Peter’s Hospital Diary

I hope you all had a pleasant bank holiday weekend! The weather here was variable, cool on Saturday, sunny on Sunday and variable on Monday. Today started warm and dry, but it is looking decidedly overcast at the moment. Still, it was warm enough to get out into the garden and cut the grass, and I finished running some data cables round the house.

Not a lot to report health wise; I fell good and although my sense of taste hasn’t fully returned, it does seem to be getting back to normal, and my appetite has improved considerably. We went out to friends for dinner on Saturday, Gabor (the ‘John Peel’ of Hampshire – have you visited his podcast yet?) and Caroline – which was very enjoyable! Good menu choice Caroline!

One slight concern has been some swelling of my ankles during the day – particularly the right one, which was the one that used to swell up while I was in hospital because (we think) an enlarged lymph node was affecting the drainage – long term readers may remember me remarking on it at the time. Anyway, I rang Guy’s this afternoon and spoke to Linny (consultant) about it. The feeling is that it is either fluid retention or ‘leaky tissues’ caused by the GvHd but given the results of the recent PET scan, it is unlikely to be anything more sinister, which is reassuring! There are other symptoms of the GvHd returning (although not as bad as before) which lends weight to this theory! Anyway, I don’t have to go up to Guy’s before the next check up on the 8th. As for the GvHd, my skin is still very dry, and although the cracking on my hands is slowly healing, I am now getting cracking and splitting on my feet! But still a small price to pay!

The other bit of news is that the radiotherapy appointments have been put back. This was because I missed the original appointement, and so everything has slipped a week. I’m actually quite pleased as it means I will have the next check up before the radiotherapy might have started, and it will be closer to the expected date of the next PET scan, so the decision could be deferred until after that. While I’m all for giving the lymphoma a good kicking while it’s down, I don’t particularly want the radiotherapy unless I have to. We shall see!

Finally I was reflecting (again) over the last few months, so I thought I would post a recent photograph – taken today..

which you can compare and contrast with this one…

taken on 5th February! (Bit worrying that I appear to be wearing the same clothes… they have been washed in between times!) Biggest change seems to be the hair!

Onwards and upwards! 🙂

Tags: GvHd