So... I finally get my bed in Lowan Ward, I'm sitting here waiting for the "hydration" phase of the treatment to begin at midnight. This is a fun 12hrs of IV saline and other bits and bobs that make you pee... a lot. I guess this is to flush your system and prepare or internal organs for the chemo.
chemotherapy should commence at noon tomorrow allowing my to leave 'Chez Chemo' with my four day pump on Friday, all being well. Okay, short term marker... get well for Christmas day. I'm so exited to see the kids open their presents on Christmas morning. They both fully understand and embrace the whole Christmas thing now as they know exactly how it all works. The good behaviour leverage that's been created in the last month due the fact that "the elves are watching you" has been increadable. We have the best behaved kids right now and all thanks to the "elves".
It was difficult to put them both to bed tonight. I mentioned to Joel while I was tucking him in that Daddy will be going back to see the doctor tonight to get more specilai medicine and I'll see him again in two sleeps. He replied "you should just stay here with me forever"...what do you say?
Cerys was in a similar place, but expressing it in a different way. As I've said before, it's difficult to realise the scale of the impact sometimes, and it makes it all the more difficult to be trapped in here right now.
Although, I was greeted by a friendly nurse who ushered me towards one of the side room. Its a large room,one bed, clean without stinking of bleach with a television... great. I go for a look around the ward for some familiar faces, there's none. One of the nurses say "are you looking for someone?", "yes, my mate Stephen"... "I'm right in front of you ya bugger" calls Stephen. Stephan is a south African bloke in his mid fifties suffering from an acute throat cancer that was discovered when he was admitted to hospital after nearly choking to death in a Padstow restaurant. He began his first round of Chemo a few days before me and was in the bed next door to me on my first round. He is an ex merchant seaman and solidly refuses that the chemo could every make him feel sick due to his years at sea.
The reason I didn't spot him was because like me he had opted for the full hair loss "shave down", gone were his Captai Birdseye silver hair and beard, replaced by crew cut and clean view of his chin! We had a good to catch up and compared notes about the effects of our first run at it, and i can aslo claim my Lance Arstrong book back (bonus!) It was nice to see him. Aside from Stephen the ward is full of new faces, all of which with different inputs of chemicals reaching into different body parts via clear plastic tubes. There is a strong spense of camaraderie in here, it's quite and unspoken, but is acknowledged through knowing nods and slight smiles.
Since if been riding my bike so much over years I have noticed as serious drop in my resting heart rate. This was made apparent during the first observations from the first round. They like you to have a resting heart rate of betweenn 60 and 100bpm. I was coming in at between 64 and 67 bpm, "do you do a lot of joggin" one nurse said, "no, but I get about 70+ miles a week out of my mountain bike", "that explains you low resting heart rate". I'm not really one for stats and figures when riding, it's nice to know how fast and far you go each ride, but I've never been into logging or traing using heart rate monitors... leave that to the serious cats! However it is really nice to see that a by-product of all that fun is a good level of fitness.
I have just had my first round of observations and my resting heart rate was 110 bpm! I didn't understand how this could be, I'm sat motionless in bed. My temp is fine and so is my blood pressure... weird! The nurse asked me if Im taking any medication. I was given a steroid to take in large doses 24hrs before the chemo, I told her..."I bet your really hungry too", I flashed back the pizza and Sunday combo and the Kit Kat and five Jaffa cake I guzzled down a few minutes ago... yes a hungry fells indeed! I just tought I was making up for lost ground from last weeks purge. Ive lost nearly three kilos over the last few weeks be it through illness or stress im not too sure, but one thing is certain this week my appetite has been on fire!
"oh, and by the way, what time did you take the last dose of steroids?", "about two hours ago", "okay, I wouldn't expect to sleep tonight either", great- so nice to be informed of this when the drugs are issued. So late night blogging live from "The Chemo Hotel" tonight. All good fun.
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