Peter’s Hospital Diary

Sorry I haven’t posted during the last week, however internet access has been patchy (although I have checked for comments) and the course has been VERY intensive, stating at about 8:30 and not ending much before 6pm each day, with revision and reading in the evening. However it has been very interesting. The second week ends with an exam, so it will be equally intensive!

However, this weekend I am staying with my parets, and going to a school reunion dinner this evening. I have been to these before (the last one I went to was 2 years ago) but it will be interesting to meet up with some of my fellow pupils from that era! (Not forgetting that we did have that imptomptu lunch in May – here) I hope I’ll have some more to post later!

Onwards and upwards!

3 Comments »

…another vist to Guy’s! This time the main purpose was for a follow up to the oral clinic, but before that I popped into the haematolgy department to discuss the DVT issue. No much to report there except that the recommendation would be to stay on the injections of heparin (moving to a lower dose after a month) rather than go onto waafarin, the rationale being that there is a much lower requirement for blood monitoring. I did of course have to give a little blood (what sort of visit to a haematolgy department would it be without?) but I had to go up to the day unit again. Lots of old friends, Nicky (formerely of Samaritan ward where she and the ward manager, Liz ran a terrific outfit!), Karen, another one of the nursing specialist team, and Sarah, formerly of the chemo section of Stanley ward (now closed) where I was treated about 4 years ago.

The oral clinic came and went! My mouth has been a bit sore this week after my visit to the dentist, but the advice was to keep on with the steroid mouthwash, but discontinue the anti-fungal (unless the saliva sample shows anything untoward, so after a trip to the pharmacy, I was on my way home.

I was also supposed to meet Simon (who was one of the BT broadband campaign team, and who has commented here in the past) but his meeting over-ran. Simon – those beers will be warm, flat and stale by the time we get to drink them!

I am off on a two week training course on Monday (on an obscure aspect of computer science), so internet access is a bit uncertain, at least until the weekend when I am nipping up to see my parents and go to a school reunion dinner. But overall things seems to be going well, so….

Onwards and upwards!

2 Comments »

A mixed sort of day news wise! I didn’t mention it at the time but about 8 days as I was sitting at my desk at home, I noticed a pain in my calf, just behind my knee. I didn’t think much about it and put it down to sitting with my leg crossed over the other knee, and expected it to pass. It didn’t, and so this morning I went to the Doctor’s for an opinion, with Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVT) lurking at the back of my mind. Clearly it was lurking at the back of his mind too, as he referred me to a DVT clinc at the local hospital, and a scan did indeed show that to be the case – so I am now on daily injections of an anti-coagulant (Clexane a “low molecular weight heparin”) perhaps for 6 months, although there is the possibility of changing that for warfarin, which is taken orally. A tad tedious, but it is a bit like injecting the GCSF. These drugs ‘thin’ the blood to reduce any risk of build up while the normal body processes dissolve the clots in the veins.

I did a little research and posted a link to a very informative BUPA factsheet. It is in the links and also here.

I note that they recommend that people on anti-coagulants should not drink cranberry juice! I wonder if the same reasoning applies to acai berry products? 🙂 I must dig out the fetching white support stockings too!

So that is the not so good news. The good news is that I rang Guy’s to check that the DVT treatment was OK, and spoke to Sala (senior reg). As it happened ther PET scan came up in conversation (came up as in “Sala, what about the PET scan results?”) and the rtesult was good – no sign of disease and I am still in remission, so anyone with fingers/other appendages crossed from last week can uncross them (and make sure you don’t have a DVT!)

So the good news more than outweighs the not so good – which is really more of an inconvenience. I will need to be careful in future, and I’m not sure how that will affect my fitness for diving, but time will tell.

No more pics of Olivia at the moment. She did come over at the weekend, but wasn’t a very happy bunny. I think she is cutting more teeth (3 at the front now) but she is showing every signs of walking soon. Her crawling is interesting though – she pulls herself along with her arms – a true ‘infantry’ crawl.

So, onwards and upwards – and pass the syringe!

8 Comments »

PET scan! I was somewhat surprised to get a text message in a meeting yesterday to say that St Thomas’s had phoned to see if I was available for a PET scan today at 1:40pm. I knew that one had been ordered (as I said in the post after the last visit) but I was expecting it at the end of October or early November! So it was a quick trip to work this morning to re-arrange my diary and then it was up to London again.

The PET scan itself was much as before, a minor change in procedure in administering the tracer (to reduce the exposure to the staff) but otherwise much the same. I did reflect that I would like to meet the designer of hospital gowns, so I could shake him warmly by the throat, but I think that whenever I have to put one on!

After the scan I called in to see Margaret, the unit director, but sadly Sally, the radiologist, was out (I did look for you, Sally). It was then a quick walk to Waterloo and the train back home.

I’m not sure when I will get the results – my next check-up is in October, but I’m sure I will hear if there is anything sinister!

So with a few digits crossed – Onwards and Upwards!

Tags: PET Scans

2 Comments »

Just a quick post to mark the end of the school holidays for youngest daughter, Rachael, who has an important day today. No only she is 17, and her shiny new driving licence comes into force, but she starts at 6th form college in Winchester after achieving a spectacular set of GCSE results (including an A and a B at AS level).

Well done Roo – have a great day!

Onwards and upwards!

3 Comments »

Well, up to Guy’s really, and again pretty routine, bloods followed by a chat with a consultant. My weight is up a couple of pounds since last time, haemoglobin a fraction under 12 (so that is up) and creatinin (kidney function) about the same. Other blood counts were all good so things are improving slowly but steadily! Best of all, no unexpected (or unwanted!) lumps and bumps! I will be having a PET scan in the next couple of months for a deeper look at things.

I bumped into Sarah (of like2like fame). She was looking stunning and really well! keep it up Sarah!

I have had a bit of skin itching, so popped up to the day unit (a while since I have been up there – not since 1 February when I had the donor lymphocytes!) to see Sala (who has been mentioned on the blog before – a senior registrar) for a closer examination and some swabs. While I was up there I bumped into Tammy – the stem cell scientist – and Nicky from Samaritan ward. It was also good to see Rachel, another member of the day unit team.

After that it was back onto the train for the trip home. And back home were Olivia and Vicki, so it was time for a quick photo or two. There are a couple more in the gallery, which I have just tidied up a bit. The latest album is August which is on the second Olivia album page.

So it was a good day all round – even the weather is good, warm and sunny!

Finally, Happy Wedding Anniversary Mum & Dad!

Onwards and Upwards!

3 Comments »

It is lovely sunny day here, but still that edge to the air heralding autumn! Time to start thinking about bringing in the bourgainvillea and the lemon tree – which is looking much healthier now than it was earlier in the year.

There isn’t much to report for the last week. My mouth has responded to the fresh course of mouthwashes and is much better – just a couple of sore spots, although lack of saliva still causes some problems on occasions. My weight is slowly creeping up, with about 3 pounds gain in the last month. I have just ordered some more scandishakes and have a cupboard full of the stuff (and a desk drawer at work!)

I haven’t liberated the next lot of photographs of Olivia, or sorted out the photogallery yet, it is on my ‘to do’ list!. Olivia stayed with us on Saturday night. She was a little fractious (and was sick!) but after she calmed down, she was very good and only woke once in the night. She is at the interesting stage where she can meaningfully interact with things and people and I think that it won’t be long before she is walking! She can ‘walk’ provided both hands or arms are held, as she hasn’t got the balance yet, but it isn’t be far off!

I have done a little more software tweaking on the web server, but mainly how system generated e mail is handled, so it won’t have any visible effect on blog performance! It continues my Linux learning curve though!

Anyway, I am off to the west country for a couple of days, then up to London for a check up on Thursday. The next few weeks are quite busy, and we have booked another week in France during the last two weeks in October, so…..

Onwards and Upwards!

4 Comments »

It was a lovely sunny weekend, not without its events, but I can’t help noticing that there is that little edge to the air that heralds the arrival of autumn. Still, there is always the chance of an Indian Summer, and a long autumn is not an unpleasant prospect – evocative of bonfires of leaves, smoky afternoons etc. I suppose I need to think about bringing the lemon tree indoors! Still, the lawn was cut (I managed all of it in one go – perhaps more evidence of increasing strength and stamina, although my weight remains about the same) but on Sunday, I was cleaning my teeth when I felt a wobble – and a crown with a large chunk of tooth fell out, leaving some sharp edges! A quick call to to the dentist, followed by an equally quick trip soon got the edges filed down. This is a tooth that was scheduled for extraction anyway, and now that I can see the junk that came out, I can see why! I wonder if that was harbouring a source of infection that has been affecting my mouth. The mouthwashes that I picked up on Friday are now kicking in, although Saturday was a bit uncomfortable.

Vicki brought Olivia over at the weekend, there are a couple of photos, which I will post later, but Vicki also has some which I will put into the gallery when I receive them!

On the computer side, the migration to a RAID array went well. I have installed an array controller, so the array appeared as another disk drive (although it is two drives, mirrored) so the process was similar to the one I went through a few months ago when I replaced the last hard drive for a bigger one – but having done it once it was much easier! the new drives are SATA2, so the system should be a little faster and more responsive. The system was down for about 30 minutes over the weekend, and then about 90 minutes last night when I physically removed the old drive and physically installed the new ones (the longest part!) so apologies to anyone who got the “server unavailable” message.

End of geek speak! On the health front, things seem to be back on track with the mouthwashes now kicking in. The next haematology check up is on the 6th, with a visit to the oral clinic on the 20th!

So – Onwards and Upwards!

10 Comments »

Those of you that read the comments regularly will know that there are little subtexts going on, and a couple of weeks ago Gillian (a fellow campaigner for broadband) mentined riding on bananas, which prompted comments from Richard (another campaigner) asking for photos! Gillian has obliged, although she failed to send one of herself! Thank you Gillian – it looked to be good weather for it.

And it looks to be good weather this bank holiday weekend too. A chance to beat the garden back into submission and see if there is any fruit on the trees. The fruit tress seem to have done reasonably well this year, unlike the vegetable patch that performed miserably, not helped by the plague of rabbits we had this year!

I may also do a bit of tinkering with the webserver too. In geek speak terms, I am looking at replacing the singlee hard drive with a RAID array, using two drives, one mirroring the other so that if one fails, the other can continue working. (RAID 1) This is becoming more important as the computer is acting as a general server in the house, as well as hosting the blog.

On the health side it seems as if I spoke a little too soon about my mouth, which since I finished the course of mouthwashes etc, has become sore again. I have just got some more from my GP, and I will change my toothbrush in case that was a source of re-infection. But apart from that – all is well!

And finally, congratulations to Vicki who passed her driving test today – so Olivia will be even more mobile!

Onwards and upwards!

4 Comments »

A few weeks ago I said that I was wondering about renaming the blog – it certainlty seems as if it should be renamed “Olivia’s blog” as she features so much – and she is so cute! 🙂
My parents were down for a visit this weekend, the first time for a few weeks, and Vicki brought Olivia over. The pictures speak for themselves – Olivia with my Mother!

The weather was pretty miserable, but we did get out for a short walk on Sunday. I actually felt quite tired during the weekend, I have been slowly putting in longer hours at work – getting in earlier, but it is a warning not to overdo things (or perhaps go to bed earlier!

Olivia and Vicki were visiting today while I was at work, but Vicki took this photo (and a couple of others, which are in The gallery in ‘The Latest Oloivia Photos”. They will be moved to the August album at the end of the month

Healthwise my mouth has continued to improve. I have now finished the various mouthwashes, so I will be checking to make sure it doesn’t become sore again. However I am finding that my jaw aches, probably because I am chewing my food more thoroughly and the muscles aren’t used to it! My appetite is better too, although I am still having a scandishake with my lunch.

So we continue… “Onwards and Upwards”!

8 Comments »