Well, I'm several days into the chemo now and, so far, (fingers crossed) no side effects except for feeling a bit tired.  I now find myself needing a nap mid afternoon.

I had the bowel stent fitted last Thursday. This is basically an inch wide tube in the bowel which allows waste product to get past the tumour which could otherwise block the bowel. I cannot feel this inside me as, so the doctor informed me, there are no nerve endings on the inner wall of the bowel. Plenty of nerves in the rest of the bowel but none on the inner wall.

Because of the stent, this has meant a change of diet and this is the thing that is taking the most getting used to. I am now on a low fibre diet which basically means no fruit or veg, only white bread and nothing made with non-white flour. I can, though,eat any meat or fish and any dairy products and tinned fruit. Any drink is OK providing it does not have bits of fruit or veg in it. This is taking some time to adapt to.

I report back to the doctor on 29th August so that he can check how I am doing. 

Saw the chemo man today and he is going to treat my condition in two ways.

Firstly, a 12 week course of chemotherapy. This will be in tablet form and I will take two a day (one after breakfast and one after evening meal) for 2 weeks and then have a week off. This 2 weeks on and 1 week off will be repeated for 12 weeks

Secondly by control of the diet. I am being put in touch with a dietician.

They will take a scan at the beginning of the treatment and a scan at the end of the 12 weeks to see how I am doing and adjust the dose/mixture accordingly at the end of 12 weeks.

There is likely to be some side effects - the most probable one will be feeling really tired. The drug I am being treated with is Capecitabane and more about it and its side effects can be found here.

http://www.cancerbackup.org.uk/Treatments/Chemotherapy/Individualdrugs/Capecitabine

Without chemo, my life expectancy would be 6 months. With it, I can expect 2-4 years and because of my relatively young age (58) and reasonably good general health, probably a bit longer.

Saw the man today for the results of my scans and as I expected, the cancer has spread too far for them to be able to  operate.

This means I will be going on a course of chemotherapy. Exactly how this will work  we won’t know until next Wednesday when I go to see the chemo expert – a guy called Kim Last. He will then outline what I can expect.

It is also likely that, as they are not going to operate, they will put a stent into my bowel so that the waste product can get past the tumour and out of my body.

I have spoken to my contact at the hospital today who tells me that the results of my two recent scans will be discussed at an MDT meeting on Friday 18th July. MDT is multi disciplinary team and is all the experts getting together to make a decision.

I should hear this decision about what course of treatment I can look forward to on Friday afternoon or evening.

The next post will be to let you know what that decision is.

The dates for my two scans have now been confirmed. I have an MRI scan on my liver on Wednesday 9th July in York and a PET scan on my abdomen in Hull on Friday 11th July.

The results of these should be available on Tuesday 15th July when,.hopefully, I should hear what course of treatment I can look forward to.

Saw the specialist today who wants to do another scan on me to check if the cancer has spread. This is a PET scan and can only be done in Hull or Leeds as York does not have the necessary equipment.

It is a radio nuclear scan where some dye is injected into a vein and then the blood glows a different colour in any "dodgy" parts and shows if the cancer has spread. Once the surgeon has these reults he can decide which parts of me he is going to cut away.

The scan will be sometime during the next 10 days.  

This is Tony Kempster's blog in which I, or my wife Anne, will try to keep you up to date ...   more »