Well what a day!!!!
Today mum has had blood tests, x-rays, ecg's and ultrasounds.
Blood tests have come back that her blood count is low at the moment and put the number 60 (whatever that's meant to mean) on it. Apparntly if it drops as low as 10 or if she starts showing signs of any infection they will do a blood transfusion.
Because of her low blood count now she needs to be extra careful not to pick up any infections of any kind.
I think now the seriousness of having a demolished immune system because of the chemo is finally sinking in with mum.
The chest x ray that she had done today has come back that the cancer in the middle of her chest is shrinking slightly although the next ct scan that she has (on 9th August) will show more definitive results. The words 'your x ray looks encouraging' are such a nice sound to the ears.
The ultrasound - well this is something else!!!. Mum had been complaining that her right foot keeps going numb and white, (as white as a corpse she tells everyone when she's describing it)
The cancer unit decided that it would be best to send her for an ultrasound, this has shown something that could be quite sinister, a blood clot.
Apparantly when someone has cancer the blood becomes thickened, then chemo thickens again and then because mum was so dehydrated after the first session of chemo this also causes the blood to thicken, this combined with years of smoking and narrowing of the arteries, has caused this blood clot.
They have given her some statin cholestrol drugs alongside asprin to try and thin out her blood and will review the situation the week after he next cycle of chemo.
All in all we were at the hospital about 7 hours.
I cant believe the amount of walking and pushing her about in her wheelcahir I have done.
First, we went from car park to cancer unit, for blood tests and consultation with oncologist.
Then we were told that the scan and x ray might not be able to take place until 1pm so we went for a walk and saw my car had been given a parking ticket! A whopping £60, obviously I was furious, I wheeled mum at high speed over to the other side of the hospital to track down the appeals office, to where I was told that I had to appeal in writing.
Taking Mum back over to the cancer unit she said "you do know Im not strapped in this chair dont you?"
Well Ive no idea how fast she thought I was going to wheel her around!
When we got back to the cancer unit they performed an ecg, then told us we could go over to the x ray unit, which incidentally is on the other side of the hospital.
After waiting a short while Mum had her x ray and we returned to the cancer unit. No sooner had we entered we were told that the ultrasound at the vasicular studies was ready for her so could we make our way over there, guess where that was? Just upstairs from the x ray department! SO again we did the trek accross the hospital. Mum said that my way of wheeling her about was not disimilar to the ghost train, especially when I come to get her through doors backwards.
We were seen pretty fast and I went in and watched as they scanned her legs. You could see, even to an onlooker that as the scanner (not that disimilar to one when your having a baby) went further down the leg the artery was narrowing and blood supply wasnt as it should be, this became more apparant when they did the non problematic leg.
We then headed back over to the cancer unit where we had another consult with the oncologist who viewed her x rays and told us the news about it shrinking.
He then told us that he was going to get a vascular surgeon down to obtain his opinion over the 'dead foot'
We seemed to be waiting an absolute age. Eventually the man came, an oriental man, who was very abrupt in his approach but very funny. Definately a no nonsense approach! Fantastic!
I asked if mum should undress from the waist down and he replied, rather cheekily, 'no Ill do that myself in a little while'
he asked mum a series of questions about any other medical history to which mum has always been healthy, he did stress that he was going to ask her specific questions and be very thorough and in return he wanted straight forward quick answers. Mum still did her thing........... "well, I was in the bath and I noticed............ blah blah................been about 4 or 5 days now..........." not the kind of quick fire answers I think he was expecting.
After his conculsion about the diagnosis he precscribed the drugs and yet again we went accross to the other side of the hospital to the pharmacy for the drugs!
While we sat in the pharmacy waiting, mum commented about the vascular surgeon, and said he was quite frightening and that she could picture him with a samurai sword ready for her to get her answers wrong, I then said 'ooo what was that programme?......................Kenco, thats it". After a short pause I corrected myself........." Tenko!!!!"
Good grief, I went off laughing, crying and wheezing to the point where the pharmacist came out to see if I was ok.
I think after 7 hours in the hospital, pushing mum backwards and forwards, getting a parking ticket for something I hadnt done, Just all added up to bursting point!
I did say to my sister this last might that I was concerned as mum appeared to be a bit jaundice in my opinion, to which my sister informed me that mum had just been at the tan wipes - 20 for £1 so looks like mums just gone a bit crazy with them.
