Monday… t+11
Jan 30th 2006PeterHospital Stay
Another grey day today in London, St Paul’s looks quite grubby without the sun shining on it!
A reasonable start to the day. The kidney pain seems to have gone as abruptly as it arrived. It might have been a reaction to the GCSF, or a mineral imbalance. I have started taking potassium tablets, and last night I had a magnesium infusion. That lasted 4 hours, and didn’t help the sleeplessness! I may have an utrasound scan of my kidneys just to check they are OK.
This morning followed the usual pattern, although Obs were a bit later. I felt a bit queasy this morning, not helped by breakfast which was worse than usual; so having rejected that in favour of a banana and a fortified milk drink, I treated myself to a lie-in! In fact I was still in bed when the ward round appeared.
Now for the really good news. Progress has been very good, and my neutrophil and whie blood cell count has started picking up. If this trend continues, I might be out of isolation and possibly on my wasy home by Friday! What I mustn’t do is get my hopes up, just in case this is a false dawn, and of course it isn’t the end of the process, but the start of the next phase, which is equally critical, but at least I will be an outpatient, with bi-weekly checks. That won’t be too bad as one of those will be at Southampton, so I will only be coming up to London once a week. The only downside is that I might have to take Itraconazole syrup again… (shudders involuntarily)
My parents came down yesterday for the afternoon so that passed quickly. I didn’t have any Cyclosporin as the blood analysis hadn’t come back from the lab. Over the next couple of days I will be switching to oral Cyclosporin in preparation for discharge!
I will have mixed feelings about leaving. Of course it will be good to be home, decent food, uninterrupted sleep etc, but I shall miss the wonderful staff here, who have looked after me, and of course all of you who have visited and helped the time pass so quickly.
**STOP PRESS** – Neutrophil count came back at 2.7 and I am out of isolation!!