11/02/20

Seven hours for the round trip to Harley Street and back (it felt, if anything, rather longer) for barely half an hour with the great man himself. We were delayed on the tube on the way there and backtracked by one stop to change to a different line - that made us a little late so we took a taxi from the Great Portland Street station to Harley Street, which we had intended to walk. Probably just as well, considering the vicious wind. On the way back we were also delayed by Pizza Express...

So we met Professor Cavenagh. He wanted a detailed history going right back to the first concerns about MGUS, and I wasn't well enough prepared with dates for all his questions. I think I'll have to dig into the records and produce a proper timetable. He gave me a quick physical check and declared me fit for transplant so that's one hurdle out of the way although I wasn't expecting a problem. The rest was telling us about the process, which contained little we didn't know already. Including the 2% chance of life-threatening complications.
The one thing we both wanted - a firm date for the harvesting process to get things under way - didn't come. It's still going to be a while before we get that and now things seem to be moving back in the direction of there being several weeks between the end of Cycle 4 (Thurs 27/02) and the start of transplant. There was even mention of possibly putting another chemo cycle in the gap, which I would not be thrilled about. My PPs are down to zero, why wait longer?

Hmm. So. Well... No hard and fast answers, which is a bit disappointing. I suppose I just have to imagine that things are happening behind the scenes and that they'll let us know as soon as they sort out the scheduling with all the other patients and the rooms and everything else. But I would like a date in the diary, even a tentative one.