Update 4
December 26th 1998.
Since the last update Matthew has had two courses of Topotecan along with Cyclophosphamide. He coped with it as well as could be expected even though the first course was not given correctly.
The only main concern we had was the fact that one of Matthew's kidney's became dilated after his second course which has given him a lot of pain and discomfort in his stomach. We were told this was a reaction from the cyclophosphamide.
We were told by our oncologist at the Middlesex hospital that his latest scans showed no further growth had occured on the primary tumour since his last scans were taken in September, which as you can imagine, was the best news we had heard in a long time.
The thing we are worried about now though is the fact that Matty will have a long gap between treatments as he finished his last course at the end of November and our next appointment won't be until 8th January 1999, we can only hope that this won't make a lot of difference.
Anyway, we have all had Chrismas at Karen's parents house in Stoke-on-Trent, Matty and Anneka both enjoyed Christmas day very much and got nearly everything they asked for (we are even poorer than ever!)
Take care all who read this,
The Tait's
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Update on Matthew Tait. (addendum to update four) 05 January 1999
Hello to All,
Well, we had an appointment with Matthew's Oncologist today, he also had a chest X-ray and Ultrasound on his left kidney and primary mass. The chest X-ray shows that while the growths in his lungs are actually more visible, they haven't actually grown! The Ultrasound showed that the mass is encroaching on the ureter and that's why his kidney is dilated, the kidney can't drain as well as it used to. It also showed the main veins in his left leg are being 'pinched' by the mass in some places, this is why his leg is swelling too. The mass hasn't grown though! It looks like these drugs are holding it back for now.
After all the results were back we spoke to the Oncologist, she wasn't happy that Matthew wanted to carry on using the Cyclophosphamide with the Topotecan, but we have reached a compromise. Matthew will have a lower dose of the Cyclo' and less flush to push it through. I'm going to write to the Dr in USA to ask if we are doing the right thing tonight. Matty re-starts chemo' on Monday 11th January. He is one happy chappy at the moment!
Karen, Robert, Anneka & Matthew.