Psychoneuroimmunology (and other everyday words)

I know it's been a little while since the last post. Am I losing my readership? Tap Tap - is anyone out there? Oh well, I'll carry on regardless. Here are some updates on the last couple of weeks:

Treatment - Radiation therapy will be finished next Friday, and I'm ready for it! I really notice on the weekend days that I don't have it, how much it tires me on the weekdays that I do. It's also made my scalp sore and my hair fall out. (Grumble grumble.) The current dose of chemotherapy will end next Friday too; I get a couple of weeks off for good behaviour! The chemo will restart at a higher dose in January and run for six months.

On December 30th we have an appointment with the surgeon to discuss whether he will perform further surgery on the rear of my brain. (Remember from this post that there is a second lesion, but until a biopsy is performed they don't know exactly what it is.) Any surgery would probably take place during the first week of Jan.

Needless to say, we're really looking forward to Christmas. This is the first year that we'll have spent it here in the US and, although we'll miss our families, we're looking forward to lots of relaxing family time and perhaps a little cross-country skiing.

Another story of hope - On Friday one of the volunteers at the radiation centre, Tom, introduced himself to Anna and me and told us his story. He was diagnosed six years ago with the same type of tumour as me and today his MRI scans show him to be tumour-free. The main difference is that they were only able to remove 20% of his tumour during surgery (as opposed to the removal of the entire visible tumour in my case), so the remainder had to be treated with radiation and chemotherapy. Coincidentally, he also had a scar infection which prevented him starting treatment for seven weeks, during which time the tumour grew from 3cm to 7cm. The incredible part of the story is that the chemotherapy alone then shrank the tumour away to nothing and he was eventually given the all-clear.

Now, I know that for every survivor story like this one there are many others who aren't so fortunate, but Anna and I were really encouraged by the effect of the chemotherapy on such an aggressive tumour.

Positive thinking - A few of you have commented about my keeping a positive attitude throughout this journey. Well, I've been reading about a branch of science called Psychoneuroimmunology (it trips off the tongue, doesn't it?!) - let's call it PNI. Basically, PNI studies the connections between your mind and your immune system and there is increasing evidence that each affects the other. A sense of helplessness, for example, can suppress your immune system, while a sense of purpose can enhance it. I’ve oversimplified, but you get the point: your mind does control your immune response. There's lots more research to be done, but it's one more reason to stay positive.

Thanksgiving - One of my favourite holidays. We started very slowly with a late breakfast and lots of relaxing, followed by sledging with the boys (see video below). We rounded off with a wonderful dinner with our friends, David and Colleen, with double helpings of everything - perfect!