Anyway, firstly the most important thing! - A massive thank you to Phil and Lottie for doing a sterling job in clearing my uni room out on Sunday. I owe them both big time after all this is over!! At the very least an awesome steak dinner at The Old Mill or Miller & Carter! They definitely deserve it considering how much stuff I've managed to accumulate! Also, thank you to the fam, Phil and Ellie for keeping me sane and coming to visit so often - you're all too kind!! Even when all I do is sit here looking sorry for myself!
In addition, if you haven't seen already, my sister is doing something incredibly stupid/brave/courageous and throwing herself out of a plane (with parachute attached mind) to raise money for Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research. She aims to raise £2000 and is amazingly over half way to achieving her target! Please support her, and get her feet safely back on the ground by visiting her JustGiving site - every little helps :) https://www.justgiving.com/Lottie-Haynes/
I also said in my last post that I'd let people know about contacting me, etc. If anyone would like to contact me at the hospital, the address is: Georgina Haynes, Bed 7, Teenage Cancer Trust Unit, The Royal Marsden Hospital, Downs Road, Sutton, Surrey SM2 5PT. In addition, if you wish to call me, best download the Viber app, as signal is appalling to say the least! Otherwise, generally, unfortunately due to my neutropenic state I cannot receive flowers or food gifts unless specifically individually wrapped, etc. and if you would like to visit, please do call ahead as I have good days and bad days, and am not allowed to see anyone with a cough/cold/sniffle/stomach bug/who has recently been in contact with young children that have been ill with things like chicken pox etc, so please let me know if you are at all concerned and I will check :) At the moment I'm not seeing a huge amount of people until I have some kind of idea of how the chemo is going to go, so please also don't feel offended or rejected if I'd rather just vegetate.
Anyway, the hospital update!
Monday was a fairly interesting day in as much as I had a MUGA (Multigated Acquisition) scan, which for people like me who don't have a clue, is where they inject you with some radioactive stuff that attaches to your red blood cells, and then scan your heart so they can see if your heart is pumping your blood properly. Sounds pretty dam fancy if you ask me, seeing as all we have in the vet world is an echocardiogram really! Well and fluoroscopy if we want to be fancier. The process was all going well, however, until a poor woman crashed in the waiting area in between me having my injection and waiting for the scan... That was mildly terrifying, but thankfully the lady was treated extremely quickly by the absolutely amazing staff at the Royal Marsden and able to be admitted. Never a dull moment when I'm hovering around it would appear - I think I'm starting to get a reputation...and not necessarily a good one...
Tuesday brought with it it's own surprises too, despite it supposed to be being a 'quiet' day for me... I had confirmation that I am Philadelphia negative, which is fantastic news as it would otherwise have undoubtedly meant I needed a bone marrow transplant. Other specific mutations have also been ruled out, which could have affected my treatment plan too, so that is also fantastic news so far!
The slightly less fantastic news through all this though are the side effects of the chemo of course. The intrathecal/lumbar puncture has brought with it insanely irritating headaches, which will only go away if I lie down... This is a normal occurrence apparently, and especially common in young people, so prior to tomorrow's next one I've had a huge amount of fluids and will inevitably get more afterwards too now.
Blood tests are a daily occurrence here, as you can imagine, and due to the effects of the chemo, I had to have more platelets and my first packed red blood cell transfusions yesterday.
Me and my first pRBC transfusion, and Ellie here feeling like a vampire it would appear :P
This all went smoothly, and I did feel a bit better for it - but still the headaches pester on...
Today involved being yet again mildly radioactive, and having to have a Glomerular Filtration Rate test. Basically, they inject more radioactive stuff, and take blood samples 2, 3 and 4 hours afterwards, and then measure something (?) to check how my kidneys are functioning. My bloods today came back with low platelets again, and seeing as if they're below 20 I tend to get nose bleeds, I had some more today. They need to be above 50 for the lumbar puncture anyway, so why not give me some pre-emptively :) I also appeared to have low calcium, so in addition to the normal tablet concoction I received some 'nice', 'chewable', 'lemon-flavoured' calcium tablet supplement - oh it's all fun and games here! Bleugghh, especially when your tastebuds are now refusing to work properly!! All that I could eat today that actually tasted how it was supposed to was treacle tart and custard - not bad I grant you, but miserable none the less - especially when water starts to taste like cardboard :(
Anyway, I best get some sleep, as tomorrow involves a hefty day of being stabbed in the back with needles! I have another bone marrow aspirate to endure and another chemo lumbar puncture! See you all on the other side!! :)
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