Peter’s Hospital Diary

So far the sniffles haven’t returned, although I seem to be coughing a bit more. However the really good news is that my appetite has returned. Bacon sandwiches have made a welcome return to my diet, as has ‘wet’ food such as Cottage Pie - and of course sponge puddings with lashings of custard! (I guess this is of no comfort to those on enteral feeding, like Chris - sorry Chris - food discussions - especially the ways of preparing a bacon sarnie - have been a feature of this blog in the past!) The Scandishakes and Calogen remain on standby, but I hope I will put on the weight that I lost in the last few weeks - and perhaps a bit more as I am still a few Kg below my ideal weight

On the tech front, I have just carried out a major upgrade to the Wordpress software that powers the blog. You, dear reader, will probably notice little difference, except that pages may load a bit faster, but the ‘behind the scenes’ control pages have changed, and the database structure has changed slightly to allow for future enhancements. (Just to re-cap, Wordpress is a content management system - all the posts, comments, and data about the poster or commenter are all stored in a relational database, and extracted as necessary to form the HTML pages that are served by the web server. Once data is in a database, it can be presented in a variety of different ways.) I am still finding my way round the new layout!

Olivia has been over today, but my camera battery was flat, so no photos this time - sorry!

Oh yes - I see this is the 300th post! Onwards and upwards!

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Not because of any treatment, but at the amount of effort for so little clinical time! The appointment was (appropriately) at Chinese Dentist time (2:30) so it was quite a leisurely start to the day. I caught the train at half 12, and arrived spot on time at Guy’s 2 hours later… to be sat in a waiting room for an hour. I was eventaully called in, gave a saliva sample, had my mouth inspected (all well) and was out agin in about 5 minutes! Plenty of time to get to the station and get home - 2 hours later. Next appointment in 6 months! “Was it worth it?” I ask myself. Well I suppose yes if the sample shows anything, but since I have been giving nose samples at my GP clinic (and they did a saliva sample 3 weeks ago) I do wonder!

Anyway, as you might gather, I’m feeling a whole lot better! I spent much of last weekend wrapped up warm and with long lie-ins, but by the time my birthday came round on Monday, I was up and bout. My parents were down for the weekend, and we had a fairly relaxing time. The weather was mixed, but sunny enough to make sitting in the conservatory pleasant - which is what we did.

I finished the anti-biotics today, so I will be checking carefully for any signs of any returning symptoms, but I hope this time it has been knocked on the head. And my appetite has returned - another bonus!

I had a long chat with Simon this evening. He is in excellent spirits and is looking forward to the next stages of “getting his life back”. He has commented on the previous post with his news. Sadly nothing on John’s blog, so I hope all is OK for him. However he did say that the builders were starting work on the adaptations to his house and he would be away, so maybe he just hasn’t had internet access.

So, to one and all - Onwards and Upwards!

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I’m sorry that it has been a while since I posted, but this last week hasn’t been one of the best, healthwise. Nothing too dramatic, just not very good. In other ways it has been quite exciting! However before I go on, I know what you really look for on the blog, and here she is! She wasn’t completely 100% when she came round, hence the flushed cheeks, but you will probably see a few changes!
She is now definitely a biped! No more crawling on all fours, she is up and off with a good turn of speed! With the additional load on her legs and the greater energy output, she is fining down and losing the baby tubbiness, especially on her legs and arms! Her speech is developing too, with recognisable versions of Mummy and Daddy and, of course, Max. If you ask her what noise Max makes, it is “uff, uff”! Other animal sounds are more conventional (and easier to say) - quack, moo etc!!

As she has been under the weather, so have I. I finished the last course of anti-biotics ten days ago, as I said in the previous post. All went well for a couple of days, but slowly and surely, the symptoms started returning. I spent quite a lot of time in bed over the week-end trying to shake it off - but is wasn’t helped by an early (6am) start on Monday (more of that later). By the time Tuesday arrived I felt pretty rough and as soon as I got in from work, I went to bed. I had a clinic appointment at my GP on Wednesday (more nasal swabs) but again felt pretty weak - my appetite had gone and I was back on my old friend, the Scandishake! Getting up at 6 again on Thursday to make the trip to Guys was a real effort, but worth it as I received another course of ant-biotics, and the lung function test didn’t show as much of a deterioration as I might have expected with the cough. In fact my lungs are clear, but I ache all over, especially my ribs where my GP thinks I have probably strained the muscles around my rib cage - which of course control breathing, and could be a contributary factor to the breathlessness. I certainly felt very weak, and I was a bit horrified to discover that I have lost about 5lbs in the last 3 or 4 weeks. In fact the last time I felt this weak was just before I had my ambulance trip to Southampton 15 months ago, although having a haemoglobin count of about 6.5 was a major factor - the result of the radio and chemo therapies. (It is now back at just under 12)

So at least I knew how to avert that - more scandishakes, and more food! (And I have just eaten and enjoyed the biggest meals in the last two weeks)

Two days on, after starting the anti-biotics, I feel a lot better. My appetite is returning, as are my energy levels. It remains to be seen what happens when the course finishes next Wednesday!

Enough of the gloom and doom! There was an exciting event in the week. You may recall that I have been doing a series of short courses in a branch of Computer Science. I have decided to formally enrol as a postgraduate student to gain a recognised qualification. The initial registration is for a PGCert, with the option of continuing to PGDip, and possibly an MSc. So I am a student again! Registration was on Monday, with lots of lectures and talks about distance learning, and PG study. Very exciting - and slightly scary!

With all this activity and health problems, I have rather ignored Simon (Sorry, Simon) who has now come to the end of his chemo sessions, but now leaves his ‘comfort zone’ of the routine visits to the day unit, and goes into the monitoring phase. However we did exchange texts yesterday and today, and he ’sounded’ in good spirits! The only blip really is nothing from John.

So on those notes, I can say with a bit more confidence “Onwards and Upwards”

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The brain is a funny thing. I was driving to work this morning, listening to the radio, when a song by KT Tunstall was played. It wasn’t announced as such, but she has quite a distinctive voice and style of music, and it instantly transported me back in time to 2004, when her first album was released with the single “Under The Weather”. Why? Because at the time it was released, I was going through one of the (many) courses of chemotherapy as an outpatient, and that song was frequently played on the radio in the background at the Haematology Day Unit! Having started that link, my brain then jumped to David Gray’s “Hospital Food” which was also a popular song playing at the same time. Strange how seemingly innocuous things can trigger powerful memories!

It also recalls to mind a conversation I was having with Simon recently. Being touched by cancer is quite a profound experience, and we were saying that life will never quite be the same again. Not necessarily better or worse, but just different. Partly I think because it is a potent reminder of ones own mortality, and because to survive a life threatening situation has an effect - although the brain is remarkably adaptive and soon gets on with the business of ‘getting your life back”!

Simon finished his chemotherapy yesterday, but not before the side effects of his treatment dealt him another little sideswipe. On Tuesday he was diagnosed with a blood clot in his arm, so welcome to the Clexane Injectors Club Simon! Fortunately he only has to inject for 6 weeks (and my six months worth has just finished) but something he could have happily done without! Still, the chemo is done and now he can look to the future!

I have also had news from fellow blogger John, who has recently posted on his blog. Followers will know that he has had a pretty tough time of it, but from his latest post, things may be looking up, with the adaptations to his house going ahead, and the possibility that he may be referred for consderation for the photo-pheresis treatment for his GvHd.

I was also intrigued to find a new commenter on the blog, which links to another ‘patient blog’. I haven’t looked at it in depth, but there is a link here. Once I have looked at it I’ll consider posting the link in the blogroll.

And fellow blogmaster Mark has written up his French Farmhouse blogs with a more comprehensive report of our week out in France, and some other photographs - details here!

So on those notes - Onwards and Upwards!

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Following on from our mini-break in France, Mark sent me this photograph doing a handbrake turn on the garden tractor - it certainly is the way to cut the lawn - and makes short work of the molehills!

That apart, it has been a quiet week. The anti-biotics seem to be doing the trick and the cold seems to be getting better, so I hope that I am finally shrugging it off!

You may also have noticed that there hasn’t been much mention of Olivia recently. She too has had a succession of winter snuffles, so to avoid the risk of me giving her what I have, and vice-versa, she has only been round while I have been out - but February is the first month since she was born that I haven’t taken any photographs of her!

The storms forecast for yesterday did materialise, but before they arrived, I took this photograph of a tree in the garden. I don’t think I have ever seen it with so much blossom on it, and I was pleased to see that this morning most of it has survived the strong winds! Also this morning is bright and sunny which will bring the lemon tree (still in the conservatory) on a bit. It is looking quite healthy, and has also had quite a lot of blossom on it!

So on all fronts - Onwards and Upwards!

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We arrived back on Friday, and the tranquility of the previous five days soon evaporated! The flight back was good, in an Embraer small jet, so it only took 55 minutes, and 15 minutes after landing we were in a taxi on our way home - a stark contrast with Heathrow!

Once home it was time for a quick change and down to Bournemouth, where Katie, as part of her degree, was team leader for a team organising a charity auction at a local hotel. It was a great evening, and the team raised over £3,000 for Bournemouth charities - so well done Katie.

My parents and Felicity’s mother were staying for Mothering Sunday weekend. My parents left on Sunday. Mark and Sue came back from the house, so I collected them and took them home.

I went into work on Monday and had to phone Guy’s, as the fresh French air didn’t quite blow away all the bugs, so we decided I needed another course of anti-biotics, but I was able to get them from my GP, which saved another trip up to London - I hope they do the trick!

Good to see the comments from Simon who sounds in fine form - in fact I have just spoken to him and he is in excellent spirits!

So on all fronts - Onwards and Upwards!

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