Day 22

A very long day.

First a bit of background. Following my first treatment, we were told to report to the Hospital for a blood test. We had an appointment to see Dr. Cave(the Oncologist) at 1010 this morning. So we were told that if we presented ourselves at the Pathology Department in the morning we would get priority treatment. However they also told us that about visits to A and E. When we had to go in following the urine infection we were not given any priority. I didn't trust the system to work for the blood test either. Consequently we turned up at 735 and guess what I was given priority.

The Hospital has a reasonable cafe with reasonable prices. So we decided to have breakfast there. We had a full English, a bad mistake for me. I hadn't eaten very much when I felt the most horrible pain or burning sensation in part of the Gullet. I am sure many of you have had pain at one time or another. I tend to find that if you know that something is going to hurt your body helps you although the pain remains real. In this case it was totally unexpected(out of left field).

When we saw Dr. Cave she was unaware of our visit to A and E. She admitted that Chemotherapy hunts out the body's weak spots and it was clear that waterworks are my problem. She has prescribed some antibiotics to take from next week after the chemo had had a chance to kick in. The pain she thought was more to do with indigestion. I had some Gavescon and thankfully the pain has gone away. I was asked if I had noticed an improvement in digestion and I had to say no though interestingly if she had asked me that question a week ago I would have said yes. The recommendation was that the chemo would continue.

By this time it was about 11.00AM. We went to chemo unit whilst the prescriptions were sorted out. We sat in the waiting room for an hour and then went to allow the arm to warm up as they put it. Consequently the actual treatment started at 1.00 and finished at 430. It was slightly easier this time I suspect because having been through it once you kind of know what to expect. The one good thing to emerge from the day was that having a pee at the end of the treatment was much easier than it has been for the past week.

We got home about 5.00PM. Poor Ev was exhausted. Up early and making sure all the presciption stuff was in order and checking that I was okay. Honestly I don't know what I would do without her. It makes you think how someone on their own in this condition would cope.

When we got home we checked in our folder where the Hospital said we would have a complete record of what had been done, blood test results etc. However the folder had no details of the blood test results from today so the record is incomplete. That set us off remembering we had a card which we were told to present to A and E which clearly stated why we had to have priority treatment. This was ignored and we had to wait in a room full of people who may or may not have germs. It made us wonder what the point of giving us a folder with incomplete information actually was.

Tonight I am feeling okay. My left arm feels like it has a lead weight on it but if that is like last time that will pass in a couple of days.

Looking forward to going to Poole tomorrow and a reminder my next blog will be on Thursday. Finally one or two of you might wonder why no mention of Football(Soccer). I hate to sound pretentious but there are readers on this blog who live in Canada, United States of America and Australia whose interest in the round ball game isn't that great.