Another shot

Recovery from surgery is going pretty well.

Yesterday: I finished in the top 10 of my local 5k Parkrun race. My PhD thesis is progressing steadily. Ingrid beat me at a home version of QI by only a single point after a week-long battle of attrition.

Tomorrow: as expected (and kind of planned), chemotherapy makes a return. I’m not a big fan but have to admit it makes sense.

Even after surgery I have a few bits of The Terminator floating around the rest of my brain. What to do about them? There are actually a few alternatives. Wait and see what happens (maybe the Gamma Knife needs more time to do its magic?) and just kind of hope it disappears. More surgery? Not without literally losing my mind. If you excise from one hemisphere you cannot mess around with the other. Vaccine? DCVax-L Sounds promising (personalised and non-toxic!), even if not quite a cure. But because it’s popular I’m on a wait-list and will have to just wait my turn.

No matter. Taking Temozolomide, the chemo, is relatively easy: pick up the pills at hospital on the Monday after a blood test (checking mainly for immune system strength and blood’s ability to coagulate) take the pills for 5 days (with a little anti-nausea medication), rest for 23. Repeat.

How many repeats? The first time (ie before recurrence) the standard approach in the UK is 6, in the US it’s closer to 12. Some people will go on for dozens. I went for 15, saving up some fire-power for a moment like this (current research indicates ~14 rounds is optimal for most people; after that it doesn’t seem to do much). At recurrence? We have a much longer way to go to understand what the best approach is.

As we figure it out, hit me with another shot of TMZ!