Peter’s Hospital Diary

And it was off to London, bright and early, for my fortnightly consultation with Linny. I also saw Florence – who you will remember is one of the Haematology specialist nurses and who gave me lots of encouragement when I was feeling a bit despondent after the 23 March PET scan. (The first one after the transplant that showed the presence of the active Lymphoma – the ‘first point on the graph’).

The consultation with Linny lasted about 15 minutes, and really just concentrated on how I was feeling and the GvHd. We did discuss the progress of the GvHd, which is possibly getting to mild chronic phase, but should eventually run its course. Meanwhile the next PET scan has been ordered for about six to eight weeks’ time.

After the consultation I returned the surplus drugs to the pharmacy (given the value, and the fact that they will just be destroyed, I did briefly consider e bay!) and then went over to St Thomas’s for the “Cancer and Complementary Therapy” conference.

I described my aromatherapy massages in some January and February blog entries, and a few weeks ago Kim (The aromatherapist) asked me if I would speak at the conference to give the “patient perspective”. There were about 150 delegates at this conference (the first hosted at St Thomas’s) and the subjects covered topics such as the growth of the Complementary Therapies Service (particularly aromatherapy) at St Thomas’s, through to professional qualifications and drug/aromatherapy product interactions (specifically the essential oils used in aromatherapy.

I spoke for about 10 minutes, together with another haematology patient, and I think our talks were well received! Thre conference was supported by Dimbleby Cancer Care (formerly the Richard Dimbleby Cancer Fund – I have updated the link on the right) and Greenwich University, who run degree courses in complementary therapies.

So a good day – although it was somewhat ironic that I was talking at an aromatherapy conference when my sense of smell is still impaired! Oh well! 🙂

Off to light the BBQ and continue the Pimms’ testing!