BIG UPDATE (by Lauren): I have some bad news BUT I also have some good news.....

BIG UPDATE: I have some bad news BUT I also have some good news.....(Wed 12 Aug)

Unfortunately I did not get into full remission with 2 cycles of the magical IZOTUZUMAB....

However, It did bring my bone marrow leukaemia blast count down to 5.5%, which means the drug actually works and it has hardly messed up my liver, kidneys or heart which were the main side effects that my doctors were worried about. AND because of all of this, here is the good news....
Because the drug has worked and worked so well on me, the drug company want to give me another cycle of IZOTUZUMAB under compassionate exemption!
It's a smart move as it looks better for them and the drug and their trial if the outcome is a positive one and with one more cycle it appears that it will be. Plus under the usual circumstances of the trial over in the UK if a patient is going to receive a transplant they can have up to 5 cycles (as long as the side effects don't get out of hand) to get them into a full remission.

Soooo basically not the results we were looking for but pretty damn good results at that. So my third cycle of IZOTUZUMAB will start sometime within the next 2 weeks . YAYYYYYY!!! So really it's good news!
And as for me at the moment, I have landed myself a stay at the Royal Adelaide Hotel again and it appears I've hit a little bit of bad luck with things not going to plan at the same time.
So as you all know I had a bone marrow biopsy last Tuesday and a side effect you can get from that is getting pain down your leg or in your coccyx and this pain I got was bearable until last weekend when I couldn't sit or put pressure on my left bum cheek, couldn't walk or go to the toilet without being in immense pain.
So on Sunday visited the docs on the ward to get it checked out and to receive higher pain killers. That all got sorted but while I was there I had a blood nose so they decided to give me some platelets (the cell in your blood that helps with clotting and stops bleeding) even though I was meant to go in the next day (Mon) to receive some anyway. Basically that meant on Monday I didn't need to go into hospital to receive any platelets.

But unfortunately on Tuesday, whilst home, I got another nose bleed that just wouldn't stop bleeding so ended up going into hosp to receive some more platelets so that my nose would stop bleeding. However I also decided I had missed the place so much that I thought I'd spike a temperature and because I have no immune system at the moment that means immediate admission and onto antibiotics.
So I got my platelets, got admitted and the antibiotics but the nose bleed did not stop and ended up being 4hrs long in total. (that has to be a record surely!) To fix the gushing nose the ear nose and throat guys rocked up and in a nutshell put 2 inflatable tampon looking things up both my nostrils and then inflated them with some special liquid to 10mm in diameter - yeah it hurt like a bitch and still does because I still have them in and let me tell you, the sinus headaches that come with it aren't pleasant either - but perks of being in hosp means I can have all the amazing pain killers!
But this has certainly been some of the hardest few days I've had to go through but I'm getting through them - and with me almost off the steroids completely it is getting much easier.

It can only go up from here right? And even though the news today is not what we were expecting - all in all it's actually amazing news and I think I've told you all everything seems to happen to me in threes so it only seems logical I have another cycle. Anyway I'm slowly falling asleep as I type this as 10min ago I just had some lovely oxycodone and I think it's starting to take effect. Anyways night and ‪#‎FUCKLEUKAEMIA‬ ‪#‎FUCKCANCER‬
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