No sleep till Brooklyn!

Well, chemo has slowly dragged on.  It hasn't made me feel bad particularly.  I've been tired and not wanted to leap tall buildings in a single bound but the previous CHOP chemo made me feel worse.  The rub here is that you are wired up 24/7.  There are 4 lots of a drug called Cisplatin that you get for 96 hours, accompanied by loads of fluids (as it is a bit of a nasty sucker to your insides if let loose on its own).  Now, the annoying thing about constantly getting fluids fed in, as I've gone on about before is that they start to bloat you out unless you can get rid of them.   They give you some drugs to help get rid of them, but it's an ongoing drudge.  Anyway, the 96 hours is getting near to an end and my grumpy mood (obviously noticeable as my wife has bought me a Mr. Grumpy t-shirt.  Thanks love).  Also, both a plus and a minus are the large steroid doses used on this chemo.  Plus side, I've always responded well, so yay there.  Downside, if they are given late they can stop you sleeping.  Mine were given late, as the infusions were going on so long (on and on and on...!  You can tell I'm not the most patient person in the world).  So, first night, no sleep, just mad thoughts that wouldn't go away.  You think of one thing and go off on a tangent and then another and then another, until you pull back and think "I WANT TO GO TO SLEEP!" and then a thought about sleep, e.g. a film that had sleep in the title comes to mind and away you go again.  Thankfully, I seem to have adapted and was able to sleep okay last could of nights, apart from the regular wakings up to pee in bottles (all urine out has to be measured and compared to fluid in, to make sure it's not welcome to bloats-ville).

That's fluids aside, ooh, lovely fluids.  Or so you'd think!  That brings me to blood.  Apparently my red count was getting low, which would help explain why I was getting tireder.  Now, I really appreciate people who give blood (and I'm glad I got over my cowardice and did myself, before getting ill), as I have now been a recipient (sorry to upset any Jehovah's Witnesses that may have stumbled onto this page, but blood transfusions are the least you've got problems with!  Wow! That was a bit harsh.  A brief aside.  Whilst at home, between treatments two 60+ year old JWs came round to convert me, after hearing their arguments I gave counter arguments to their claims and they were not very happy that I did not just gleefully accept their rather "intriguing" version of the way of the universe.  Have a look at their beliefs, I was amused.  Perhaps I'm over stepping the mark now and should get back to business).  Anyway, I was told I would need a new little cannula poking into my hand as my other 2 lines were busy.  Joy!  A new hole and a hand I can't use properly.  They said as soon as the blood is in we'll take the cannula out.  Cool!  I thought, so that's not so bad.  

"How, long to put the blood in?", I asked.

"About 2 hours, 4 at max"

Blimey, I thought to myself, that's a fair while.  My thoughts were interrupted though...

"Per pack and we're giving you 3"

Lordy!  Upto 12 hours to shove some blood in!  And it ended up taking longer.  Man, this blog is turning into my personal rant zone.  I'm sure earlier posts were all happy and positive and talking about flowers and trees and other crap.  Rah!  Mr.  Grumpy is in town!

Hospital, Chemo, Hospital again

So, I once again had a high temperature, had to go to A&E, wait around for hours, get xrayed, tagged and poked, I was admitted. My temp went up to 39, then after numerous different anti-biotics it dropped down to normal.
I was in from Tuesday till Friday (Chemo day) and seemed pretty good on friday, so they said to go ahead with chemo 8 of 8 (yes, final CHOP). Chemo went okay and I was told that I could go home but had to come back in on saturday and sunday for an anti-biotic injection. All good.

So, I went home, came in on Saturday. Felt pretty good for a post chemo day. I then went in to hospital later and they took 3 goes to get a canula in, ow, then I did the anti-biotic and went home. Then Sunday came along. Not so great. I woke up and felt rubbish. Spent all day in bed with my stomach doing loop-the-loops and feeling ill. I checked my temperature and it was 39, so it was back to hospital. They still had my bed free, ready for injections, so back in I went. There I remained until today.
Free again, free again! The taste of creamed potatoes still is stuck in my mouth and the smell of disinfectant lingers too, but I'm out and feeling okay. So there you go. Chemos done, got a Rituximab to have in 3 weeks and then my first scan. No more CHOPs, hooray and hurrah!