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!