ICE chemo

The salvage chemo I was put on is called ICE. I was to have 3 infusions over a week every 3 weeks.

The first round I had, I had my hickmann line inserted. This is a small tube that goes in the chest and up into a vein in the neck. I have 2 long tubes that come out of the skin. its very tolerable just hating I cant have a deep bath!

I tolerated the ICE chemo much better than the ABVD. The worst part was spending a week in hospital, although with all the drugs they gave me I don't really remember it. Just that the ward staff are literally living angels!

For the week after chemo I was very weak and spent the majority of the time laying on the sofa and needed help doing pretty much anything, but by the weeks after I felt better than ever. Being nutropenic wasn't much fun though.

I had a scan mid chemo and it looked like the tumour was responding really really well and the team were confident that I would be in complete remission ready for transplant.

I went on to have my 3rd round of ICE. It was more difficult this time as I was on a bay rather than a side room and the patient opposite me was dying of the same cancer I had, I found that very tough but luckily the angel nurses found me a side room for the remainder of the stay.

After my final scan, the results weren't what we imagined they would be. The tumour had become more active while I was having the chemo, this was very worrying for myself, family, friends and my medical team. I was to see a specialist consultant and start on a new treatment called Brentuximab.