Peter’s Hospital Diary

I had a reasonably good sleep last night, punctuated by the usual ward sounds, observations etc. I was woken by the breakfast trolley – I am definitely developing the munchies!

Then followed the usual routines; more observations, bloods and my second dose of prednisolone!

All done and then a quick visit by a haematology registrar who spent an age reading up notes just outside my cubicle before coming in to tell me that they had the results of the lymph node biopsy and it could be that the Mantle cell lymphoma had transformed into a more aggressive “diffused large B cell lymphoma”.

Further questioning revealed that standard treatment is chemo using the R-CHOP protocol but she seemed surprised when I said I had had that in the past (not read far enough back in the notes!). I asked her about outcomes and I got the meaningless “studies show that 50% of patients achieve a good response”. I did try questioning further but as a fairly junior hospital doctor her knowledge of the detail was limited and she said that she didn’t have much experience of that lymphoma, which is fair enough.

(I should have remembered really, I was rather unfairly expecting too much)

She did say that the consultant would be round on Monday to answer my questions. I spent a while afterwards looking up the details on the internet 🙂

I think that some less experienced doctors are surprised when some patients have done some homework and are capable of asking intelligent questions related to their illness? I rember a consultant saying that patients generally fall into two types, those who just say do whatever you have to fo, and those that take an active interest and active role in their disease management – and that they have a better outcome!

R-CHOP (Rituximab, Cyclosporine, Rudoxinhydrochloride, Vincristine and Prednisolone) is the last lot of chemo I had in 2007 which nearly did for me, but it did put me into remission after just two cycles so I could have the last batch of donor cells. And I was in worse physical health then after several other treatments in the previous months.

Meanwhile I think the mass may have started shrinking already under just the prednisolone so that is good news! Better still it has boosted my sense of well-being and my appetite – the latter to the extent that I’m hoovering the hospital food! I’ve put on about 4lbs since I was admitted!

And as I type this, the nurse has just been round to give me another 30mg of prednisolone!

Bring it on!

So that’s all for the moment, any changes today and I’ll do an update unless it’s late when it will be wrapped up tomorrow.

And the view from the other side of the corridor tonight

I must mention some of the excellent nursing team that have been looking after me – I’m always a bit wary about mentioning names as I’m sure I’ll miss some out or don’t get the names, but so far Miah, Andrea, Lucia, Niamh, Isabel, Ruth and today, Yobny. All qualify for a Percy Pig award! (Percy Pigs are the Marks and Spencer’s soft fruit gums – Rachael brought some in for me!) The award panel (me) looks at cheerfulness, sense of humour and efficiency in looking after me!

So, Onwards and Upwards!