Its the Cancer Kid , with my latest news/blog/Court Circular/whatever...
After a tiring weekend, I'm back on good form today, having got nice and tired staying up to watch the Masters Golf last night, which meant I had a good sleep.
We went to Addenbrooks today for my pre-chemo checks, and a chat to the doctor about the whole jolly process. There does seem to a lot they can do to mitigate a lot of the side effects, and where they can't, it doesn't seem that there is any lasting damage to worry about. I'm not worried about all that anyway, given that the alternative appears to be being a bit dead.
I'll be having three weekly visits to the hospital for the IV bit of the chemo, and daily tablets for the other bit. I'll also see them a day or so before the three weekly visits to have tests to monitor how I'm doing and make any adjustments to the doses if needs be.
I know that there is a good chance that I will feel rough at times, and probably be pretty grumpy about everything, so please bear with me. It's Christina that will be taking the brunt of it all, so if anyone needs support, it's her more than me. But, she is from good Kiwi stock, and as 'tough as', as they say in NZ, so best left to deal with it all her way.
I now have about a zillion books to read, including a small print, 1,056 page version of Gibbons Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, so I'm going to have to hang around for a while to get through them all.
Take care
Tony
15th April 2013
Dear All,
Here we go with another exciting instalment of Tony's Adventures In Cancerland.
So, Wednesday was the day for my first dose of chemo. I have been very keen to get this started, so that I feel like I am doing something positive to attack the bad cancer cells. I wasn't nervous about it (at least not consciously), and I knew all about the possible side effects and the IV process.
Sitting in the waiting room, waiting for my appointment, I suddenly started to feel a bit hot. Christina wisely said I should put my head down as this was a sign that I was about to faint, like I did when we first heard the news. Being a bloke and obviously knowing better, I decided that I need to go and put some water on my face to cool down, which was about the worse thing I could do apparently.
As I got back, they came and called me in for the treatment. As we walked down the corridor, Christina told them about me being a bit wobbly, so they directed me straight to a bed, rather than a chair.
This was a GOOD thing, as once I was lying down, I proceeded to get much worse. My nurse who was going to deliver my chemo went and got the cavalry. They took my blood pressure which should be 120/80, but it was down to about 55/40, which was a BAD THING.
Apparently, I had a matching face and t-shirt, which were both a pale shade of grey. They pumped some fluids into me and hooked me up to an ECG machine and various other toys, and gave me some oxygen.
By this time, I was beginning to think that it was a bit serious, although I didn't feel like I was dying like I had on my previous little incidents. This all took about 45 minutes to get me back into shape. Meanwhile, Christina is sitting in the side room wondering why she married me...
Luckily, I had recovered well and they decided we could carry on with the treatment. That all went pretty much as planned, but because we were late starting, most of the staff had left about 30 minutes before the end of the session, leaving us with the two senior nurses, was obviously are left to clear up the waifs and strays. So, we had the entire ward to ourselves. Towards the end, when the were putting the last bit of gunk in my arm (some magnesium and something else), I started to get hot again and was having some pain. We managed to get through that ok and finish all the dosage.
They gave us some kidney bowls in case I felt sick and we toddled of to the car.
I was feeling OK, but then suddenly decided projectile vomiting would be fun. Luckily, I was holding the kidney bowl, so I manage to avoid decorating the car.
I got a fairly good nights sleep, although I woke up in a lot of pain in the middle of the night and had to telephone the ward for advice, which is what they want you to do. All good this morning, and we just got back from the GP laden with half of the local chemist's stock of pain killers etc.
I'm still not sure why I have these fainting spells, but I think it must be a suppressed anxiety.
If I could understand why it happens, I could probably avoid it. Still, I always managed to be surrounded be medical people when ever it happens.
Now I have my daily tablets to take as part of the chemo, and then we are back in three weeks for the next cycle.
Watch out for the next exciting instalment...
I'm going into purdah now for a quiet couple of days.
