Hi from Lou
On Weds 22 July 2015 overnight in hospital I had my no. 6 dose of the wonder drug Keytruda infused (similar to chemotherapy). A blood test prior to the drug showed that all my bloods were up including my haemoglobin at 124! Since Nov 2014 it has been around 100, 90s and as low as early 70s needing blood transfusions every few weeks, so an amazing turnaround to see my blood making red blood cells and the reading going up!
Haemoglobin is an iron-containing protein in red blood cells. Haemoglobin carries oxygen around the body and without enough of it your muscles and organs don’t get all the oxygen they need.
My weight has also increased in the last 3 weeks going up to just under 50 kilos (3 weeks ago 43.5 kilos).
I was given the all clear to fly 2 hours to Queensland (Gold Coast) in between my treatment No. 5 and No. 6. The last 30 mins of my flight to Queensland saw my tummy/chest tightening and swollen making breathing slightly difficult, however coming home it was much less laboured. Considering that flying was not an option from Jan 2015 due to my body shutting down, Keith and myself could not stop smiling at each other knowing that this really is a miracle how my health thanks to Keytruda has kicked started my immune system giving me a lifeline/my quality of life back. To be able to travel/fly even though a short one is so fantastic as we love travelling so much.
We enjoyed our time on the Gold Coast/Brisbane catching up with family and friends in between having rests to recuperate/get my energy zapping and loving the warmer weather and bright sun!
My beautiful daughter Debbie, and her 2 little girls (my grandkids) Meadow and Evie.
I believe so much in this wonder drug Keytruda. January 2015 my body was shutting down and there was nothing that could be done, I literally had no control over my mind/body - on oxygen, weight dropping off fast, nausea, pain …. . Now no pain, no medication, no oxygen! It has shown to have significant shrinkage for pleural mesothelioma. In my case I have both pleural and peritoneal mesothelioma and my recent scans have shown significant shrinkage in both areas including fluid shrinkage.
I am so wanting it to be available to all mesothelioma patients as another choice of treatment option to be discussed with their oncologist team. Today Keith and myself had a meeting with our local Federal Member of Parliament to discuss the process of getting Keytruda put on the PBS/free list to be available for Mesothelioma cancer. It has been approved and will be on the PBS list as of 1 September 2015 for Melanoma cancer however not for Mesothelioma cancer. Thank you to our Federal Member of Parliament who was very helpful and I feel will help me to do this for myself and other Mesothelioma patients.
Lou’s email address
louise_w_2000@yahoo.com
eradicateasbestos@gmail.com
No comments:
Post a Comment