I stayed at a homeopathic clinic that is run by medical doctors practising homeopathy. They have scientifically (big medcial university in Germany) confirmed studies and treatments where they managed to actually remove metastasing breast cancer in women.

Good thing is, I do feel better now and have more energy. The most amazing thing was that I had an almost immediate reaction to the homeopathic medication. They continue the treatment remotely, me sending them information on certain parameters (weight, blood pressure, blood sugar levels, and other symptoms like headaches, but also fears and nightmares and other more esoteric measurements of my well-being) and they send me the medication.  I’ll probably return for another stay in a couple of weeks.

Since healing depends a lot on trust I will have to decide at some point, whether to forego the “classic medicine” with strong chemotherapy (which was not very successful so far) and to fully embrace the homeopathic treatment. I’m also looking into changing over into another “traditional” hospital.

Cheers,

Tom

The monster has grown back significantly during the past two months, now almost totally filling the tumour cavity left by the last operation snd extending into the other half of my poor brain (it always affects the weakest part, doesn’t it ?). I haven’t spoken to my Neurosurgeon yet, but my Oncologist assumed a grave voice when I talked to her on the phone.

I am feeling physically fit, if a bit tired at times, but the psychological stress on Milena and our two girls is taking its toll and I’m not exactly behaving like Mr. Cool at all times. Don’t know what we are going to do next, but we’ve decided to enjoy the time we have together and to build a lot of good memories to be able to draw from in the future.

I’ll continue to post and if anyone wants to come down here to drink with me to life, love, and good friends you know how to find me.

Cheers xxx,
Tom

Couldn’t be arsed to post for a while now, sorry! I am currently taking extended beauty sleeps (not that it really helps) during my days. This is probably due to the medications. Also, my eyesight is down to 40%, which makes working with a laptop rather difficult. I did get a white stick, however, in order to alert other pedestrians to give me a wide berth or risk being run over by a massive blind guy. This has also paid off in another way, as I was offered a seat on the tram by a well-meaning elderly lady – which I bashfully declined, mumbling something about tunnel-vision and not being totally infirm.

This weeks’ MRI results were quite encouraging, with no signifant new growth and the tumour apparently reacting to the chemotherapy since less contrast agent was absorbed. I have now scheduled chemotherapy sessions until October 2009 and I will have my head examined again in about two month’s time.

My reading projects have been shelved, literally, due to my sight impairment, but I hope to be able to resume reading soon with the help of a good magnifying glass.

In other news, our daughter Laura had her debutante’s ball at the opera house here, and boy did she look stunning! Young Stella is just back from a school trip to London, but wants to go back soon as the time alotted for shopping was far too short in her learned opinion. But before we go London again we will spend some of our summer holidays in France, near the castles of the Loire, where we have rented a house with a pool, a gourmet kitchen, and a grand piano in the hall. Can’t wait to go!

Cheerio,
Tom

Unfortunately, the resuts of the MRI on Wednesday were not all that good, there was some regrowth in the upper part of the tumour cavity, an indication that the current temozolomide chemotherapy has become ineffective. A new approach to the treatment was called for. So on Friday, I made use of my built-in IV-catheder – the portacath – for the first time. During a 3-hour session I got infused with Bevacizumab (trade name Avastin). This is not a chemotherapy drug as such, but it inhibits tumor growth by blocking the formation of new blood vessels (angiogenesis). It is one of Roche’s most successful and expensive products. I will now go for three rounds of treatment at 3-week intervals after which we will re-examine my poor head again. The whole thing has made me extremely tired, I practically slept all weekend, but no other ill side-effects so far.

Of course I am quite disappointed that the chemo didn’t work as well and as long as expected, but I am looking forward to some good results from the new treatment. I’ll keep you posted on the progress.

Good night and cheers,
Tom

Recovery from the second operation has been a lot more difficult. I am still feeling extremely tired and easily exhausted. Milena is an angel, she puts up with me, does Reiki on me, drives me everywhere, cooks, etc. I had a course of chemotherapy in the meantime which made me quite sick. Tomorrow I will have another MRI scan, the results of which will determine the further course of action. I’ll keep you informed.

Oh, thanks for all your birthday wishes!

Love,
Tom

My trip to Cologne behind me, I’ve now started on an extended course of chemotherapy (5 days of temozolomide, 3 weeks off). The higher dosage of 400 mg really gets to me and I’m currently sleeping a lot and feeling a bit sick. Thank God it’s over today and I can hopefully recover before we leave for our holidays on Friday. I’m really looking forward to the hot weather and the beaches in Oman!

I must have been too upbeat after my radiation ended and now I got the punishment for it. Reducing the Cortisone intake was not such a good idea after all. Started feeling really woozy last week, getting headaches, bumping into things again, and staying in bed for days on end.

Net effect, back to square one, like before the operation. The fact that I cannot have a MRI until the end of October has also depressed me a bit, as these gliobastards can regrow at an astonishing rate.

On the other hand, I’ve thrown so much at it, with the radio- and chemotherapy, the immune-treatment in Cologne, the hyerthermia and the dendritic cell therapy, it seems hard to believe that the tumour has been able to thrive in these conditions.

I’ve changed my blog around a bit, you’ll find the bucket list as a separate page now, and I’ve started to fill in some of the glossary. You may note that I have a section on palliatve care, more on this later, let’s just say that I am more on the side of cure than just care.

Now that I have upped my Cortisone dosage once more I’m feeling much better again and the energy has returned. One “interesting” aspect of larger doses of Cortisone is that your leg muscles get weaker (I look like a potato on sticks), so I will take up an exercise of stair climbing and walking in my neighbourhood.

With the new energy, the depression has also disappeared which is a good thing!

Next week I’m off to Cologne for another round of getting my immune system up and running again, this has obviously suffered from the radiation and the chemo.

Cheerio,
Tom

Wow, time flies when you’re having fun! I’ve done gone a whole month without posting as they say in Texas.

So, this is what happened in the meantime:

In Cologne, I undertook a couple of alternative (or experimental as my radio-oncologists called it) treatments related to the immune system. Firstly, I was given a treatment called hyperthermia. My head was heated up to 41.5º C using radio waves. Thus, the tumour cells, being less heat-resistant, will develop so called “stress-proteins” which should in turn make them visible to killer cells. I also was infected with the so called “Newcastle Disease Virus”, a so called oncolytic virus, because it only grows inside tumour cells and will again mark the tumour as something “foreign” which will be attacked by the immune system. Lastly, I had the dendritic cells, which had been grown from my white blood cells, injected into my lymphatic system, where they will help with the production of immune cells. This whole thing was done over a period of one week; I stayed at a nice hotel and still had time for a little sightseeing on the side. Not too bad at all, especially since there were no side effects from the treatments.

Back in Zurich I spent some time setting up the radiotherapy, which has now started and will go on until the end of August. I have to go into hospital every weekday and get a 10-minute dose of radiation. I’m sure I’m quite radiant already…

Parallel to that, I have started with a low dosage chemotherapy with Temozolomide and I’m happy to report that there are no ill-effects at all so far from either of the treatments. I still feel a bit tired at times, but that’s about all there’s to it. Oh yes, I still can’t concentrate for longer periods and my eyesight’s still dubious – but that was to be expected.

Since I’ll be spending the summer at home and have plenty of free time on my hands feel free to pop by for a drink or two should you happen to pass through Zurich – I could use the diversion.

Cheerio,
Tom