Tuesday: into Hamwic House for the blood sample, counting down to the next chemo cycle, only a few minutes’ waiting then the business and then home. Before three hours passed I get a notification mail that something has been added to ‘My Medical Record’, which turns out to be the PSA result: down from 12 to 9.4! That may not seem much to many, but I have been quite anxious that following the fourth round of chemo and my day-to-day condition thereafter it might just indicate a worsening of the cancer, but this reading suggests I might be wrong, and I’ll take that, [until I learn more]. We’ll have the telephone call from a clinician on Wednesday, normally followed the next day by the drip treatment, maybe I’ll find out a bit more during the call.
Sure did! Apparently, my consultant will change soon, the first contact is likely to be the telephone clinic before the sixth cycle, in 21 days’ time. Reminded the clinician about the anti-emetic and the steroids they give me on drip day, … all systems go then! Next up, to register this morning’s LAC-test with NHS online, [negative, thankfully].
A pinch and a punch for the first of the month! Thursday, appointment time 08.30, so no hanging about, hit the road. Blue Chair no. 2, then the dreaded waiting starts, and this time it’s down to me! We quickly realise I had forgotten to take the pre-treatment steroids [12, 3 and 1 hours in advance] so they mixed up a cocktail for me to take through the canula first up. Next, they couldn’t find a vein that would co-operate, they were too busy playing hide-and-seek. A, my clinician for the day, tried left and right hands, both taking time to first swaddle in hot pads, and even an old-fashioned bowl of hot water, but after making two fails she had to get another staffer to have a go, apparently, they’re only allowed two attempts. Her colleague ‘bulls-eyed’ closer to the wrist, first time. Both of them were very apologetic, but I said the fault must surely lie with my veins.
This period coincided with my not getting a decent sound feed from my IPod via the headphones: too quiet and treble-biased to be listenable [by picky me]. By 10.00 the problem is resolved, put it down to operator error, and the playback set closer to the stun level. By 10.15 I’m hooked into the main event, Docetaxel, so will get a flush in about an hour, then 15 minutes of Zoladex Acid, then the final flush through. I should be on my way by midday.
The poor, wee girl in the Chair opposite also had scaredy-veins, and when two staffers had both failed with their two attempts, they decided she would have to have an appointment for a PICC line to be fitted. She looked a bit distressed when she left, much more than when she came in.
During the treatment A asked me about side effects, and I briefly summarised how things went after cycle 1 & 2, how that changed with 3, then the further differences following the fourth. Lumping them together like that made me realise it's all a bit random, therefore it’s hard to predict what will follow this one.
Home before 12.30, feeling quite chipper, so Di gave me an anti-emetic and we decided to go out for lunch, at Hamble Point Marina. We sat outside on the terrace, midst yachties and wannabe-yachties; Di chose a Marinara Linguini, while I went for a blue-cheese, smoky bacon Burger with fries – no point in having something on the ‘cheffy’ side because of my malfunctioning taste buds. All good, although they stiffed us with the drinks’ prices [same everywhere now], Di’s plate was really loaded with fresh shellfish.
By 17.00 my ribcage was really aching, [the analgesia is going have to play catch-up] and reminiscent of the bad state I got into one-day-post-chemo with the first two cycle treatments, a very rapid turnaround from earlier today. I’m going to stop chronicling now, and will add something tomorrow, for your information.
Here it is, still slightly aching yesterday bedtime, I eventually fell asleep, fitfully awaking on and off from 06.00, but finally shooting out of bed at 09.11 because we had to collect the Maybush girlies for their September visit by 10.00. Felt tired in the morning, improved in the afternoon, then the ribcage aching kicked-in again teatime to early evening, and we're playing catch-up once more. It’ll be interesting seeing what other differences in the after- or side-effects there are, how random or predictable.
