Monday… Monday!
Mar 8th 2010PeterGetting My Life Back!
My hope that Friday’s ECP would be equally uneventful was not entirely fulfilled! The kits come in two versions, one, the 125 ml kit takes 125 ml of blood , centrifuges it, stores the lymphocytes and returns the centrifuged blood back. This happens over 6 cycles. The large kit takes 250ml of blood, does the same, but takes only 3 cycles. The end result is that 750ml of blood is processed, but the large kit is slightly faster.
The machines are prepped in advance (they take about 25 minutes to set up, and I generally have a small kit. However on Friday, the machine had been set up with a large one. Not a problem, had that before… but on Friday morning my blood pressure was slightly lower than normal (it always is a bit low anyway).
This caused great consternation, with frequent blood pressure checks, a saline infusion (to increase BP) which meant the saline bag emptied during the procedure, and constant checking to see if I felt OK (I did!). So it was all a bit of a faff, and took a bit longer than expected. However I can’t fault the nursing staff, who were only being careful!
The entrance to St Thomas’s has been re-vamped, with quite a good shopping/food area – including an M “This is not just (hospital) food” & S Simply food outlet. Unfortunately the staff wouldn’t let me nip down (while the lymphocytes were being irradiated with UV light) but the wife of another patient very kindly went and got my BLT for me! The entrance does look very good – I hope the same effort is going into re-furbishing the treatment areas and wards!
After the session finished, I nipped over to Waterloo to get the train down to Bournemouth where I was met by the rest of the family. A browse round Christchurch (lovely town) and then a meal in a restaurant on Bournemouth sea front (near Boscombe Pier).
The rest of the weekend was fairly uneventful, apart from a vist by an old school friend, Ian, and his wife, Carolyn. Good to see you both!
So – onwards and upwards!
14 Responses to “Monday… Monday!”
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Richard on 08 Mar 2010 at 10:55 am #
Glad all went broadly according to plan.
St. T’s sounds great.
Bit different to the hospital my Dad was taken to on Friday at Canterbury
Looked like last refurbished in 1911 and had pictures of Churchill, John Wayne on the walls and photos of nurses working there dressed in uniforms that were just like nuns.
Ever seen the Royal on TV, well like that only a couple of decades earlier before the War (that is the second great misunderstanding with Germany not the first)
Hey oh the Sun shines and it is Alicia’s first birthday tomorrow.
Richard
Gillian on 08 Mar 2010 at 8:01 pm #
Happy Birthday to Alicia, happy birthday Alicia – I’ll let you carry on Richard 😉 I hope you had lots of jelly and ice-cream and birthday cake
St T’s??? surely not a place full of scantily clad schoolgirls???? Peter!!
xxxx
Gillian
Oh, and sorry about the confusion over Mother’s day – it’s the 14th Peter!
Richard on 08 Mar 2010 at 8:51 pm #
How many Peters are there?
Gillian on 08 Mar 2010 at 9:19 pm #
honestly Richard, can’t you keep count 😀
Peter on 08 Mar 2010 at 10:40 pm #
You mean there might be another 13 of me – unlucky!
Hope the birthday party went well – not too much FF30 🙂
Richard on 09 Mar 2010 at 7:30 am #
No booze it’s Lent and I’m not sheltering under the Sunday rule 🙁
It is only unlucky for the other 13 🙂
Gillian on 09 Mar 2010 at 7:14 pm #
still no imbibing – what a good boy you are Richard
If only you were a woman………..
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/8555461.stm
Richard on 10 Mar 2010 at 8:39 am #
Not sure I have the legs for it, also would have rather a rough cheek for the odd peck, I suppose that could be 16 pints.
I must say that glass of wine looks very small to me.
Perhaps I’ll stay as I am with all my faults :)………………x (oh that’s rough)
I wonder if Peter’s friends mind being called ‘old’?
Peter on 11 Mar 2010 at 8:06 am #
Don’t know about the odd peck – but don’t go hiding your light under a bushel (but then that would be 4 pecks – unless you live in Winchester, when of course it would be less)
Richard on 11 Mar 2010 at 8:14 am #
I thought Winchesters were quarts.
Gill McIlvenna on 15 Mar 2010 at 10:37 am #
I’m not sure that M&S actually improves the hospital. They haver done the same at my regular – St Georges. Along with putting out of business the florist and a largish usefyl, have everything you need in hospital, shop. Theyve also removed all the drop off space, painterd red ines and generally reinforced my thesis that all the place cares about is targets, ticking boxes and earning from the outlets, car park and the concession that one minicab firm has with them. I’ve sugested they rebrand the place as ‘Shylocks New Labour Hospital’. So far, the ‘hole in the wall’ space has had the notice ‘cashpoint coming soon’ above it dor a year. Be grateful that you are not there!!!
Gill
Peter on 15 Mar 2010 at 2:26 pm #
It has certainly improved St Thomas’s! Prior to the refurb was a WH Smith (selling indifferent sandwiches – apart from the usual stationary and books) and the canteen (which was only slightly up the scale from hospital food on the ward.) The refurb has retained Smiths, put in place the Simply food, and a couple of other outlets, and it does look rather more appealing – and the competition might get the canteen to improve too! Now if only they could wave the magic wand over some of the other dingier parts of the hospital!
Gillian on 15 Mar 2010 at 8:59 pm #
you can borrow the wand any time you want Peter, but I think you might need a bigger stick……
xxx Gillian xxx
Richard on 17 Mar 2010 at 7:22 am #
Peter, Gillian seems to be offering you the use of an early, prototype, non functioning boomerang 🙂