#GetWellGOSIA - you'll never walk alone!

This isn’t a blog post I wanted to write.

In fact, nobody would ever want that…

My excuse for writing it is… that it’s just the best thing I have to offer…

One year ago (May 2019), my wife Gosia, was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma – a type of blood cancer…

If you never had to go through such a situation in your life, you can only imagine how your world is changing… in a split of a second…

Your plans disappear, and your life simply stops…

But you start fighting!

You have to fight and hope…

After many months of ABVD chemo, many hospital appointments, a few PET scans and endless blood tests we got the results… not great… unfortunately… cancer is still there.

The COVID-19 pandemic doesn’t help…

With friends and family far away, and not being able to leave home, she is still fighting! She is my hero – even that I’m next to her I can only imagine what she feels insight… how painful it is.

It’s been a year now (May 2020)…

She is currently on chemotherapy called ESHAP – a much stronger regime with more side effects. This is a preparation for a stem cell transplant, which she will have in a couple of months.

Please keep your fingers crossed and send positive vibes – we really need that! We hope, to take more pictures like the one above (Ring of Kerry), once this bad dream ends…

Thank you,
Darek

[UPDATE: 09.06.2020]

Gosia finished the 2nd ESHAP chemo 2 weeks ago. It didn’t go without complications. The second cycle was delayed by 3 days due to her having an infection. She needed to take antibiotics before could start the treatment.

The immune system really is a fragile thing… Especially after strong chemo.

She is now at home, resting.

Next steps:

PET scan on the 19th of June
Consultation at University College London Hospitals on the 2nd of July – this will be our 1st visit to this hospital and the team will explain the stem cell transplant procedure.

Difficult weeks ahead of us…

[UPDATE: 02.07.2020]

Unlucky…

… that’s the nicest word I can use to describe our situation. Unfortunately, the ESHAP chemo didn’t help. Lymphoma is still there and only decreased in some areas by 25-30%. Not enough to go ahead with a stem cell transplant…

Yesterday, Gosia started another chemo treatment – called brentuximab. She will probably have 2 cycles of that, followed by another PET scan.

So, another 2 months of fighting ahead of us…

[UPDATE: 26.08.2020]

Another few weeks with a few more complications…

The doctors decided that Gosia needed 3 cycles. Unfortunately, due to post-chemo rection, she completed only the 1st cycle fully and the other two cycles partially.

Gosia spent 3 days in the hospital after 2nd and 3rd cycles. We had to rush twice to E&A after she developed a very high temperature – a reaction to one of the chemo drugs…

The PET scan is due on the 28th of August. Then, a week (or so) waiting for the results…

[UPDATE: 26.11.2020]

It’s been a while…

Not great news… We just got another result for a PET scan – a bit worse than the previous scan. This means stem cell transplant from Gosia’s cells is off the table…

We are moving to UCHL and will be under that hospital going forward.

The next steps are biopsy, immunotherapy and then most probably stem cell transplant from a donor… we really need more luck with the treatments…

[UPDATE: 21.04.2021]

We have a donor!

Yes, there is a person out there in Germany, who was so kind to register as a donor… DANKE!

The stem cells were collected yesterday and sent to the UK. They will be frozen for two weeks before Gosia will get them.

Next week Gosia will be admitted for 6 days of chemo and then she will have the stem cell transplant. We hope she will be back at home a few weeks later. Then the recovery time will start…

[UPDATE: 05.05.2021]

Today is the day! Gosia will have a stem cell transplant.

[UPDATE: 07.07.2021]

She coming home!

We had a very difficult 2 months. Gosia had many complications after the transplant and was for 2 weeks in the ICU. The recovery time will be much longer and we expect many months before she will get back to her normal.

[UPDATE: 05.05.2022]

It’s Gosia’s 1st birthday! Yes, now will she get 2 presents per year 😉

[UPDATE: 01.01.2023]

This will be the last update – a positive ONE 🙂

Gosia is recovering well and we are back on the road – starting small with exploring beautiful places near London and nearby counties like Oxfordshire, Surrey and Dorset.