Spirits lifted at Barts Hospital

Ali and Chris went to see the oncologist today. Ali said it was such a positive meeting and described how she felt she could see the load visibly lift from Chris's shoulders. (I asked Chris if this was 'Ali spin' but he conceded that it had been a very helpful conversation).

In good timing for Wednesday's second lot of chemo Sarah (the onco woman) was able to reassure them about the continuing treatment. Now that Ali has done so well on the first lot of chemo she doesn't see any reason why the next doses would make her any more sick or anything. Hair will probably go sometime and over the course of the next 5 lots she might feel generally more tired, but that should be it.

She also said that there was no reason that Ali should have to stay in over night for the next chemo session, even though Ali had been told by the ward that she would definitely have to.

They've been given a definite date for the next scan: Tuesday 6th December which will be followed a week later by a meeting to discuss the results. This means that they have also changed the date of the fourth chemo to December 14th which works much better for them - Ali will be coming out of the 7-10 day 'infectious zone' on 24th and not having another lot until Jan 4th which means no chemo in the Christmas period.

But the most positive thing was the response to Ali's tentative questions around her reducing symptoms - as she really assumed that it couldn't already be having an effect. But Sarah (albeit in a reserved medical way) did say that yes, that would be a very good sign.

Feels almost worth an extra bottle of bubbly.