Month: July 2009

Oh well, despite my best wishes I am still here, however my bloods are definately doing up albeit slowly.  Here’s hoping for next weekend.

Got some red blood cells today, had lots of difficulty just going to the toilet.  I would have to lie down for a while.  After a shower my heart rate hits 140!

Bad afternoon today – came over feeling cold and tired and then all of a sudden I needed a vomit.  I would normally blame such circumstances on the food but I am not eating.  As of now I am starting to feel better.

I have been getting bone pain for the past 12 hours which I have been told is a good sign.

Don’t forget to join Team Branch for the Leukaemia Walk, you can email Clare for further informati0n.  a

It looks like my blood levels are on the move, my white cells are growing and others have stopped falling.

Who knows, I may be out by the
weekend.

One of the patients in a bay near here has just been diagnosed with pig flu.

One crazy dude who is being discharged wanted to stay in hospital. He must be nuts, who would want to stay here? Apparently he is afraid of pig flu. I personally will be breaking the doors down on my discharge day, pig flu or not.

Well, things have settled down. My tummy is ok but if eat anything I chunder so eating is out for the rest of my time here.

My mouth was sore after the ‘methatrexate’ or however it is spelled. Had some morphine to help with the pain. I probably have one more dose of this on Saturday. The pain has eased today.

Aside from that I am totally bored and just laze about on my bed. There should be some blood growing next week which will be a relief.

So I cannot eat anymore. I gag due to swelling and general soreness in my mouth and throat. No mucosistis yet which is a blessing.

Normally a naso-gastric tube is stuffed up your nose and down the back of the throat and food is administered via this. I tried to get that nasty pipe in three times but aside from lots of gagging I could not swallow it. I now get my food via IV. I am still able to drink sustagen etc which keeps my stomach and bowels active.

I also have been having bad stomach pain, much like heartburn only much worse. Some oxycodon provided relief and it might now be settling down.

I also slept for about 16 hours last night and today. I was totally exhausted from lack of sleep over the last week or so.

Here is a shot of the modified Tetley thermostat.

The stinking room is stinking hot day and night.  I lost 2 kilos last night due to dehydration and I haven’t slept properly since I got here.

On a positive note I worked out how to fix it   I put a cup of boiling water next to the thermostat which conveniently has a shelf underneath it at a perfect height.  I’ll try and take a photo to show everyone.  Now at least I am nice and cool. 

Clare says I am also not so grumpy now.

Thank you Cheryl and Andrew for the card.

I wasn’t feeling that great due to previous night but today is the big day.  I received 4 bags of Nicole’s stem cells over a period of an hour.  Each bag had to be defrosted, after being taken out of liquid nitrogen, be being placed in warm water.  The cells are then heated up going through a blood warmer and then infused via my PICC line. 

The cells are presevered with sulphar.  As a result I stink for 3 days as the sulphar leaves my body.

No problems, very uneventful which is what was expected.

Many thanks to Nicole for her gift.

Bad night Monday 13th. I must have had some reaction to a drug,threw up 15 times and had severe stomach pains. This happened over a period of 5 hours. Thank god that’s over. Can’t wait to see what happens next – NOT.

Just about to start my second day of post-radiation chemo and juice to help with the stem cells, at least it is something like that as I am not really paying much attention lately as to what they are pumping into me.  For this procedure I am hooked up to the pump for 24 hours a day for a total of 48 hours of pump time over two days.  Most of that time I am getting fluids to pump the crap out of my bladder.  Very boring and by being tethered to the pump for so long I feel more trapped in here than before if that is possible.  At least I feel OK except for the lousy air-conditioning – it is a bit too warm in here.

The first two days of radiotherapy have finished.  I was a bit tired at the end of the first day.  Today I am feeling fine.

The radiotherapy is done in the early morning and the afternoon.  I have to lie on a bed with my feet up on a ledge.  Bags of stuff are packed down the side of me against panels against either shoulder.  I then lie there like a sardine for 40 minutes.  Twenty minutes on one side, the bed is then rotated around 180 degrees and I get zapped on my other side.  I feel nothing during the whole procedure except beeing a bit sore from being perfectly still for so long.

I have experienced no nausea etc so far from the radiotherapy.

I also had a lumbar puncuture on wednesday at lunchtime.  This is much like an epidural.  I lie on my side on the bed in fetal position.  A shot of local anaesthetic and a needle into the spine.  As usual I felt a bit faint etc but that is my normal reaction to needles – there was no pain.  The worst part was having to lie on my back for two hours without moving much in order prevent a headache etc.  I was a bit shagged after that.

After this mornings radiotherapy I had my pentamidine inhalation.  This stuff is to prevent pneumocystis pneumonia.  I sat in a closed room and inhaled the stuff for about 20 minutes.  No problems there.

One more day of radiotherapy and then two days of chemo.  I then have a day off and get Nicoles stem cells on Tuesday.

By the way, I am in big room shown in a earlier blog entry here.

The teeth are going OK. Some of the other teeth next to the wisdom teeth holes are a bit sore, feels like the other teeth are pressing on them. Must be because my teeth are packed hard together and now there is some space to move? I see the dentist again tomorrow so will see what the expert opinion is.
One thing I have noticed – it is difficult getting all the food out of the wisdom teeth holes. A couple times I have rinsed my mouth and food from earlier in the day is still there despite the fact I thought I did a good job earlier of rinsing the holes.