A black and white version of the yellow rose that I will be putting on my wall. If anyone wants any of these pictures, let me know as I will be selling framed prints.
Wednesday, 25 May 2011
Hospital visit
I was at the hospital today to see Dr Lee and get an update in general. I had to go down to the ward to have my bloods taken as the phlebotomist doesn’t take blood from a central line (I must remember to ask why next time). The appointment was for 10am, but I dropped Charito off at work at 9:15am down the road from the hospital so went for a cup of coffee at the hospital cafe before going to the appointment.
It still took a couple of hours before seeing Dr Lee after having my blood taken, it seemed very busy and I noticed a few new faces, so understandable that they would have lots of questions to go through, so I didn’t mind waiting.
After my bloods results came back and I got to see Dr Lee – My Neutrophils are low at 0.9 but my platelets are ok at 99. I didn’t need any blood as my blood was just OK, although I wasn’t told what the count was as the conversation moved on to my transplant. As usual he was a little confused as to the number of cycles I’ve had but got there in the end! I’m starting my fifth cycle a week Friday due to the bank holiday and my Neutrophils being low. I’m back at the hospital next Wednesday to have my hickman line flushed and checked and to see if my Neuts have risen ready for my PAD pump. Then back again on the Monday after to have it removed and for the Velcade.
Hopefully with this bit of break my body will get even more back to normal and my stomach will settle down a bit more.
The shingle pain is still as consistent as ever and I’m having to take the pain killers every four hours. The pain wakes me up in the night sometimes and I have to get up and take some other pain killers to get me through the night, although after taking them I have to wait a while for them to kick in and by that time I’m wide awake and can’t get back to sleep.
At the moment I’m nodding off during the day and will normally go for lie down as I’m totally shattered if I try and get through a whole day without a rest.
I’m hoping the shingle pain will go soon, but I’ve been saying that for a while. I could get some other pain killers from the hospital, but I’m currently using four different types now and that can’t be doing my body any good either, so the sooner the better it goes!
James-Cutting-Grass
After a request from Graham, here is an artistic image of James Cutting the grass. I would say working, but it looks like he is confused in this picture. .... why isn't it cutting, do I have to move it!
Garden
More has been arranged for the front garden. Chris and i went to B&Q and ordered a shed and then went to a builders merchant for some sand and slabs to put a base down. Everything is being delivered on Friday for both Chris' shed and mine, matching gardens! Well nearly.
So I will be supervising the work and might even make a drink or two for the workers.
Monday, 23 May 2011
Time to start matching
whilst I was in hospital last time, my brother Nigel came over to see me. It was great to see him and I started getting upset as it was a nice surprise to wake up and find him in my room. It’s been a while since I got to speak to him and I’m not sure if it was because I was ill or the medication I was on, but probably just because I’m a soppy git that I got upset. It was great to catch up and as usual we had a good laugh, which hurt at times because of my side, but it was worth it!
Nigel had come across from Barnsley so that he could have a blood test done to see if he would be a match for my stem cell transplant. I don’t know the results yet as I need to get mine done at the same time as Nicks. (which I need to arrange with him). Hopefully this week.
I’ve had another PAD cycle which for some reason this one made me feel quite ill and I had to take a few anti sickness tablets of different kinds over a longer period to stop me vomiting. I’ve had a few days break and will start again on the next cycle a week today.
I have an appointment on Wednesday with Dr Lee to get an update of how everything is going.
Last Friday I had a blood test but didn’t need any blood or platelets, which surprised me as I have been very tired; although that could just be with being worn out after being ill.
I also had my pentamidine Friday which was as yucky as ever and left me with a very dry sore throat throughout the night.
hopefully that has brought things up to date and I will try and blog soon.
Keep Smiling 
The world would be a better place if…
… everyone was as good as my neighbours.
I know I have mentioned them before, but Chris and Jodie deserve another big ‘shout out/thank you’ for the help they give me. I have been wanting to change the front and back garden for quite a while but not been able to for obvious reasons. In the front garden it was just grass with a few plants (growing wild). Jodie with the help of James have removed all of the grass and and laid down some decorative stones to match their garden and it looks great and is a lot more manageable. Jodie organised everything from the skip to purchasing all that was needed and both James and Jodie worked hard to get it done in a day.
I need to buy a garden shed to put a few things in from the back garden and then Chris has offered to lay some decking, which is another big job which will transform the back garden.
I can’t thank you both enough for everything you do for me – true friends are hard to find, but I know I have in both of you.
I will post some pictures when I can
Going to try
I’m going to try and get back into my blogging as I have neglected it over the last few weeks with being in so much pain.
I still can’t believe how painful the shingles has been, although over the last few weeks it has been coupled with a very back stomach, with a short stay in hospital.
I’m still not eating properly and spend most of my time stuck in the chair as it is so painful to move, even though I have taken lots of different pain killers. I’m beginning to wonder if the pain killers are making me worse. I know that they give me a bad stomach and I’m having to take movicol to help me go to the loo and it doesn’t help that the shingles have screwed up my feeling/nerves in my stomach which makes it even hard to go to the loo properly.
So I'm going to start pushing myself more and more to put up with the pain at the computer so that I can blog and get a little more done, rather than vegetate in my comfy chair.
I have a few things to blog about, so I will write a a couple of short post to catch up rather than one big long one
Sunday, 15 May 2011
Bad few weeks
Well after my last post a few weeks ago I have been quite ill, not just with the pain from the shingle but also with a bad case of sickness. Were not too sure why I’ve been bad, the doctors and I think I may have caught a bug on one of the weeks when my Neutrophils were 0.6 I have lost a bit of weight and was at the point where I couldn’t take any of my tablets, because as soon as I drank the water to take tablet I would be sick. I got very dehydrated and was totally exhausted.
I had to get James to ring the hospital up for advice and they told me to go in, which I knew they would. So thanks to my good friends next door Chris and Jodie for taking me into hospital at short notice in the evening.
I’m still not 100% as I don’t have my appetite back and I still have a bad stomach when I eat anything, but at least I’m not being sick.
I can’t remember the last time I felt OK – The pain from the shingles is still very bad and I’m having to take pain killers every four hours to help me get through the day.
One annoying thing on the day of leaving the hospital is the process the go through once you are told by the doctor you are going home. Now this time I was told I could go home at about 12pm, which happened to be around the time I was due some more pain killers. Before you go home all of the tablets that I brought in with me are taken out of the locked cabinet from the wall (which I don’t have access to unless I ask) and sent down to the pharmacist which are then checked that I have enough to home with and provided with any other medication I’ve been prescribed with before they are sent back to the ward and given back to me so that I can go home. Now I don’t mind having processes in place, but I do mind when they don’t consider the patients needs! I didn’t get the medication back until gone 2pm and by this time I was in agony with my side, not just from the pain of the bad stomach that I was in but with the shingles pain which stops me from even sitting comfortably in a chair (hence the reason why I haven’t blogged or used the computer for a few weeks). As soon as I got them back I took the pills like a drug addict needing his next fix (I stopped taking some of the pills a while ago and now mix the combination so I don’t get addicted).
It always feel great to come out of hospital, I hate being in hospital, not just for the fact that I can never sleep but I know that one day I will probably be going in and not coming out, at least not coming out and being able to use my NDY pledge!
Thanks to everyone again for their concern and for the email and text messages etc that I got. I promise I will try to write write more often and force myself to GET OFF MY LAZY ASS - as Becky said in her text message to me
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