Friday 18th January 2019
“The future rewards those who press on. I don’t have time to feel sorry for myself. I don’t have time to complain. I’m going to press on.” — Barack Obama

I didn’t post yesterday, there wasn’t much to say and finding a relevant quote on an uneventful day is tricky too. I worked from home during the day, felt particularly excellent again under the circumstances. I did however look incredibly pale, which was noted by some folks, and also by me when trying to get Jayne to get a suitable mugshot of me for the structure chart at work. I blended in to the white wall, even with her phones beautifying filters. I’ll be trying that again another day.

Back to The Christie today, a schedule including a lot of waiting around. In theory, 10am giving blood for a test, 11am see the Dr and hear I’m fit for today’s chemo, 12.30pm have a shot of Bleomycin, then call Dad to pick me up and go home. I chose not to ask Dad to stay with me the whole day as was the initial plan, saves him spending 4 to 6 hours waiting around too, and I have enough tech and blogs and work emails to keep me focussed while I’m here.

I actually got here about 9am, did bloods early, setup office in a very office-like and very quiet part of the hospital for a work video call before my 11am appt, which worked quite well. I look a bit better today 🙂 Now I’m blogging and will throughout the day to save me catching up a full day later.

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I saw the registrar about 11.15am, told him how relatively uneventful things have been, and he seemed pleased and didn’t seem to bother I’d been working etc, but then he told me the bloods had shown something. Neutrophils are apparently a sub section of your white blood cells, the bits that would jump on an infection if I were to get one. He said my levels should be above 1 as a minimum and they were at 0.1, very low but not uncommon. That leaves me particularly vulnerable to catching an illness right now.  No impact on this afternoon’s chemo, but it does mean I need to daily Filgrastim injections for a week to stimulate my bone marrow into action, and bring those levels up within a few days.

I also told him about the cough, no concern but some proactive antibiotics have been prescribed too. As much as the posters in the GP’s office tell you about the dangers of over prescribing anti-biotics for simple colds etc, I get the feeling they just don’t mess around when you’re on chemo. Rightly so I guess.

I went to the pharmacy before lunch to order my prescription, then picked it up just before I headed for chemo. I got 7 needles and some antibiotic tablets, with the added bonus that I have to inject the needles into my own belly fat daily. Now I’m fine with needles, you kinda have to be during all this or you’re gonna get upset, but the thought of jabbing one into my own belly. Hmm, I’m not too pleased. I’ve got these for a week, and I believe I will again each time my count is too low. Later the nurse will show me what to do with them.

So off to the chemo day treatment area, unusually you sit in the waiting room and they call your mobile when you’re ready. So you can go and get a coffee, or wait outside on a sunny day, I like that. I got my call from today’s treatment nurse Ann who told me where I was heading, and I went upstairs to the treatment chair.

Now this on first impressions is really quite a depressing sight to be met with.  Imagine 10 leather reclining chairs, all in a row in an outward shaped semi circle, each one with somebody sat hooked up to a drip doing chemo. Most folks are 65 plus, the rest 50 plus, and me. Some look really ill, some quite healthy. I didn’t spot any young’ns today.  Some asleep, some with family, some reading, but it’s deadly quiet.

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Ann came over and talked me through it all, popped a cannula in my hand, pumped some hydrocortisone in and then setup the 30 minute Bleomycin blast.  I don’t think I’ll ever get used to the feeling of cold (lower then body temperature) liquid going into one spot in your vein, it’s a really weird sensation ! Time passed pretty quickly, I’d tipped Dad off to set off to pick me up, and then when done I asked Ann to kindly show me how to administer my first Filgrastim injection.

Now in theory, grab a bit of belly fat, push the needle in and press the plunger. Simple. Oh no ! Despite being prodded more then a pin cushion in recent months, including earlier today to give blood and for the cannula in my hand, I winced like a child when that needle went in. The thought of having to do it myself was firmly in my mind, and, well that’s tomorrow’s problem.  It has to go in about half an inch. I’m sure once I’ve done one I’ll be fine, just man up and jab it in Jack Bauer style like he’s injecting himself with some wacky nerve gas antidote.

No issues with the chemo, all fine now I’m home, although I’m tired from getting up early. Celebratory Chinese takeaway for tea, probably 3000 calories I didn’t need. I do need to cut down on this excess to an extent, I have now signed onto the 100 mile cycle sportive on the 29th September. While 100 miles isn’t unusual for me, to do it after all this will be a decent comeback so I think I’ll do that for charity and raise money for The Christie. Although for now I guess there’ll be more belly fat to jab the needle into, 😉

When I was in with the Dr, the guy next-door was telling his Dr how he couldn’t stomach any food and wasn’t eating well. Sounded like nausea has hit him hard, again affirming how lucky I’ve been. The Dr stressed how it was important to eat anyway, and the exact advice he gave was “if one day you fancy a KFC at 11am, fill your boots while you feel like it, just do it.”  Why do they only stress the bad things that can happen before you start your chemo ?  Fast Food on Dr’s orders ?

And upon returning home, I had a wonderful card from the folks at my new workplace. A lovely surprise after a day like today, that left me with a big smile. Since my diagnosis and operation, I’ve changed jobs, so the chemo was awkward timing in that respect. My old colleagues were fantastically supportive (& still are), and in my short time since moving over, my new colleagues have been too.