My planned break for two weeks did not work out as I had hoped that it would as right at the beginning I caught another infection in my sinuses on day 1. After a week it hadn't cleared up so on the Monday before I was due to re-start my chemotherapy I went to my GP and she prescribed a course of antibiotics to clear it up. She also wanted to give me the flu jab and a new one for shingles that has just been introduced for those over 70 years old, but said that I had better confirm with the chemotherapy doctor that it was advisable.
Thankfully over the week my infection cleared up just in time for me to go and give bloods so that they could assess my fitness to cope with more chemotherapy. I went in on Monday but as the chemo unit was extremely busy they sent me off to have my bloods done in the bloods department, luckily there was no long queue so I was able to be seen immediately---more needles but expert practitioners so I didn't feel a thing. As I had time to spare I stopped in the bloods unit as they have a WRVS service there that offers hot drinks and snacks and I had a cup of tea before going home.
Next day Tuesday my chemotherapy is due to re-start or is it? Wendy and I left home in good time to make our appointment to see the doctor at 9.45 am but because of bus and road work problems we didn't get there until 10 am however they were extremely busy and it was still a half hour before I was seen by the doctor. My normal doctor is on holiday in Japan so I saw another doctor from the Royal Marsden who examined me and went through my bloods, my tumour markers had been going down since the earlier course of treatment but was starting to rise slowly during the interval whilst I had stopped. She then examined my mouth to see if the wound from my tooth had healed up sufficiently for me to continue treatment, she felt that it was not fully healed and was concerned about the treatment may cause it to bleed and possibly become re-infected, I said that I would really like to start again and she then decided that I could wait outside whilst she discussed it with the pharmacist. Ten minutes later she came back and said that I could re-start the treatment. Everything went well and we were able on this occasion to get away fairly early around about 4.30 pm. I forgot to ask the doctor about having flu and shingle jabs so I asked the receptionist to find out and she came back to say that no I am not allowed inoculations of flu and shingles. Also during the discussions with the doctor she was concerned about me picking up these infections and advised me not to get on crowded trains and buses, plus avoid all crowded gatherings. I need to take more care of myself.
Thursday time to go in and have my bottle removed and my PICC line cleaned and flushed this was OK but the nurse said that there was no blood flowing back on both ports but she was able to push the saline solution through with no problems. They have stopped using Heperin which they used to thin the blood in the line in case it started to clot, they did some tests at Marsden to see if it was really necessary to do this and decided that they could stop using it as the risk was quite low.
Saturday so far I have been feeling good since the treatment the drugs I am taking to stop the gastric re-flux are doing there job and the start of a little diarrhoea so far seems to have been stalled by the use of loperamide for now. No doubt the chemo will be working inside me and I know that for a couple of days I shall feel a bit low. Just now I feel fine and have pruned back yesterday and today the conifers and the front and back of the house c'est la vie!!
No comments:
Post a Comment
Add your comments here.