Well,nothing happened for a while - then yesterday the phone rang - the mainland hospital offering me dates - a rehearsal on 7th June followed by 2 weeks of PICT, 5 days a week, once daily, from 13th June..... ........so all systems are go. I wonder if they had a cancellation or if it's always this way? It all seems very quick,suddenly, after a couple of months wait. It's short notice to find accommodation in a tourist area - but have covered all but 2 nights now between 2 cottages and a B&B. There's a hostel for islanders attached to the hospital - but I can't do it - I'm allergic to the cleaning materials they use - and I wouldn't do it anyway. My last radiotherapy was in conjunction with chemo and I needed my own space, for certain.
Next week, when I go over for the rehearsal, I also have an out patient appointment with my consultant...... so a nervous time will follow this post - I guess we all go through that one.
Some good news - I mentioned intracranial headaches earlier. The literature would have you believe that you might have a headache - take paracetamol. Well, I can very firmly tell you that this isn't likely to work with this type of headache, since I broke my neck as a youngster and was for years afterwards suffering from them. They are the worst possible headache it's possible to imagine. You can't (or I can't) think, walk about, hear, see with them. When I read that these could be a side effect, I very nearly decided against having the PICRT.
Fortunately, I very rarely indeed have one of these headaches now. When I aired the worry that PICRT might bring them back with my consultant and said that the 'pat on the head' attitude of the literature I'd read was part of my distrusting all the other information, she agreed that mild pain killers would be completely unlikely to help - and said that I should have been taking steroids all those years ago. Well, a fortnight ago I had to have some minor surgery under general anaesthetic - I guess it's difficult to look after a neck that's been broken when the owner of the neck can't tell you how to do it due to being unconscious - anyhow, I had one of the monster headaches the day afterwards. Decided to try out the steroid idea - and yes, found that hydrocortizone 20mg shifted it beautifully. So that should be alright - though ideally I'd just rather not have them at all - the headaches or the steroids!
More another time
Debbie
