Peter’s Hospital Diary

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”