Month: November 2014

Yesterday was a crap day. I had an antihistamine for my drug reaction on my skin and it left me zonked for the entire day.  I kept falling asleep on my bed which ruined my whole pattern I set up. Normally I would get up and move around during the day to keep active and watch a few old episodes of the Daily Show, read, etc. Yesterday this was all disrupted.  I lay under the covers and my temperature was off more than usual all day and I was just feeling off, mentally and physically.  I then suffered when I tried to go to bed later that night. I ended up feeling overwhelmed by everything and got very emotional. Eventually I relaxed a bit by walking up and down the corridor at 2am for 5 – 10 minutes to unwind. Fortunately the walk helped and I felt more relaxed and was able to have a sleeping tablet and promptly fell asleep. What a relief!

Today I have resumed my normal behaviour and am out of bed doing stuff. No antihistamine either, never touching that shit again.

More platelets today and a tiny bit more activity from my white cells.

The antibiotic rash on my leg, the blind is casting a shadow on legs in this photo:

The flavour removal machine is working overtime at the RAH. They must have a tiny budget per meal?

Pulgasari being a North Korean movie in the Godzilla style. I just have to watch it. The story behind it is very interesting, worth a read of the Wikipedia entry to see how crazy the North Korean dictator is. Here is a taste from the Wikipedia entry:

Pulgasari is a 1985 North Korean Kaiju film directed by Shin Sang-ok and Chong Gon Jo. Director Shin had been kidnapped in 1978 by North Korean intelligence on the orders of Kim Jong-il, son of the then-ruling Kim Il-sung.

So my temperature is hovering around 37.5 to 38.5. Suprisingly I feel OK except for a feeling a little bit warm. This has gone on for a few days so they are going to add another antibiotic to my existing one. I will also be getting a lung scan to see if there is any pneumonia in my lungs. They will also be doing an ultrasound of my liver to see if anything is going on there. A couple of excursions from my room, how exciting after being stuck in here for over two weeks.

Hopefully only another 5 days of this to go and my blood levels should be up to a safer level, especially the white cells.

My kidneys and liver are holding on too which is a bit of a relief. Although the liver is off a little bit.

If you can get hold of the Daily Show with Jon Stewart from 5 Feb 2013 you can see an interesting take on how politicians use language to dress up their intentions in a palatable phrase. In the Daily Show it was about the American election where the GOP lost to the Democrats. Apparently it was a messaging problem, not bad policies.

I am thinking here of the Labour/Liberal parties and their ‘efficiency dividends’ which are in actual fact cuts disguised under another name. To badly paraphrase Shakespeare, an efficiency dividend by any other name would not smell as sweet.

Anyway here is a link, it won’t work here unfortunately so you are on your own in find another source, eg iTunes:

Daily Show – GOP Whisperer.

One example from the show was the Republicans calling relaxed pollution standards the Clear Skies Act.

Rather than ‘smaller government’ call it ‘more effective and efficient government’. The Republicans are fans of minimal government, hence the attempt at disguising their actual aim of getting rid of as much government as possible.

Still have a temperature. At least no rigors so far.

My kidneys have performed a miracle, a normal reading for the creatinine level. For those unfamiliar with my delicate condition I lost 25% of my kidney function from the last 6 years of treatment. How do I know this I hear you ask? I had a kidney biopsy. This consisted of me lying on my front while they stuck a needle of some sort through my skin into the kidney and extracting samples. This procedure was performed under local anaesthetic. Immediately afterwards I had to lay in bed not moving at all for something like 4 or so hours to prevent the kidney from bleeding.

To counter balance that news it appears my liver has gone off a little. Probably due to one of the drugs I am taking. Most likely Posaconazole.

If anyone is wondering where the quote in my blog title is from it is from Safe As Milk by Captain Beefheart.

If you know your guitarists you will recognise the name Ry Cooder, a member of the band on this album.

For what is worth Trout Mask Replica is in the Rolling Stone top 500 albums or some such list. The recording conditions were described by one band member as cult like. The music on it is unique in an interesting way.

Apparently Matt Groening, the creator of the Simpsons, is a fan. The Simpsons is one of my favourite TV shows. A nice bit of personal trivia to end with.

Bad nights sleep as usual. I really must take the sleeping pills. Also a bit off due to some endone, that shit seems to give me a bit of nausea and I really felt stoned on it. Which is ok except for a bit of nausea later in the day

My temperature spiked last night to 38.4. So I had some blood taken via a syringe to check for a bacterial infection – normally they use my PICC line. He had to have three goes in my left arm. I love it when they twist the needle around as they search for a vein. My left arm is always difficult for blood. Checkout the piccy below for the result.

Two bags of red blood today and some platelets. The platelets should stop my nose from dribbling blood.

Also, temperature down to 37.3. Much more comfortable.

My IV tree of platelets and blood.

Well done Nicholas for getting your purple belt in karate.

In other news, I am feeling rather flat today. Hopefully my blood levels start rising soon.

13 days in hospital so far.

Looks like my temperature is going up. 37.4 : I can feel it. Time for some antibiotics.

After 5.5 years leukaemia free unfortunately my AML has returned. I will therefore recommence my blog to keep those interested in my progress informed. Will post some photos later.

In went back in hospital on 10/11 and had 5 days of chemo. Now my bloods have gone down and I need to stay in hospital until they go back up – I have no immune system.

Due to previous treatment and all the drugs afterwards my kidney function is down 25% so they have to monitor my treatment closely.

Will provide more updates.