Lanreotide and I have been living-in-sin for three years now. Before that, I spent a year with Sandostatin but we fell out when he messed with my blood sugar levels.
Lanreotide and I have a love / hate relationship.
I see him sitting in my fridge in the run up to injection day, every time I reach for the milk. He winks at me from his long white box and I know his silver foil wrapper which covers his sharp needle is waiting to be set free.
I love that he keeps me stable – together with 3 cycles of PRRT.
I love that he doesn’t make me bald.
I love that he stopped my flushing in one fell swoop.
I love that he made me more aware of my diet and what my body needs.
But he lied when he said I would lose weight.
And so we roll.
Every time he comes home on day twenty-eight, he gives me a ‘bolts through the brain’ headache. Just for a day.
He brings with him a laundry basket full of fatigue.
He makes my stomach bloat and gives me a rock hard abdomen.
At first, he completely stopped me visiting the loo.
But we’ve learnt to compromise…. I now have slim jeans and fat jeans.
I hate that he makes my hair shed and frizz.
He dries up my skin and makes me look weary.
But most of all, I hate it when he messes with my cognitive ability…
… the panicked search for the perfect word
… the loss of train of thought
… the befuddled fog.
On the other hand, things could be so much worse.
I don’t know the science behind the discovery that this drug could slow the growth of neuroendocrine tumours.
I don’t understand the microbiology in our cells which drinks this drug to slow our cancer down.
And I certainly don’t know the price to produce it.
But I do know that – together with our UK NET Centres of Excellence – it is a life saver for most Neuroendocrine Cancer patients.
And it can keep working for many years.
We are all different and we all respond differently.
But if there is a choice between a somatostatin analogue (which Lanreotide is) or the relentless ‘Red Devil’ Doxorubicin chemotherapy, I’ll take Lanreotide any day.