@jayceedee
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I was lucky – I never needed the anti-sickness pills when on the chemo. However when the last bout of shingles left me feeling sick, the pharmacist recommended a particular drug. It turned out to be the same as the one they give the wife for her Menieres.
Pro-ChlorPerazine, also known as Buccastem/Buccal. They are just a little tab that goes under the tongue or against the gum for speedy absorption. Pharmacist mentioned they were fairly innocuous, so maybe worth an ask. They did the job for me at the time.
I had the cannulas – no real problems throughout, or till now, – a couple of times my veins objected to being attacked and slunk off into a corner hiding, but mainly it was straightforward – a couple of times my arm felt like a dart board but that is just part of life ( I had a lot worse at some Blood Donor sessions in my younger days) – some good nurses, some less good, but overall, mostly superb.?
Following an adverse reaction to the first dose of anti-body, they increased the scheduled amount of time on the day for the antibody/chemo, increased the strength of the dosage more slowly throughout the day, plus steroid and some other anti-sickness tablets and flushes before commencing.
The initial reaction I had was a one-off – I started feeling warm at my “core” with this rising through my chest and neck ( felt like a Victorian swoon ) and then I started shaking violently, like I was fitting. Next minute I was surrounded by nurses, consultants, specialists and pharmacists. They stopped the infusion and spent the next two or three hours with tests, obs and questions!!
Following on from that little hiccup, everything went normally and no further complications.?
The chemo will take the form of 2 sessions a week for 3 weeks, then a week off, for a total of 6 months. If I wish to have a short UK holiday break, he will adjust the sessions to suit. I have also been offered new drug, just out of trials, which has been found to extend chemo benefits by at least 10%. It is administered at the same time as the chemo and I have said yes to that. Any side effects and it will be stopped, but to me a 10% benefit is an advantage if it works. The alternative is plain enough.
Just checked the medical paperwork and the chemo I had was Bendamustine. This was standard chemo, but was supplemented by the anti-body treatment Obinutuzumab ( Gazyva/Gazyvaro ). The trial was to test the efficacy of the Gallium with Bendamustine, as opposed to the usual ( already successful ) Rituximab/Bendamustine combination.
This was on the GA101 trial ( Gallium ) which later became known by the trade name Gazyva.
Details HERE if you can get past the techno-medical terms and percentages quoted.
The anti-body treatment was explained ( simplistically ) as an anti-body that attaches itself to a protein ( CD20 ) on B-cells also known as Lymphoma cells ( these cancerous cells are produced by the body, which collect in the lymph nodes and enlarges them. )
Because they are produced by the body, our immune system ignores them. When the anti-body attaches itself to the B-cells and protein, it starts to kill it off – the body’s own immune system then kicks in to attack it as well.
Technical version :-
About Gazyva/Gazyvaro (obinutuzumab)
Gazyva/Gazyvaro is an engineered monoclonal antibody designed to attach to CD20, a protein expressed on certain B-cells, but not on stem cells or plasma cells. Gazyva/Gazyvaro is designed to attack and destroy targeted B-cells both directly and together with the body’s immune system. Gazyva is marketed as Gazyvaro in the EU and Switzerland.The effects of the Lymphoma are similar to those stated by Bob above. My spleen was enlarged to 16/17cm plus lumps in neck, armpits, chest and groin. Spleen was down to 12cm following the treatment.
As it happens I’m booked in to the Marsden on Monday for my 6 – monthly CT scan followed by an Outpatients appointment on Thursday when they’ll draw bloods and analyse them.
Good luck with it all, Bob – you’ve got the right approach to it!!
……………. just drunk blokes with Dutch courage. Get them at boxing a lot too now – ruins the events.
Stick them in the ring, one on one with rules and watch them lose interest in it all!!! Most of what I saw on the news was “punch and run, dart back in, punch someone else and run”, or one guy holding someone, while somebody else punched or kicked them.
I was about to recommend Zoostorm PC’s – I’ve had mine for just on 2 years now and except for a couple of Window Wobbles it’s behaved faultlessly. The prices are higher than I thought ( £350 – £400 ) but maybe Dave will know a cheaper way in.
That’s the second time prices have caught me out – I was looking at DDR4 memory after Task Manager showed my memory at 60% with only a couple of browser windows open – couldn’t believe another 8GB would cost me upwards of £80.00!!
More out of touch than I thought!!:)
Best of luck, Bob. They’ve been making great advances in treatments for Lymphoma – including the clinical trial that I was on. Don’t know enough to differentiate between what you call cancer in the Lymph Nodes and my Lymphoma. ( Follicular ; Non-Hodgkins.)
I was one of the lucky ones – the chemo I got acted as a sort of “medicinal boost” – I always came out feeling better than I went in!! In fact I used to drive the 75 miles to the Marsden, get my chemo first, anti-body next, drive to my son’s London flat and stay over then back to the Marsden to get my second dose of anti-body the following day and then home.
Here’s hoping it all works out for you.
I suppose you could always take out some PPI to cover your PIP!!
It’s usually not so good liquid or the wrong mixture for them that causes the cough. All the people I know do not have a cough with the correct liquid. There is some cheap and nasty stuff about so it’s research first. And I think it is very safe to say there better than cigs considering all the rubbish in them. I will not get into the arguments about it or it will just end up as an anti-virus on android conversation.
The wife converted to vaping just on three years ago now. She suffers from COPD, but her last Spirometry test ( strength of puff into a tube ) shows a 10% improvement over that time.
She uses 50/50 PG/VG ( doesn’t have that annoying cough ) and is now down to 1.5 mg nicotine – she mixes tobacco flavour 3mg and 0mg in equal measures and adds a dash of 3mg almond amaretto for a flavour. When she started off she was using 20mg or the like, but gradually over the first year, weaned herself down to the 1.5mg.
She readily admits she vapes for England, always has one in- or to-hand. She reckons that whatever the science behind any comparisons, what is essentially food flavouring has to be better for you than the couple of hundred chemicals used to process tobacco.
Edit – She gets her e-juices HERE. Really good prices and great service.
I’ve been using the free version for just over a year now and have just upgraded to the Premium account. I went Premium so that I could use it on the phone and the iPad Pro – it’s not as intuitive on mobile devices, but better than logging onto a public PC for something important. I found it very useful the other week when I was in Spain, I’d forgotten my CC PIN number and was able to log in to the Barclaycard site and find out what that was.
Maybe go back to killing the weeds with a shovel (or Hoe), chop chop, slice slice.
John – that process does wonders for the visible bit above ground, but the advantage of the above mentioned weedkillers is that they also kill off the roots below ground as well.
Ryanair I avoid whenever possible – if I have to fly with them (do in a couple of weeks) I double check everything. Their seats are horrible (bolt upright and hard as nails) and they charge you for EVERYTHING. Currency conversion is a racket – I’ve been stung so have a lot of sympathy.
You’re right they do charge for everything. Seat allocation on the way out cost £3.99 ( Check in is 5 days prior to flying. ) On the way back the same seat allocation was £10.00, but by that time you’re out there and at their mercy. Their “Bag Drop” at Stansted tried it on too. Had I not known what my case weighed ( 15kg out of a 20kg allowance ) when the bag drop machine told me I needed to purchase a £20.00 over-allowance ticket if I’d been in a rush I might well have paid it.
That’s great to hear, Bob. Keep it up.
I took the passport and got given a sheet with an option to create an account with one of three providers,
predictably, this is just to facilitate repeat scripts and appointment booking.
If I want access to my actual records, there’s a form that needs completing, the case will be passed to the admin team, the “access management lead” and a GP.
There’s the usual ” The practise has the right to remove online access to services for anyone that doesn’t use them responsibly.”
I wonder whether that “responsible” use includes information gleaned off the records to criticise the practise.!!!
Mine’s tried it 3 times today and not succeeded in completing. After the restart it all opens as per, but the File Explorer icon in the Taskbar is underlined and hovering over it gives a Microsoft Account ( Not responding ) thumbnail window.:(
Hit Winver and it shows it’s still on 1709 (16299.371 ).
At our GP I’ve recently found out that if you take your passport in, they will issue you a pin to log into the records the practise holds for your, order scripts etc. – this could well be the same or similar.
I’m off for a 24h blood pressure monitor to be fitted later today so I’ll take mine in and try it out!! Thanks for the reminder.?
Completely agree John, but have never had a ‘hiccup’ with Kaspersky Safe Money. I use Firefox (just updated to 59.0.3) and Private Browsing, with the Kaspersky Safe Money inside that.
The main issues I’ve had is when using Paypal through a shop’s website. You log into your account, fill out the order, go to pay with Paypal, hit the button and sometimes Kaspersky either won’t go back to the shop or it logs you out and the payment doesn’t get associated with your order. They are the only problems I’ve had, ( using chrome and W10 ).
Well happy with it otherwise. Just renewed KIS for another year at £4.99 for 3 devices.??
Internet banking is the way to go Richard. Life to busy to have to go into branches. It’s a rare occasion I ever go to the bank. It makes micro managing your accounts so easy, And passing money around a doddle.
Fully agree with Steve on that one – the only time I visit the bank is when I get a cheque ( rare in itself these days) – I’ve got one sitting on my desk here along with some early decimal coins I want to swap, and an “old” £1 coin someone slung in my change the other day and a Scottish £1 note.
Online banking has really simplified our lives – all transacted through Kaspersky, which sometimes plays up and introduces a hiccup, but otherwise has been solid.
We still keep several different credit cards, though two are largely dormant, perhaps I should give them a ‘heartbeat’ transaction.
@sawboman – With the bank and Credit card companies view on “catching” fraudulent use before it arises, you may well have difficulty in that.For years, because we were in a cash business, our credit card use would be for buying holiday flights or appliances for the home or something where we needed the extra protection they provided, so it’s use was intermittent and for large amounts only, and mostly paid off before accruing interest.
When we stopped work in ’08 all that changed. However the bank by then had fraud on it’s radar and under their purview to actively combat it. We would get “transaction denied” events and fraud alert texts on our mobile, despite having a stupidly high credit limit.** It’s use became even less when we started online banking. So much so that somebody who had a memory for phone numbers that had been a cause for amazement at work for 40 years, forgot their PIN when in Spain last week – much to my embarrassment and the wife’s annoyance – but the least said about that, the better.?? Age could also have something to do with that, but again, the least said about that………………..!!
You could well have some fun/problems with your intended heartbeat transaction, but good luck anyways.
**It seemed their view was if you spent large and paid it straight back you were deemed truly creditworthy – we didn’t pay much attention to it until it exceeded £10k!! It’s now sensibly placed far under that limit.
They were a bit like the Daimler Darts the old bill used for Motorway patrol in the 60’s/70,s. Wonderful in a straight line, but no weight to keep them anchored.
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