Peter’s Hospital Diary

Well, that’s the plan! I had an early ward round this morning with Dr Lown. It looks like a good response from the rituximab/ibrutinib combination and my blood chemistry is moving in the right direction, although maybe a bit more slowly than before. The theory is that the rituximab remains-sensitises the cells to the ibrutinib […]

I’m writing this from the same ward, but in bed at Southampton General Hospital (or more correctly, University Hospital Southampton!) after being admitted on Tuesday night. But I get a bit ahead of myself… Tuesday was a bit of a low point while I mulled over things – disappointed that the ibrutinib was losing its […]

And that is the question of the day!  Will I be allowed home for the weekend, to return as an outpatient on Monday? That will depend on the blood results, due later this morning, but meanwhile I thought I’d share a selfie taken last night… Not looking too bad though I say it myself! It […]

I was still in a bit of pain when I settled down, lots of gurgling but not much relief,  I had something to damp down stomach action and a bit more oromorph, which helped dull the pain, but of course did nothing to alleviate the underlying cause. But all went reasonably well (although very broken […]

I’m beginning to get impatient now – I want to start the treatment!  I had a visit from  junior member of the team today saying that they would probably start tomorrow – nothing today apart from more fluids. i haven’t felt too good today, stomach pains (‘gripes’) and a feeling of bloated ness or trapped […]

I must say that I went to sleep (and woke up) feeling  good.  I think the last few days have been frustrating, patching up the symptoms of the underlying problem without tackling that problem itself.  I know that there are good reasons for that (partly because the treatment plan isn’t clear cut) but now that […]

Well, what started as another  ordinary day turned out in quite an unexpected way! I woke earlier than normal with quite severe stomach pains, almost stomach cramp.  That was followed by a call from a nurse specialist from Southampton asking when I was going for my blood tests – we arranged 12ish. Katie called to […]

A quick but productive stay at Southampton, but I am now safely back home! To summarise yesterday, after I was admitted, I had a litre of saline with Magnesium overnight. Interestingly I was on the bone marrow transplant ward, all individual rooms, so I had quite a quiet night. Funnily enough, I was a floor […]

Yes indeedy – I am currently an in-patient at Southampton General! For the curious among you, let me explain… Yesterday I noticed a bit of swelling in my ankles (pitted oedema) so I gave the emergency number a Guys a ring. It turned out that I had had a follow up appointment there yesterday, but […]

OK, my bad! What I thought was going to be a PET scan turned out to be a kidney function test! So I put myself on nil-by-mouth from 5 am for no reason and missed breakfast unnecessarily! So a simple test, a radioactive tagged substance is injected into the blood stream and then blood is […]