47 – On Trials at Chelsea

9^th September 2023

Yes, beating the transfer deadline by just a few hours, Wozzer can reveal that he’s on a free transfer from Cheltenham Town to Chelsea. As a lifelong Manchester United fan, this took some serious thinking about 😉

Well, actually it’s really that I’ve transferred from Cheltenham Oncology Centre, to the Royal Marsden Hospital, which is just along the Fulham Road from Chelsea FC, but that sounded better!

Even though I’m one of the few people Chelsea haven’t signed recently, I can reveal there were some preliminary discussions with my agents about playing on the Outside Right, but they insisted I was better positioned Right Outside.

Anyways, back to reality. Here we are some 7 weeks into the clinical trial and so far, so good. The whole experience at The Royal Marsden has been outstanding – everyone is very organised; treatment appointment times are met and information flow from medics to patient is always up to date.

After the issue with the canula and leaking of contrast dye for the CT scan (described in my previous post) and the amount of blood sampling required going forward, I’ve been fitted with another PICC line.

While it has its inconveniences (weekly flushing and dressing changes) and keeping it dry with a special sleeve when showering, it’s so much better than stabbing my poor old veins, that have had over 3 years of needles and cause quite a few problems.

In terms of treatments – currently I have two drugs. They are both known as Immunotherapy drugs and intended to train my body to better recognise and attack the cancerous tumours, without too many harsh side effects, as in generally the case with say, chemotherapy.

That’s not to say I get off scot-free. One of the drugs is a powerful vaccine given by injection into either upper arms (one jab in each) or thighs (again one in each). I have to say it hurts like hell for a few minutes, then subsides over 1-2 weeks- but with inflammation and pain around the injection sites.

This is definitely grown-up stuff, much more painful as any normal flu or covid jab! The other drug is intravenous, so that goes through my PICC line and thankfully painless.

The reason for using two drugs is - to my understanding – that neither is particularly strong enough to deal with the tumours individually – and the trial is to determine if the combination of two give a better result than the individual parts. Kind of 1+1=3

Currently, it’s too early to say if the trial drugs are working – this will mostly be determined by CT scans. One is due on 12^th September, which MAY give an initial indication – but my guess is the following one around mid-November will have more meaningful results.

I find it best not to speculate on possible results and scenarios– just take it as comes!

Ongoing monitoring of my general wellbeing is done each visit by way of blood-sampling (a lot of blood) and also vital signs checking and interview with the trial doctors.

This (and any scans etc) usually take place on the first day of hospital visit and then drug treatments are on the next day. This is now settling into a pattern of every 3 weeks. I stay overnight in a local hotel near the hospital. The drugs companies cover my reasonable hotel costs and other expenses.

So, for now – even though it’s near Chelsea, I’m pretty happy with how things are going.
More in a few weeks – or when I have updated news.

Until then, stay safe and well 🙂