First appointment with oncologist

Yesterday I had the first consultation with the oncologist at the Tampere University Hospital. My wife was there with me. The doctor seemed very knowledgeable and the meeting was quite fact-based. There wasn't a lot of time to discuss and as we already had seen an oncologist at the Finnish Cancer Society we let her to do her stuff without too many questions. We were told that they would put me on two different drugs starting Wednesday next week. One of the drugs is done as infusion at the hospital and the other is pills I will take at home. The infusions would be given every three weeks for some time. I would not get on Avastin in the very beginning but they would most likely add that drug as well a little later. They would do a CT scan every 3-4 months, analyse the situation and make changes to the treatment if necessary.

They still did not know exactly what type of cancer I had as the biopsy of the colon tumour that the gastroenterologist did had no cancer cells in it. In other words, that was not a good biopsy and for this reason they needed to schedule another one and they would take that of a tumour in the liver. This was the reason why they would not add Avastin to the drug list as it could cause bleeding from liver. They scheduled the biopsy for Wednesday morning.

Then we spent a lot of time with the nurse going through the details of the drugs and possible side effects. Those are all individual so I may or may not get side effects. Anyway, the list was quite long and I would get some additional drugs to manage some of the possible side effects. One common side effect was a strengthened feeling of cold. A bottle from the fridge could feel lots colder than it actually was, even painful. If I would get this stuff I should not drink or touch anything cold. We also got a lot of information about the social security system around this, what my rights are, what I need to do and apply for etc. After that another blood test and a guided tour around the facilities.

There was a note hanging on the doors that a TV crew from Finnish channel 4 is doing a documentary or something during these months so if I manage to stick my head out at the right time I may even get on TV! :)

After the hospital we headed down town to leave some papers at the Social Insurance Institution of Finland (abbreviated KELA in Finnish). I will get a new social security card with which I would be entitled to get these drugs free of charge.

In the evening we actually went to see a football game with my father in law. The local football team, Tampere United played first round qualification to Champions League against a team from Montenegro, FK Buducnost Podgorica. Tampere won 2-1.