My History

I've been wanting to write a blog about my experiences for a while, but never did get around to it.
I've finally decided to sit down and sort it all out, so i'll start at the beginning, and add some blog entries from my diary.
Apologies if some entries are long, and also written in different tenses - it depends when I actually wrote them!

Wednesday 10 November 2010

It's only Wednesday

It's only Wednesday, and I have concluded that this week will not be moving any faster.

A few Fails for the hospital on Monday............
I arrived at my appointment time (9:30am), queued for an hour to have my bloods taken. Saw the doctor (another new one) who examined me, and as my bloods weren't back, I had to wait on the seats in the corridor to find out if my bloods had risen enough for me to have chemo.

I seemed to wait ages, and every time the Dr's room door opened I looked up, and a nurse commented about this, so she went to find out if the results were back yet. Eventually she said they were back, and I could go ahead with chemo, but had to wait for the doctor to sort a few things out.

I waited, and eventually the doc came out and said bloods are fine...."Oh, and by the way, you could have had chemo last week. The machine we use wasn't calibrated properly, so your bloods were actually fine"
As you can imagine, my Mums face and mine dropped. WHAT?!
So I've wasted a week for nothing, because someone hasn't done their job properly!
We were then told she needed to re-prescribe my chemo for thr full dose (not the 75% I had last time), and this would take her some time, as she was going to see another patient! "Go for some lunch" she told us.
We did....I think I needed to walk away at that time anyway as I was fuming from being told the 'news' about the previous weeks blood.

After a quick lunch we came back, collected my notes, and went down to the 'Admissions Unit'.
I handed my notes in, and was asked the following questions.......
Q: "Have you had bloods taken today?"
A: "Yes"
Q: "Do you have a line?"
A: "Yes, I have a hickman line"

I We were then told to sit down and wait.
I knew I would be waiting a while, as the room was pretty busy and there weren't many seats left.
We waited.....and waited....and after about 1 hour and 15 mins, Mum got sick of waiting and went to the desk to ask when I would be going up to the ward.
The lady said she would check, and came back and said about waiting for a Cannula to be put in my hand..
ERRR.....I HAVE A LINE! I kinda shouted! "I told you that when you asked me when I walked in".
Her reply.... "Oh, we put your notes in the wrong pile by accident. You could have gone up to the ward an hour ago".

Mum kind of lost it a bit, we were given a feeble excuse of "Ohh, we are busy today".
GRRR

Anyway, off up to the ward! (Ward 12 again - which is what I wanted).
Mum left about 4:30, as she needed to get home, and there is no point sitting around waiting for nothing!

I eventually got connected up to my chemo at 7pm!!!!!!
I then set my laptop up... low and behold you can guess the 'FAIL' to this part......of course, it was down. It's now nearly Wednesday afternoon and it's still down.
Luckily I brought my dongle with me, so am trying to keep occupied, but having to pay for the privilige!

I was lucky enough to have 3 visitors yesterday....My sister, Mum and best friend.
Not sure there will be any today, but I can't wait for tomorrow, as my fav person will be coming :D

Well I suppose thats all for now....there never is much news when you're stuck in a ward in hospital!

Friday 5 November 2010

Update....

So, just an update, although I probably can't remember much of the past few weeks....I never did have a good memory!

I was discharged on 16th October - sent home with steroid eyedrops, anti sickness tablets and some tablets for uric acid [I think].
Sunday we went to a local pub for a proper Sunday dinner, with a massive Yorkshire pudding and all the trimmings - Yum!

Fallout - New Vegas [ps3 game] came out, we had a fun day in Blackpool on the slot machines, played a few more PS3 games, slept in [well, chemo makes you tired!] and eaten out a lot!

My hair started to fall out about a week ago - slowly at first, but with a vengance now. I've still got some...although it's very thin, and I'm not sure how long it will last!

I went back to Christies on 22nd October for a check-up. My platelets were very low - down to 45. They had dropped from over 300. I also had a slight urinary infection [ouch].

Chemo was planned for 1st November, so I packed my bags and off I went. Had the standard blood test, saw the doctor, and waiting for the blood results. Only to be told my white count was too low for chemo.
My platelets had risen back up to over 300, but my neutrophils were down to 0.7, and they need to be 1 or above to have chemo.
So, back home it was and I have to return on Monday 8th to see if my bloods have risen - so fingers crossed they have.

Also, Friday 5th November will be a day I will not forget :)