Peter’s Hospital Diary

It was with a sense of Deja-Vu that I woke up this morning – on Stanley word, a floor above Samariatan, but immediately above the isolation rooms, and with a misty view over St Paul’s, and the final touch – the sound of pneumatic drills coming from the car park!

But to backtrack…

After I rang Guy’s yesterday, and then getting the call back to come up and see them, I cleared my desk, and got up here for about 2:30 in the afternoon for admission to Stanley Ward. Stanley ward is a general oncology ward and I was last on it in the Summer of 2004 when I was having chemo prior to the second autologous (self donated) transplant. At that time it was decidedly tatty, but it has now moved to a completely refurbished floor and looks very smart!

After the customary form filling.. (Q. Can I walk unaided? A. Only up to the 6th pint. Q. Do I need help washing? A. Depends who is offering! Q. Do I need help undressing, dressing?, dressing etc? A.
Only after the 6th pint)

I then saw my consultant, Linny on her ward round. It has been a couple of weeks since I last saw her and she was somewhat shocked when she saw the enlarged tonsil! (I won’t repeat the exact words!) She then returned with Dr Kazmi, who having seen me last week was less surprised. However both agreed that the immediate task was to relieve the acute symptoms with a course of IV steriods, as it is clear that the disease is progressing faster than the GvHd is developing. The other suggestion was to start taking the Thalidomide (which I had left at home – it is on its way up now with Felicity who is coming to visit)

So I had the first infusion of Methyl Prednisolone last night – not the best time as it can make sleep elusive, but I did actually have a relatively good night apart from the observations! (ah – the observations – just when you are really drifting off!)

There are some more lovely staff here – I must mention Claire and Angela, the two staff nurses who have been looking after me, and Melissa, the Oncology SHO, who is from Washington DC and did her Medical training there at George Washington University.  We had a good chat about Wahington (many of you will know that up until 18 months ago, I was a frequent visitor to an office there.)  We also talked a little about my medical condition, and in between times, she put in the canula. (I won’t tell, Melissa, if you are reading this!)

This morning I feel well. Carol the phlebotomist has just taken blood from my other arm.  The swelling has gone down quite a lot and my voice feels stronger.  However while this has alleviated the symptoms, it has done nothing to treat the underlying disease, and from the treatment point of view it is a retrograde step because of the limiting effect on the GvHd and GvL, so I it is likely that I will have additional treatment to de-bulk the disease before having another go with the DLI.

I am writing this on the ward internet terminal.  However when I came to log on to post this morning, the site had attracted (and caught) some spam.  While this wasn’t visible, the firewall must have seen the titles, and promptly blocked further access, so I am having to use a webmail client to e-mail this to friend Mark, who will copy it to the site!  Thank you Mark!

So onwards, and I hope upwards, although at the moment it feels a little like “one step forwards, two steps back”!  Still, once the immedfiate problem has been sorted, we can get on with the treatment!