantly there was also a tumour discovered behind my left eye.

I knew myself there was a problem because just before Christmas 2015 I had noticed some vision changes in that eye. So i went to specsavers for an eye test and got new glasses.

Now, they didn’t discover the tumour behind the eye, but they did mention cataracs but apparently they weren’t anything to worry about at that point as they where only starting. So they said they would contact my GP to get me on the waiting list for surgery to fix them. Little did i know that the main concern should of been the tumour.

So as i said the vision changes continued to get worse and then when the next scans in Feb/March 2016 revealed it to be a tumour the only option was to have radiotherapy on the area. That resulted with me going blind in that eye, but just like the radiotherapy to my spine it shrunk the tumour behind the eye and stabilised it.

So, after this it was obvious I had to go back onto chemotherapy which was a chemotherapy called Everolimus. This was a table form chemotherapy. One table a day, everyday. I would also attend the clinic like normal to see Dr. E every 4 weeks. Plus still have my normal CT/MRI scans every 3 months. Accept now the MRI scans would include an MRI of the head aswell as including the spine. This chemotherapy treatment lasted about 18 Months.

During those 18 months i was in and out of hospital various times with infections, which meant having to take a break or two from the chemo while on antibiotics, but generally it was only a short break of a week. Maybe two at the most. Also side effects from this chemo where minimal. The worst being fatigue and some sickness. But again though they where dealt with pritty well with anti-sickness tablets and plenty of rest.

Actually come to think of it while on all the various treatments. All the chemotherapy and radiotherapy I have been lucky enough to have things be well controlled. Apart from just recently, the last 6 months or so have been the worst. Which i will cover soon.

So we have now come to Oct 2017. That’s when the next changes where noticed on scans and when Dr.E decided to change my chemotherapy from Everolimus to a combination of two different chemotherapies.

They where called Capecitabine & Temozolomide better known as CapTem. This chemo was also tablet form. But this time i had to take one of them for 14 days and then add the other one for the last 5 days of the 14 days.

I had to attend the clinic to see Dr. E every 28 days and ofcourse CT/MRI scans every 3 months, though this time this chemo was that strong i was only allowed 6 months of it and then have to take atleast a 3 month break.

So From November 2017 - May 2018 brings you all right up to date, well nearly. It brings you all up to the start of the past 4 months of hell! Which is when things have been the worst they ever have the whole time right through my journey.

So my last chemo ended around the start of May. Then I had an appointment with Dr.E on Thurs 17th May. At which time he said that the last scans where clinically stable. So thats great news right?!

It was time for me to take a break anyway as I have finished my 6 months. So the timing couldn’t be better right?! WRONG!!!

By Monday 21st I was rushed straight into the Cancer Centre with pain in the abdomen. After some blood tests and just a normal X-ray it was clear I had internal bleeding into one of adrenal gland tumours. This made me very ill for 3 to 4 days.

I was on blood thinners you see, I had still been on them from when I was first Rediagnosed 4 years ago. So that didn’t help either, infact it made it worse. The Doctors put me on IV antibiotics and IV anti-inflammatories. Then like I said it took 3 to 4 days for things to start to settle down. Though I was in Hospital for 10 days in total.

Unfortunately I was only out of hospital for a grand total of 4 days. Then come Monday 4th June I woke up and had real trouble breathing with sharpe pains in my right lung every time I took a deep breath. So right away I knew something wasn’t right. Normally i would give it a day or so, because as i mentioned before things can change from one day to the next with me.

This however was different, I knew right away that I had to go straight to hospital. So I rang the cancer centre, spoke with a Doctor and they agreed, but this time instead of coming to them they wanted me to go to the royal hospital and have a specific type of scan to see if the hunch they had was right.

And it was indeed. After the scan they told me i had to have a surgical procedure called laser ablation. Which basically meant they needed to go down into my lung via a tube with a laser, light and camera on the end and burn away a tumour that was blocking one of my airways.

This particular airway being blocked meant that the middle lobe of my right lung had collapsed! That is why it was harder to breathe and the pain was coming from the lobe trying to inflate with every breath.

It took, 3 days for them to get the right team together and arrange the procedure. Then once it was done and I came round from the anaesthetic I could feel the difference instantly, But those 3 days, every breath with pain and the shortage of air wasn’t easy. I was in hospital that time for a total of 8 days.

To be honest I thought it was the hardest thing I would have to go through, actually it already was as at times it felt like a was suffocating. But as for being the hardest thing I would have to go through, boy was I wrong!!

8 days Later. Yes, in for 8 days and then out for 8 days you did read that right. Come the 20th June, again I woke up in pain! ALOT! Though this time it was in my left eye. The blind one.

So again, straight over to hospital but this time to Eye casualty. By the time I got there I was feeling sick with pain, literally!

Now I have felt pain before during this journey. The worst being pain from fractured ribs due to bone metastasis and I thought that was almighty pain. I was wrong, the pain from my eye was the almighty pain.

What’s worse is that because it was head pain, or “neuropathic pain” morphine or any other type of strong pain meds don’t work on it.

The pain and pressure just kept building & building. Every single thing they tried didn’t do a thing! I arrived at Eye A&E for about 9am, they admitted me right away and had me on a ward by 2pm And by 9pm I was in that much pain I was literally pleading with them to just rip the eye out.

If they didn’t do it. I was considering trying myself, thats no word of a lie either! It ended up they agreed it had to come out because every treatment they tried didn’t work.

Now they knew what the problem was, the tumour that was there had grew into the eye itself and was blocking some sort of fluid ducts.

Usually if that Happens they just give some IV meds and drops and bobs your uncle it’s sorted. But nope, not with the Tumour blocking everything. So again, it had to go. Problem was I was in excruciating pain and just like the laser procedure it was going to take 2-3 days to get the right team together.

Thankfully one of the Doctors had a brain wave, they thought what about freezing the whole eye and eye socket via an anaesthetist right outta the surgical theatre, and thank god they did, because it’s the only thing that gave me any sort of relief. Now, this wasn’t until about 10.30pm and I had been there from 9am. That whole day, that much pain, honestly the worst pain I had ever, ever felt! So much so I actually considered what it would be like if it just ended now! If I closed my eyes and never opened them again!

Trust me when i say that’s not something i would ever condone or have ever thought about before. But hopefully that should tell you how bad the pain must of been!!

But as I said thankfully they froze everything, using the biggest needle I’d ever seen in my life by the way. This thing must of been 16” long. Once they done that the relief was astounding. So that got me through about 8 hours, then back to the pain cause they could only freeze it every 12 hours and the relief was only lasting 8 it wasn’t ideal but I dealt with it. Even knowing there was relief coming in afew hours was enough to get me through.

Thats until it started getting less and less time of relief. It went from 8 hours, til 7, til 6 and so on. At that point they they knew the anaesthetic mix had to be changed. As did the method. Not only where they using a massive needle. They then started cutting into the eyeball itself with a scalpel and injecting the anaesthetic directly into the the cuts. So thankfully this would last a fair while longer.

In total they had to change things about possibly 3 or 4 times to get me through the next few days. Until they got the team of doctors together and the consultant had time to review my case.

As soon as the morning of the surgery came, the surgeon came to my room, seen how bad I was, spent about 30 seconds with me and then assured me the pain would be over soon. He literally walked outta my room, run up the corridor to the nurses station and had them ring down to theatre and tell them to bring my case forward to first thing that morning and to do whatever they needed to do to be ready in 30mins because that’s when he would be down with me.

See theatre wasn’t meant to start until 1:30pm, well he wasn’t meant to anyway. But he could see how much of an emergency it was and how much pain I was in! I just wish he could of seen me days before hand.

Anyway, down for surgery to remove the eye and the rest is history. I woke up in about 1/10th the pain I was in before they removed the eye. So that should tell you something too. The relief was again amazing, i was actually glad to have my eye removed, not many people will ever say that eh! But as well as the eye

Being gone, SO WAS THE PAIN!

I spent the next week in with them recovering from the surgery. I was in a total of 11 days. When I got out it was around the 30th June and I had a review appointment in 10 days time with Dr.E and my goodness did I have a lot to discuss with him.

Thankfully I managed to make to my review appointment without any more hospital admissions. Plus while I had been in and outta hospital, I had various CT & MRI Scans done so we went through everything. It was decided I would be starting chemo again soon plus I needed to have some Radiotherapy on my spine ASAP because there had been some progression.

Dr.E also decided to arrange an up to date MRI of my Head and scheduled the Radiotherapy. The head mri was ofcourse to check to see if everything was ok after the Eye Removal and the radio was to hopefully stabilise the tumours in my spine again. Now normally when when I have an MRI, it’s of my spine but it also tends to include my head. Actually more often than not, the head was done rather than the spine. As to why this was done was because every scan of the spine always came back stable. Which is why the progression was such a shock.

The last scan, as stated was clinically stable. But it was also on the report that there was some swelling of Pituitary gland, which was new! So that also had to be checked out, and on the 18th July they done the MRI of the head. Coincidentally that is also the same day I ended up in hospital the most recent time.

I hadn’t been feeling well for the past week or so with increased pains and more headaches. Even when over getting the scan that morning when i mentioned it they where in two minds wether to keep me in then but as I just wanted to go home they decided to let me under the agreement that if things didn’t improve by that night i would get back in touch.

Which they didn’t, so I rang them and yes, you guessed it. PLEASE COME OVER MR. SMYTH!! So that is exactly what I did, I went straight over. But what surprised me was they where going to contact me the following day anyway!! As I said Radiotherapy was being scheduled so they wanted to start that ASAP. What they and I didn’t expect was for the results of the Head MRI to be rushed back & flagged up aswell.

Turns out, what they thought was swelling off the pituitary gland wasn’t. It was a very, very tiny Tumour! Now, the gland itself is only the size of a small bean, maybe smaller. So the tumour is about the size of a grain of rice. But what made it worse still, is they discovered another tumour. One they had no clue about. One that just popped up literally outta no where.

This one was on the right frontal Lobe of the Brain. Which meant that my cancer had now metastasised to the brain. This was not easy news to take and being honest thinking back and remembering hearing those words for the first still scares me! But like anything, Time can help.

It took me a day or two but I pulled myself together while in hospital waiting to start the radiotherapy on my spine. Plus I was also waiting on this big meeting of Doctors to take place. Which it only does once a week. I think it was called an MGM Meeting. Basically it’s a meeting where all the heads of departments and real highly paid consultants meet to discuss rare cases like mine and decide what can be done.

As mentioned, my type of cancer is extremely rare. But for it to travel to the brain too, well to be honest you have more chance of finding hens teeth. But lo & behold here I sit.

So while waiting for the big day of this meeting. The Doctors where doing what they could to get the headaches and other pains under control. Which consisted of upping my pain meds, ALOT! And starting me on a lot of steroids. Which did all help but not without side effects themselves, like rapid weight gain being one.

Anyway, the day finally came, the meeting came and went, and sure enough around 4pm that day one of my team came in and told me that we had gotten the news we needed.

Not only was i getting the Radiotherapy to my spine, but they where willing to do this cutting edge radiotherapy called stereotactic radiotherapy to the tumours in my head. Now this wouldn’t be without risk but I was very lucky that they where willing to even offer me this treatment, and not only was I lucky they where willing to offer, but I am also lucky they can do it in the first place due to the location of the Tumours.

If they where In the wrong location to begin with then not a lot could of been done. Other than take a shot at chemotherapy and hope it works. Which I will be doing in the near future anyway but I’ve a far better chance of things stabilising for awhile (hopefully a long while) due to having this special radiotherapy aswell. But this type of treatment takes a lot of planning and by a lot of different people. So it did take a little while before they could start it.

I ended up in hospital this time for 16 days. I had the radiotherapy on my spine while in hospital but not the radiotherapy to my head/brain. That was done on Tuesday 14th - Friday 17th & then finished with the final day being monday 20th Aug. This was done as an outpatient and both tumours where treated. Now though it’s waiting to see if it worked and also waiting to see if there will be many side effects from getting this treatment.

So folks I think that’s it so far... That’s everything. Other than the chemotherapy I mentioned in the near future nothing else is planned. Everything I have written above is the info as best I can remember it. There has been so much happen over the past 4 and a half years it has been extremely hard to keep track of it all. I have even tried to leave out a lot of stuff that isn’t important. To try and keep the read as short as possible. That said I don’t think it worked too well.

So that’s been my life’s for more than 4 and a half years folks. At times it’s been extremely tough, EXTREMELY! But there has been some wonderful times in there too! At times I have had to fight hard to stay here, other times it’s been about just enjoying the journey. If you keep following the page and keep following my journey then I am sure you will see both sides.

Thanks for the read and I hope everything is clear. If not, and you would like to know more about something that has happened or whatever the case is. Don’t be frightened to ask.

Written by Darren Smyth