High dose chemo

Today was my high dose chemo (Melphalan). I had to have lots of fluids via a drip to make sure my kidneys are working which consisted of a litre of fluids every hour at first and then measuring how much urine I passed, which I need to pee in a jug to measure every time. …. talking of which, back in a minute ……

…. back now another 300ml registered on my chart. The chemo is given in two large syringes attached to my Hickman line, which they inject in at the same time as a drip is running with some other stuff to protect the liver. It took about 5-10mins to inject in. Prior to administering they had to go through all the checks to make sure that they have the right person etc, which is good that they check so thoroughly they wouldn’t want to give that to the wrong person! She also told me that during the process of it going it, I may feel hot flushes, my face may go red and it will feel like you are eating a very hot curry! Fortunately I didn’t feel any of those symptom as I don’t like hot curries. Everything went ok and I was passing enough water, so my kidneys were flushing it through ok. I still have to be on fluid drips over night as well as the anti sickness that I have been having through the the portable mini drip.

Tomorrow will be my stem cells going back in and I will let you know how that went.

On another point I must say how wonderful the staff are here, nothing is too much trouble. They even offered to change my room for me today to a bigger one if I wanted and went on to explain that the day that I cam in they were really busy and had 8 people on the ward, which may not sound a lot, but when you consider this is a specialist unit it is quite a lot. There are now 5 people here, of which I am the only male, not that it makes that much difference, I don’t get a chance to leave the room, let alone flirt with anyone (as if I would!). One of the women is Marilyn who had her stem cells extracted at the same time as me.

I was also talking to the staff about Paula (Feresaknit's Blog), they were saying how lovely she was and how infectious her laugh is. this is where I wondered if we were talking about the same person …… only joking Paula don’t hit me the next time we meet. Paula makes some lovely things out of wool and if you get a chance take a look at her myeloma buddies which you can buy online. Paula made some buddies for one of the nurses here and she was saying how lovely they were. I think they were surprised a little how people with Myeloma keep in touch and read each others blogs (our own mini community)

Well that will do for this blog post, more later or tomorrow. If you have any questions, just leave a comment. Oh if you are going to do an anonymous message, I’m ok with that, but I think some of you that have left messages expect me to know who it is. Although I’m good, I still haven’t mastered my psychic ability to know who you are without you telling me.

:D