Jill
- Apr 24, 2018
- 3 min read

Tenerife and 5th round chemo

Since I last wrote we've had Easter holidays, and Paul endured his penulimate round of chemo on April 11th.

We went to Tenerife for a week with another family the Falconers. Stayed at an AirBnB and took our E111s with us as the cheapest holiday insurance you can get for a man on painkillers (morphine still) is around £4K for a week! (that was twice the cost of entire holiday!

We had an excellent time! Landed 2 apartments next door to one another in the small town of El Medano, and hired a car.

It was great to explore the volcano above the clouds on the only day it was dreary. The rest of the time was spent rockpooling, relaxing, went to a spa and hanging around the beach.

Paul wasn't drinking due to the Gabapentin and Oxynorm, so chose to get up at 6 and he even climbed a mountain (much to my worries) before I'd got up at 8.30.

He'd saunter in with croissants in great spirits.

We had SUCH a laugh and Niamh treated me to a massage (and buckets of cava) on my birthday. Paul was really happy to see me let my hair down. Felt a bit rough the next day though! (love you Niamh!)

When we got back it was straight in to see Mary our oncologist. We were hoping to get a PETscan to see if we really need the 6th and final round of chemo but she told Paul that we could have a scan but he'd "light up like a christmas tree" due to all the scar tissue, hence we're not having a scan to see what's what until September. I've read so much through Mavis Nye's sites about "Scanxiety" Not going to be much fun, I'm sure.. but sod it, we'll do our darnedest to forget about all that and just enjoy our chemo-free summer.

Looks like Paul will be put on a monthly injection of Avastin after chemo. This drug is intended to strangle the blood supply from the tumours

(Proper definition - Avastin® (bevacizumab) works differently than chemotherapy. Avastin is a tumor-starving (anti-angiogenic) therapy. The purpose of Avastin is to prevent the growth of new blood vessels. This includes normal blood vessels and blood vessels that feed tumors.)

and (God willing) keep the meso away a bit longer.

Here's hoping.

Amongst other things we had a friend's dog for the day. Wanted to see if it's something we should consider for Cam as company. Had a lovely day with Amber but we have a tiny garden and are keen to get away as much as possible this summer so it's probably a no for us right now.

We also went to Dino Golf on the A3 and to the National Trust Stepping Stones trail. The latter was quite tough on Paul as it involved a VERY steep incline. Paul weirdly made it no problem. I thought he'd be VERY out of breath but he was okay - however, he kept reaching 190 heart rate so had to stop. But then he'd carry on. "Mountain Goat Cam" even ran back to his daddy to cheer him on.