Month: August 2009

Well the first week was OK but the second week has been a bit of a struggle.

Monday I had bad nausea.  I went to the IMVS to get my blood taken.  I then proceeded to faint just as they finished taking blood.  I also decided to have a chunder as well.  It was a fun morning!

I felt better tuesday.  My temperature was up a bit for a couple of days too.  Nothing too high (<38).

It is now friday and my temperature is back to normal and I feel OK.  I still don’t have a great deal of energy.  I hope the next few weeks will see a slight improvement in energy levels.  It is still hard work having a shower – I need to lie down in bed for 5 minutes after the shower as I am somewhat puffed.

Nothing like getting out of hospital to speed my recovery. Some nice food, milk coffee, and a decent rest have done wonders. Sometimes I wonder if you get better in hospital or struggle more than is required due to constant observations, lack of sleep and general lethargy due to boredom. Not to mention the abysmal food.

Everyone at home are almost over their colds so I will go home on Friday.

Had my bone marrow biopsy today. No problems with the procedure. Here’s hoping the results are ok in a couple of days.

Off to have a look at some jayco caravans tuesday.

Everyone has a virus at home so I am staying at my mums for a week. The good news is I left on Friday rather than Saturday.

Gave myself my first insulin shot this morning – easy peasy. The needle is so fine you cannot feel it. Blood sugar levels are ok.

One thing I have noticed is how little energy I have. I struggle to have a shower in the morning. The drugs interfere a little with my sleep too which does not help. It will take a while before I get back to anything like normal.

The last fours days have seen quite an improvement. It all started on Thursday with a morning chunder. Then I found I had some graft versus host disease which is good. It appeared as a rash on the back of my hands. I think is was also causing my other problems such as nausea and fever. They gave me a steroid to supress my immune system a bit more and get rid of the graft versus host disease. I noticed the results that day. By the evening I was feeling much better and almost felt human again despite the early morning chunder.

A side effect of the steroid is high blood sugar levels. Mine hovered around 15 to 20. Some insulin shots helped to fix this up. The steroid has now been stopped. Hopefully gvhd does not reappear.

A side effect of the main immuno suppressant is high blood pressure. Mine is at 160/100. No ill effects such as head aches which is good. Shouldn’t do any harm in the short term I am hoping to be on this stuff. Ie months not years.

So I am off all the iv food etc and into normal revolting hospital food. Unless something bad happens I should be out by Friday. At least I feel normal now which makes these last days in hospital tolerable.

I also had a skin biopsy done on my hand. Here is the result, a single stitch. Such old man hands I have!

The good news is all my blood levels are up and I should be out of here now. The bad news is that I am still febrile for some reason plus my guts is still annoying me on and off.

Once this is fixed I will be going home.

The white cells are going up and am starting to get neutrophils.  This means I should start to feel better in the next couple of days.

Once my temperature stabilises and I am eating then I will be able to leave.  This should hopefully be only one more week.

Oh and I have had mucasitis for the past five days but didn’t really experience much pain at all.