The Plan, #1 (Bone fortifier) and #4 (Embolisation)

Make sure you click on the links this time. You can watch my vids.

Thursday passed, I completed part 1 of my master plan, which was to get a bone strengthner admitted by IV. 3 years ago this
treatment nearly killed me as the decalcification of my blood (it takes the Calcium particles out of the blood and pastes them onto the bone) caused me to go into severe spasms.

I agreed to go through with this treatment under strict circumstances.
I wanted them to;

• Check my Calcium levels in my blood in advance
• Do this under strict supervision
• Make sure they had an antidote ready.

They agreed and the procedure was started. I felt a little effervescent and queezy in the head.
Compared to 3 years ago, I figured that by 2200 hours I was back in the safe zone. Things went reasonably well and Friday morning I was ready for part 2 of the master plan.

Friday morning I woke up slightly tense. This was the first moment since my admition to the hospital that something was about to actively be done about the cancer itself. We were going to embolize the tumour on S1, which means that the blood supply goes to the tumour gets cut off. To do this they go into the veins in your groin and probe upwards towards your Aorta which the tumour has tapped into for its blood supply.

I was taken to the Angio room late, as I expected to be there at 1330. But I didn't get there until an hour later. Out came a radiologist that had witnessed the last time. Nice to see a familiar face! It took about an hour to get prepped for the operation.




Everything needs to be sterile, and there is a lot of stuff to get ready. It's a rather bloody procedure so there are a lot of sheilds and plastic covers involved.



















The first part of the embolisation is the part where an incision is made in your groin. They then look for the vein (Iliac artery) that leads to the Aorta. Using scanning apparatus, the Doctor pushes the probe into the artery in the stomache cavity. From the Aorta many vessels branche off to tissues and organs either side of it. One of these tissues is the tumour body on S1 which is giving me my problems. Cancer tumours tap into the main bloodstream for oxygen supply. They do this by excreting chemicals which make the body build vessels towards the tumour. It is these vessels that the Doctor aims at clogging.
Using contrasting liquid they run several series to see how the veins run. This allows the Doctor to locate the vessels feeding the tumour. In my case 3 vessels were found. The probe is then placed in the correct position. This is a tricky game much similar to gaming on a Playstation (must watch this link). Once it's in place a pap of particles is made to shoot up the vein with a pump. This particle pap makes blood coagulate, forming a plug in the vessels in which it is placed. The doctor will then release a new amount of contrasting liquid to see if the passage is really sealed. If the liquid can not be seen passing through the clogged artery, we can call it a succes.
This procedure was repeated three times during my embolisation. Three times because they only found 3 vessels going to the tumour.




When the doctor is finished he removes the probe and closes up the Artery again. They press down really hard to make sure the artery closes properly as severe bleeding could lead to dangerous situations. A pressure dressing is then applied which needs to stay on there for the next 12 hours. I was also required to lie down flat for 2 hours first though. All in all the operation went well. Before the nurses came to get me the doctor told me that we could try to treat the other tumours in this way which was a suprise as there are still some tumours which have already have had radiation therapy, but are too large. And now...we have to see if it has any effect. The first thing that I can tell is that the pain has already decreased in the area.

Time to rest and recuperate!