"Cancer Treatment"

I had been suffering from a very rare and indolent cancer of the bone marrow for at least 25 years by the time I was presenting with symptoms of anaemia in April 2018. With hindsight , my general health had been declining over an eighteen month period but the decline was so slow I had not noticed .

My good fortune was to registered at The Binscombe Medical centre which has an outstanding reputation. Putting the cancer to one side , I normally have good health and rarely see my GP.   However , I started to present myself for treatment of minor infections and a feeling of general malaise.  Dr Cook saw me for several successive appointments and he took a lot of blood samples. He was on the trail of a diagnosis that something was really adrift with my blood and he then referred me to the Haematology Team at the Royal Surrey , headed by Dr Jon DeVos.

Dr DeVos is  very approachable , informal and highly expert . His immediate diagnosis was that I had Waldenstroms Syndrome , which come out in men over 65 and impacts less than 3 in a million people. I had the short straw.  Then  I had a biopsy of my bone marrow done  by a Dr Chin.  This was totally pain free but no fun. That confirmed the diagnosis and I was started on a course of chemotherapy . A cocktail of Rituximab and Bendomustin. 

I was scheduled for six sessions but only needed four . The problem with my condition is the overproduction of a paraprotein which is of no benefit to the body , but it precludes the production of the blood cells that you do need . After four treatments , my paraprotein levels dropped to zero - which is the state of a  healthy human being.

The care I received in the clinics where the treatment was given was simply outstanding .  Everybody who treated me was focussed , professional but also very compassionate.  I saw some patients kick off when there was a delay - often in the availability of drugs from the pharmacy - but I thought this was a comment on their fear (it is a frightening diagnosis ) or their natural irascibility . How staff keep their composure under such verbal assaults is something of a mystery to me.

I now live on a regime of check ups . Every three months to start off with.

Reflections ; I was blessed with an excellent GP and proximity to St Luke's Cancer unit within the Royal Surrey .  My condition responded well to the treatment given to me - better than was forecasted.  The NHS was simply fantastic,