Rowing our waka through rough seas- Grahame’s cancer challenge 2019

 Greetings and welcome back on a new journey of discovery. Today the 8th April 2021 Renene and I launched our waka back onto the troubled waters in search of a new journey of discovery and a new destination. Today we wet the paddles once again as we start to drive forward and navigate our way through unknown turbulence with a desire to safely and successfully make our transition. In January we discovered a recurrence of the lung cancer we believed we had progressed well down the route of recovery. New lesions in rib and local nodes so now stage 4 disease. Control not cure. I remain lucky in managing generally good overall health despite the challenges so we start still from a good overall position. I will be hard at work on the paddle along with Renene but increasingly I will need to depend on her and her ongoing support and love to take more of the load . There will be a time when my extended family may need to join us to help us paddle against the storms ahead . I know they too have

 So thought I should update everyone that Renene and I have unfortunately had to jump back into “rowing our waka through rough seas”. Scan in December showed a growing lymph node behind the left collar bone . Subsequent biopsy has confirmed same cancer as lung. Had a further PET scan which showed likely new node in middle of chest and probable spread to right 4th rib . Had a biopsy of the lymph node in chest today. Some of prior cancer tissue from prior lung biopsy has been sent to USA for extended genetic testing to see if there is any unusual mutation that may then allow a more targeted treatment . We have stopped the current immune therapy, Durvulamab at dose 23 out of 26 as clearly has not prevented progression. Seems likely we will have to proceed to a second chemo course with two drugs plus perhaps another immune therapy such as Keytruda if there is no specific new targeted therapy. Disappointing for Renene Geldenhuys Jelley and I and our family as you can imagine.  Truely gratef

Red is the new Black - the next journey starts On these rough waters It is exactly a month since we completed our radiation and chemo. The waka has launched again into the unknown waters of the lung cancer journey Back to Bad hair day hat to start new round treatment.Depending on wig to help me with “Mullet” look So a great Valentine days reward when we attended the Whangarei Oncology unit and we were able to proceed with Immunotherapy course . Oncologist was comfortable that no new disease evident and likely some improvement in scan. So we proceeded for a 1 hour infusion, and if no significant side effects, a regular fortnightly schedule in Whangarei. The oncologist mentioned 2 years maintenance all things proceeding smoothly. Definitely enough red to go with Valentines day I have been lucky enough to be afforded compassionate access funding which appears to be a significant financial benefit. We would be unable to personally meet the cost without significant re

"Yeeehaa!  It’s the Summer of the Mullet   so it’s about to get very hairy around here" My name is Dr Grahame Jelley and I have been writing a blog about my journey through treatment for Stage 3 B lung cancer .  I am Zimbabwe born but have been living in New Zealand for 20 years and always worked as a rural General Practitioner . I was diagnosed with testicular cancer in 2009 and had chemotherapy treatment for 3 months in Tauranga. I had been in remission for almost exactly 10 years when I had a further diagnosis of a new and different cancer of the lung at the beginning of August 2019.  I have been in Auckland for seven weeks since beginning of December receiving daily radiotherapy Monday to Friday and two sessions of chemotherapy .  I completed my radiotherapy on 13 th January 2020. Whilst I was under treatment for my lung cancer in Auckland I became aware that the Charity “Bald Angels”, based in my home town of Kerikeri, Northland , New Zealand, was embarking on a

D - 42 - Home is where the heart is . In my “own chair” at home  Be it our old country of origin , Zimbabwe or our new adopted home country New Zealand there is no doubt that “home is where the heart is”. So today we returned home to our “Wobble Inn”. Woke early after unsettled night again obviously “chomping at the bit” to get going. Packed the car and hit the road. Managed to drive around two thirds of way home ( got as far as Waipu) before fatigue set in and handed the “paddle” over to Renene to get us home. Great news received as we drove into home town KeriKeri was to receive notification the application to drug company for funded access to immunotherapy drug Durvulamab had been acccepted. Now we wait the further next steps . We will have to wait 4 - 6 weeks post chemo and radiation to commence . Here I attach a link to how this new drug works against the cancer. https://www.imfinzi.com/stage-3-nsclc/about/how-imfinzi-works.html https://immuno-oncologynews

D - 41 -  Baby and me and  last date “ - We are out of here heading for treatment vacation. Last “Hat” for this cycle So we have crossed the final hurdle of this current treatment cycle. I attended my last radiation today and we kept this “hat” and dress code for this final day. A celebration and an indication of the start of our “holiday from treatment”. In an earlier post I described the “machine 6” that has become part and parcel of my everyday life,  but for  a few, for six weeks now. One of the things I described was the unusual shape of the filter for the radiation when it was setting up to start the treatment above my chest. It resembled the “baby doll”. Well today I lay on the bench , asked my parents , Bill and Mar Jel , to be beside me in spirit, and we all said good- bye to the “baby”. At the end of the session I put my hand up and said thank you to the machine itself. We thanked the amazing people who had provided such fantastic care and left a small gif