Tuesday, February 27, 2018

Staying Alive Part 2

I had to go to Charing Cross Hospital last Thursday for a scan, I felt like death, and was not looking forward to the drive especially as we had to leave early to get there for 10.00.

My sister Lynne  drove and it was horrendous with crashes and breakdowns on the M25 and M4, We finally made it to the hospital at 11.00. We took the wheel chair as I couldn't walk at all, poor sis was buggered pushing me from the car park to the hospital.

In the lift I met the main oncology nurse who has been seeing me, she said as soon as you have had your scan, pop in and see me.

Because we were so late and they had some emergencies I had to wait for a couple of hours before I had the scan.

We popped into the oncology ward to see the nurse, she said right into bed, lets get you checked over, apparently I looked like death, I certainly felt it. They took my bloods etc and straight away they told me you are being admitted and going nowhere.

By mid afternoon I was back in a room on the 15th floor.

Apparently the chemo had shot my blood readings to crap and I was pretty damn ill. They gave me blood and all sorts of other drugs that I cant remember as I was so out of it.

All I remember next was waking Thursday night screaming the whole hospital down in the most excruciating pain I have ever felt in my life! The pain was in my lower back and pain relief wasn't working, morphine didn't put a dent in it, I couldn't stop screaming and swearing. Three doctors checked me out but couldn't find anything wrong and kept thinking thing that I had fallen and hurt my back or it was a previous back injury.

All of a sudden it was about 11.00am Friday morning and I awoke pain free. They had sedated me during the night, probably so the rest of the hospital could sleep!

Apparently I had a bad reaction to a GCSF injection which is supposed to stimulate bone marrow, once again most people dont have a problem with it. 

Long story very short, I stayed in hospital for five days, had 6 pints of lovely new blood plus lots of calcium by drip and as always other drugs that I just cant remember , I just have to trust them.

What a difference having the blood made, I was no longer breathless and could now stand and walk again.

I had another two scans whilst there, and there was some good news, even thought I have only had two doses of chemo the tumours had all shrunk. Plus the brain is looking good and recovering very well after having the tumour removed.

But because the chemo had made me so ill and nearly bloody killed me all treatment is going to stop for a while.

Im now back in Milton Keynes and  looking forward to hopefully trying to live a life again. I'm under no illusion I'm still very weak and its not going to be easy.

Other news.....

There has been absolutely no interest in my flat in Australia, I thought it would sell very quickly, but nope, Im not in a hurry so will wait and see, I can drop the price, but the last time we did that was when we sold our Oz house, 2 months later the prices shot up!  I pulled out of buying the flat in the Blisworth Mill a couple of weeks ago, it was a fantastic place but feeling so ill I just couldn't handle the stress of buying a place let alone moving in on my own, it just wasn't going to work.


Saturday, February 17, 2018

Im Still Alive!

But as the Aussies would say I have been as crook as Rookwood ( Which is a famous Sydney Cemetery)

The chemo session absolutely smashed me, I have never felt so ill in my life and that includes life threatening man flu!! 

I was bed ridden for over a week and basically would have been so happy to not wake in the morning.

My blood pressure dropped so low that I couldn't stand for longer than a few seconds and did collapse one night whist going to the bathroom.

They have altered all my drugs again, and I have stopped taking my blood pressure tablets.

I have felt better the last couple of days which is good, my biggest problem at the moment is that I literally cannot walk at all !!  I am getting a wheelchair today so I can at least get out of the house.

Im off to London on Thursday for a full scan which will hopefully show what is going on.

I know that this cancer will kill me but i was thinking it would be more like Elaines where we had some good breaks between chemo where we lived a normal life. At the moment normal life to me is a long gone memory, Im hoping it will come back but hey ho if it doesn't so be it.

I will try and update the blog more often, but as you can imagine when you feel like absolute death it isn't a priority .  I haven't replied to loads of emails. private messages, im really sorry and it probably sounds quite pathetic to say it was just too hard!! 

Paul XX