One Down!

Tuesday Well, the PITA has gone but I have to admit it had settled down the week before the treatment started! I think this was due to the fact that I stopped taking the lactulose and was prescribed movicol. It was a bit like a miracle after 3 months of continuous pain. I had forgotten what it was like to sit straight and square on my bottom and not resting and shuffling from one cheek to the other every few minutes or so! Even going to the loo was almost painless and certainly that awful burning sensation that went o for an hour or so after the event has gone! Bliss! Probably will return as the radio gets to work I suppose but don’t think it can be any worse than the pain I was in. I haven’t got round to blogging for a week or so as I have felt absolutely bone weary and bushed over the past week. I know people talk about fatigue but I didn’t think it would start this early on! I am also used to working full time and this doesn’t help I think, as sitting down and just reading all day or watching TV isn’t me, except when I am on holiday! But I have given in this week! The reading and watching TV or even listening to the radio have been difficult. I just haven’t been able to concentrate long enough to do that sort of thing! I’ve managed to get through the daily paper eventually, a page at a time, and by that I mean literally read a page put it down close my eyes and dream off for about 5-10 minutes than move on to the next! Reading my book was a definite waste of time as I didn’t seem to be able to take anything in! Mornings were the worst even after a relatively good nights sleep despite the worry of my ball and chain satsuma getting kinked and not working or me pulling it out in my sleep! I was also felt a bit sick first thing in the morning but the tablets they gave me did the job. Just took them bd for the first two days and then stopped and after that no problem. Taste was a bit altered at first but enjoyed cold melon an sharp fresh lemonade, went right of coffee though and believe it or not haven’t even been able to face a glass of wine!!!! This for me is a miracle! I am sure the couple of kg weight I have lost has been solely due to not having the alcohol! I am drinking copious glasses of ribena light though to keep myself hydrated! The district nurse was very warmly welcomed in on Saturday evening 6.30 to detach me from my ball and chain once the chemo had finished. It was quite reassuring to check on it each morning and at the end of every day to see that it was slowly and surely deflating as the drugs filtered their way into my system to do it’s job! But I was never so glad to get it off! Now free of chemo till week 5 in 3 weeks time. Started the prophylactic antibiotics yesterday and have to take these for 8 weeks as apparently the drugs I am on knock out my immune system for 4 weeks after finishing the infusion ( hence no repeat cycle till week 5 ). Also been told I am not allowed to get a take away or go out to eat in case someone with a bug has prepared the food. Not that I am feeling much like a good curry or a pub meal at the moment! Friends came to stay for the week I was on chemo and ran me to and from the hospital which allowed hubby to go into work for 4 days. He took me the first session. The friends were great and Josie took on all the cooking which was a great help as I just wasn’t up to it at all last week. This week I am feeling far more human and even managed 20 minutes pulling weeds in the garden yesterday! The daily radiotherapy so far is great. There are 6 linear accelerators at Maidstone and I am usually in LA5 or LA6! The waiting room is modern and airy with plenty of magazines and a large TV screen on the wall playing sky news! After checking in at reception and walking down the waiting room it is usually only 5 minutes before I am called through to the treatment room. In fact yesterday we arrived checked in and by the time hubby and I had walked down the corridor my name was being flagged up on the TV screen and the computerised voice was calling me straight through! How is that for Service?! This was despite the fact that a sign on reception said LA6 was running half an hour behind! It was a good job I hadn’t stopped off to the loo on the walk down. The teams in both LA5 and 6 are very welcoming and friendly and the treatment is done and dusted in 5 minutes and then we are on our way home again. 2 hour round trip most of which is driving and looking for a parking slot! Monday, yesterday, I was supposed to have my first chemo clinic appointment with the Consultant Oncologist. The clinic was running an hour late by time we got there for a 12.30 appointment. In the end I was seen at 1.30 by the Radiologist instead. She asked if I had had any side effects from the chemo and I explained all about the emergency trip to the Kent and Canterbury over Easter the tiredness etc but happily reported otherwise I had been fine. I told her that so far I had no effects from the radiotherapy but was slathering on the E45 etc as instructed religiously. My bubble was burst when she said ‘Oh you wouldn’t have done yet! It will probably start to get a bit red by the end of this week’ so it looks as if that ‘pleasure’ is still to come! Bloods done radiotherapy managed to fit me in early and as I said before I was whisked straight in. Spoke a bit too soon I think, as at 10 last night when I dragged myself up off the settee to go to bed I was struck by really bad tummy gripes and a quick dash to the loo only making it on time! Had a bad bout of diarrhoea which lasted for about an hour or so but seems to have settled this morning, thank goodness. Not sure if it is the treatment or maybe the antibiotics which I had started taking that day. Today my neighbour kindly drove me too and fro and even he was surprised how quick and efficient the whole process was. The weather is so glorious and I have enjoyed sitting outside and falling asleep for an hour or two each day. Beats working! My beautiful daughter and granddaughter are coming this weekend and I am so looking forward to seeing them. Alice is 18 months old and so talkative already stringing sentences together. She is so funny and always lifts my spirits. One week down 5 to go!