Today, the weekend and bits of thread

Hello again!

Well, the weekend was pretty good. My wife and I got away for the day, to belatedly celebrate our anniversary. The kids were taken by their aunty to see Kung Fu Panda and then stayed the night with the grandparents. So it was cool, we got to go out, lounge around, eat and be merry (didn't mention drink, as I have been told not to have more than 2 units a day, due to the evil clot. Boo!).

I was still a bit vague on Saturday but so much better than Thursday and Friday when I was in my drink/pee repeat cycle of fun.

Friday I had to attend the jolly anti-coagulation clinic. This involved: going to hospital (late, because trying to get kids ready and them not complying, also we had no working shower as it had been ripped out to fit new one), trying to park at hospital, being unsuccessful trying to park for ages, finally parking, joining the queue to have blood taken (big queue but anti-coag clinic people get priority, but there were a fair few of them anyway. Glad I wasn't a normal blood letting punter, they must've queued for ages), get called in and have a needle stuck in and rummaged about a bit to find a working vein that isn't made of leather, go away and wait for 40 minutes while the blood is tested (sit down and eat cake. Yay!), hang around main reception until a quietly spoken nurse mumbles your name which you just catch before she wanders off, follow mumbling nurse, join clinic queue, wait, get called into an office, get told your blood is not behaving and you need more daily injections, get told to come in again Monday for more blood testing, go home. So not too bad.

Saturday, we needed to go out, but the nurse had not arrived to give me my injection, so I got brave. I had been shown how to self-inject but wasn't especially enamoured by the idea. But, we needed to get moving or we'd be late, so I got the Fragmin syringe (called a pen for some reason. Nasty spiker would be a better name. Pen sounds so innocuous, perhaps that's the idea), stared at it for a while and then with shaking cowardly hands stuck it in. I did a double take as I looked at it sat there buried in me. Strangely it didn't hurt and was quite straight forward to do. So, I pressed the plunger and grinned at myself for not being such a chicken.

Sunday, the nurse came over to give me my other injection (GCSF). I can do this myself too, but it's a bit more involved and needs mixing and messing about with but the nurse is going to teach me how to do it, then I don't need to wait around for them to call.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot. When the nurse gave me an injection the other day, something bizarre happened. The needle went in, the plunger was pressed, but when she tried to take it out, it was stuck. She had to pull and tug on it, looking bemused and somewhat unnerved. Finally it came out. It looked like it was stuck on a hair, but on closer examination, it looked more like a piece of thread. I pulled it out later and it was some sort of thread, about an inch long. How it got under my skin, I have no idea. Kind of worrying. Perhaps the tumour has set up a sweat shop in there, knocking out cheap T-shirts and stuff. Anyway, it freaked me out somewhat!

Post chemo blood test

I had a good weekend. I felt pretty much my old self. My two sisters, Chris and Jane, came to visit on saturday, along with my brother in law Peter.
We had a good catch up and then went for lunch at a pub down the road. My appetite is good and my weight seems to be holding around the 14 stone point.
We had a good lunch and chat.
Chris stayed over and it was a good job too. On sunday we needed to nip to A&E as my wife was having a few problems following an operation she had had recently. My sister took the kids into town and to the park whilst we sat on the nasty plastic A&E seats, waiting (expected waiting time 3 hours, great). Luckily Sam was given priority and we didn't have to wait for too long, but it wasn't quite the sunday afternoon we had planned.
Today (Monday 25th), I needed to go in and get a blood test done. I didn't have to return to the hospital where I was getting treatment but could nip to the local hospital (5 minutes walk away). You turn up, get a number and when you're called go and have some blood taken. A bit like the supermarket's bacon counter (appart from the blood letting bit).
The nurse doing the blood letting was not in the chirpiest of moods, so I made it my mission to get her laughing. Okay, perhaps she has heard it all before, but I reckon it must be hard work for her to take blood from miserable person after miserable person (pretty much everyone waiting for their blood testing looked like they were waiting for execution). Anyway, we had a laugh with each other. She promised to use a new sharp needle with me (rather than the same old blunt one I accused her of using to save money) if I promised not to recommend her to my friends if they ever need blood taking (so she didn't get too busy).
Chris walked to the hospital with me and after we wandered back and got some lunch. She had intended to stay over and look after me, but as I was feeling so good, she decided to go and visit a friend who was in a bad way with cancer of the spine. I dropped her at the train station and later she called me to say that within an hour of getting there, he had passed away. He was in his 80s, but a really nice guy and his family were mainly out the country as it was his son's wedding that weekend. How worse could the timing be.