Tuesday 29th January 2019
“Nothing trumps good conversation” — Rich Eisen

I managed to stay awake until about 10.40pm last night, hoping the later I go to bed, the better I’d sleep at night. My drip would finish about 1.30am. 
Sleep was a problem last time so I was conscious of this.

I dropped off, but then at about 11pm, they decided to move the Irish chap with the extended family of visitors earlier on, to another ward as he was unwell and needed more care.  From behind my curtain this sounded like 10 nurses, talking loudly like it was midday, and crinking several plastic bags for at least 15 minutes. A necessary but just badly timed commotion.

Anyhoo, I dropped off again about midnight until 1.30am when Bob beeped to say my IV finished, the nurse unhooked me and took my observations. I went for an obligatory pee and then I was wide awake, like I’d drunk seven coffees wide awake.  It didn’t help that the poorly chap next to me was coughing up what sounded like litres of phlegm all night. I had to put headphones on with music to drown that out. I recall it was way after 3am before I dropped off again, and then I was up at 6am. Lights on and breakfast is 8am.

Surprisingly I haven’t been too tired today.  Not having people to chat to has made the day drag a lot more than last time though. I had breakfast, then waited to see the Doctor. Before the Dr was due, I went to the shower. I’d been dying to get in because my hair has been falling out at a rate of knots, I’m covered in it. Despite it being shaved to a number 1, so much came out that it clogged the shower! It’s my head and beard shedding. Now I have a kind of patchy mess, and am almost starting to look like you might expect a cancer patient to look.

All well with the Dr when he arrived, green light for chemo to start a bit earlier. Then I walked to get a latte, and sat and tinkered on YouTube etc watching some US Late Show comedy to pass the time. Then lunch, and then I watched “The Gunman” which was a good film.

Chemo started about 1pm, and is due to finish around 11.10pm (I’m on my last bag as I write this) which is great because I won’t be woken to be unhooked. Today’s regime was slightly longer incorporating the Bleomycin that usually messes with my lungs a bit:

• 0.5 Litres of Bleomycin over 30 minutes, chemo
• 1 Litre of fluid with Etoposide over an hour, chemo
• 1 Litre of fluid with Cisplatin (Platinum) over 2 hours, chemo
• 1 Litre of fluid with Cisplatin (Platinum) over 2 hours, chemo
• 1 Litre of fluid with Magnesium over 4 hours. Replenishment of salts

During this time, the other 2 beds had emptied and I was on my own expecting new roommates. I’d still not had a single conversation with either of them, each for their own reasons. One simply couldn’t talk very loudly.

Towards the end of my film, Mike arrived and my day has changed significantly.  Mike is fantastic company, super chatty from the word go. We also have Andy who is quiet and sleepy, has recently been being sick, and another chap who doesn’t speak English but we communicate with smiles having asked his relatives about how he’s doing. He started chemo in May 2018 and is still going !!

Things were fun chatting away with Mike in-between his work phone calls, but then his family turned up and things got turned up a notch. What great people ! His wife Bernette was just as chatty, a lovely person, telling me how she was on a TV show Strictly Kosher and has since been on daytime TV like Loose Women.  Then she was feeding us Jam Tarts.  It was like being dropped into a sitcom at points, greatly entertaining 🙂

A little later some chaps turned up to visit him and we have been huddled around my laptop watching Man U vs Burnley.  What a difference it makes to have great company.  The second half of my day has absolutely flown by, in a good way.

In terms of how I feel, still no effects from the chemo, other than the regular toilet trips. No cough or tight chest as of yet. I’ve tried to be up and walking about with Bob as much as I can. I’ve been reading up about steroids and two side effects I seem have are difficulty sleeping while I’m here, so I don’t expect to sleep well again tonight. Secondly my appetite, it’s still high and all the Dr’s and nurses I tell blame the steroids.

Hoping for a decent run at some sleep tonight, the only thing I’ll need to get out of bed for is to go and pee (without Bob 🙂 ) a few times, so fingers crossed. I expect another chunk of hair will fall out tomorrow too, I do hope so because it’s still sore in places. Then just the 1 hour of chemo and 4 hours of salts tomorrow, and I have the added bonus that Jayne will be with me for a few hours company before whisking me off home for a well looked forward to night sleeping in my own bed.