Peter’s Hospital Diary

And I have just been looking back at the archives, this time last year I had also been to Guy’s – two weeks after I had been discharged – and I note that I had referred to bacon sandwiches again.

However, we are a year on, and so it was the well worn path again. I went up on my own by train, just to prove that I can, and I had no problems – in fact I even managed a little dash (about 20 yards!) to the train at Waterloo East. (In fact the station staff are so keen to get the trains away from there, I’m surprised they bother to let them stop at all.)

But I digress – how did the visit go?

Well it was a small clinic – I arrived at 9:15 for my appointment, and I was the first person there – the next didn’t arrive for about half an hour. The (only) doctor on duty was Rob (the specialist registrar) Linny is on holiday, the others were away, so Rob promoted himself to consultant for the day! It was good to see him, it’s been a while since we had a chat.

Anyway, the news was both good and bad. First the good news… Rob couldn’t find any enlarged lymph nodes, and as he put it, “with my current weight, they wouldn’t be hard to find”, he also remarked that my mouth mucosa looked a lot better, and that the delay in the healing of that little ulcer was probably due to the radiotherapy, but it should continue to heal, although it is slow. No sign of GvHd, but it is only 3 weeks, the average is about 6, and in some cases it can take up to ten weeks to appear, so back to ‘watch and wait’.

And talking of weight, after seeing Rob, I went to see Orla who weighed me, and this is the bad news, I have lost about 1.7Kg, so I had a chat with Rachel, the dietician. Fortunately she didn’t suggest a naso-gastric tube (this time) although she thinks I should have had one before the radiotherapy as she thinks most of the problems were caused by that. She does approve of my diet, but thinks that while I have enough calories to keep me going, as I become more energetic and active, I’m not eating enough to start putting on body weight, and for my height, I should be at least 69Kg, and preferably up in the high 70s. So her recommendation is to continue the supplements (scandishake – which gives 600 Calories) and try another one called Calgen, which gives an additional 400 a day.

The Calogen is described as “a long chain triglyceridefat emulsion” – mmmm sounds appetising, and comes in butterscotch, banana and plain varieties. The plain one can be mixed with other foods, the flavoured ones can be mixed with milk, the scandishake or drunk neat! 90ml gives the required 400 Calories.

I haven’t tried it yet, but as start, I supplemented my M ‘this is not just food’ &S lunch of a Duck in Hoisin sauce wrap with a toasted cheese and ham sandwich when I got home. Tonight we have cassoulet which is pretty calorie dense, so I’ll try the supplements tomorrow.

Back at the ranch, Olivia is visiting, and was in fractious mode again, although she eventually settled as is now asleep. Actually I fell asleep while I was rocking her pram, so perhaps my gentle snores sent her off!

So that is it for today – overall good news, so …. Onwards and Upwards!

(PS – Forgot to mention – another little step – I enjoyed a chinese take-away last night (but too soon for a curry!)