Thursday 24 September.
Here we are just back from 11 days in Spain. Well - the best-laid plans went astray! I had the horrid Neulasta jab on the Thursday after chemo and started taking the pain relief straight away. Didn’t have any bone pain over the next few days at all. Having played (gently) in the mixed invitation at LGC and felt a bit off by the end of the day I threw stuff into a bag when I got home and called it ‘packing’.
I was very tired by about 9 pm and went to bed, as we had to be up at 3.45 am to catch our 6.25 am flight. When I woke up I felt awful. Incredibly tired and with more of the ‘bleugh’ feeling than I had experienced before. I managed to get in the taxi but was feeling even worse when we got to the airport. The flight was a nightmare – I kept falling asleep but every time the cabin crew came with food or drink I woke up feeling queasy. Suffice it to say that I really don’t remember a lot of the trip. I fell asleep on the plane, in the baggage hall, at the car rental counter, in the car on the trip to La Manga Club and finally on top of the unmade bed in the apartment. Basically I stayed in that bed for three days. I couldn’t eat much and had poor C running around finding things that I thought I wanted like crunchy nut cornflakes (not available) and apples (something I rarely eat). I slept most of the time but had a really upset stomach and I am not sure if that was the Taxotere, the Co-codamol or the Senokot. Spain was very hot that first week so we kept the air conditioning running the whole time. I’m not sure what I would have done without it. Eventually I emerged and started eating again and by Thursday was able to play a bit of golf but had to have a ride on Scooter. By Saturday I was fine and firing on all cylinders although I looked whiter than i have ever looked out there before - I was slapping factor 50 sun block on because chemo really makes you sensitive to the sun. The rest of the holiday was great with some lovely food and great wine (Yes, I could taste it).
The golf was a bit patchy but was just coming right when we got to the last competition yesterday. Sods law being what it is, we got rained off and had to go out to lunch with the friends we were playing with instead. Such hardship!
The whole thing has taught me that after the next and thankfully last chemo session, I will simply take paracetamol and give in gracefully by crashing for those crucial days – probably Sunday to Wednesday.
But I do have a little treat in store…I’m off to Venice with a girlfriend on 22 October to celebrate no more chemo!!
The wig behaved perfectly and managed the heat without any problem. I was impressed.
Thursday 24 September 2009
Thursday 10 September 2009
10 September - Fifth chemo
Thursday September 10. Yesterday was the fifth chemo session. All went OK apart from a blown vein on the first attempt to get a canula in. Thank goodness I only have one more to go…we are running out of decent veins.
I had a long chat with Dr S about side effects. He didn’t want to skip the Neulasta jab because of the risk of the White Blood Cell count being too low during our hols and also not good enough for the last Chemo session so I have agreed to have it again but with some heavy-duty pain relief starting this afternoon just after I have the injection in about 40 minutes time. Hopefully this will work although the pharmacist has warned me that I will need to take large doses of laxative to alleviate the side effects of the pain relief – so on it goes!
The other thing of note during chemo was another visit from the pastoral care chap who told me that he wouldn’t be around next time I came as he was leaving. Naturally, being a polite sort, I asked why and he confessed that he was about to become a Roman Catholic priest. Apparently, he is a Church of England priest but has become confused about C of E doctrine and isn’t sure what he is supposed to believe in. I’m not sure if the RC church is any clearer as they seem to go through as many crises of faith as any other system of organised religion. Still I wished him luck – I hope he isn’t married. I forgot to ask.
Looking forward to going to Spain on Sunday. I will try and get an update onto to blog while I am away.
The wig is looking forward to the trip and has been making some mysterious preparations!
I had a long chat with Dr S about side effects. He didn’t want to skip the Neulasta jab because of the risk of the White Blood Cell count being too low during our hols and also not good enough for the last Chemo session so I have agreed to have it again but with some heavy-duty pain relief starting this afternoon just after I have the injection in about 40 minutes time. Hopefully this will work although the pharmacist has warned me that I will need to take large doses of laxative to alleviate the side effects of the pain relief – so on it goes!
The other thing of note during chemo was another visit from the pastoral care chap who told me that he wouldn’t be around next time I came as he was leaving. Naturally, being a polite sort, I asked why and he confessed that he was about to become a Roman Catholic priest. Apparently, he is a Church of England priest but has become confused about C of E doctrine and isn’t sure what he is supposed to believe in. I’m not sure if the RC church is any clearer as they seem to go through as many crises of faith as any other system of organised religion. Still I wished him luck – I hope he isn’t married. I forgot to ask.
Looking forward to going to Spain on Sunday. I will try and get an update onto to blog while I am away.
The wig is looking forward to the trip and has been making some mysterious preparations!
Tuesday 1 September 2009
1 September - Feeling Fine
Tuesday 1 September - Feeling fine again. I think chemo is a bit like childbirth…you forget the horrible bits very quickly. That said I am still going to ask Dr S what we can do to make the side effects from the next one a bit more bearable for going on hols.
It’s been a busy few days. From about Wednesday last week I started to recover quite quickly even to the extent that I could taste a glass of wine on Friday…..those who know me well will take this an excellent indicator of my state of health!
I had a bit more time on my hands that day than I expected as my laptop crashed in a rather spectacular manner and as I was working from home there was little I could do. ….our IT team were very good and did eventually get me access to my e-mail via my home PC. In the meantime I caught up with some friends for lunch and managed to see Mr P for a quick consultation about another little ‘complication’ from the surgery. A few weeks after surgery I noticed a tightening in my upper left arm. This became quite painful and thin cords started to appear just under the skin running from my armpit to my wrist. This is called axillary web syndrome (AWS) and occurs quite often after the type of surgery I’ve had. The ‘cords’ are part of the lymph system that seem to harden after surgery. In my case it has improved a great deal and I now only have a few ‘cords’ and a funny lump on the underside my upper arm, which is getting smaller but Mr P wanted to check it out. The upshot is that it is fine. I wanted to mention it because it is quite common but little is known about it and some people apparently find it very distressing. They shouldn’t. I did some research into it and the acute phase when there is some discomfort or pain is very short and specialists agree that it does resolve in nearly every case after about 3 months.
One of the rather odd things that happens with AWS is that if you stretch your arm, as I do in Pilates classes, some of the cords will snap. This is a very weird feeling but also brings significant relief.
The rest of the bank holiday weekend was busy with golf, an eighteenth birthday bash and the first anniversary of a bookshop owned by a friend - Barton's Bookshop in Leatherhead. He had invited Prue Leith to cut the birthday cake and sign some copies of her recent book. The cake was fantastic…even Prue agreed. She is a delightful lady and I really like her book - called Choral Society. I recommend it.
The wig continues to thrive.
It’s been a busy few days. From about Wednesday last week I started to recover quite quickly even to the extent that I could taste a glass of wine on Friday…..those who know me well will take this an excellent indicator of my state of health!
I had a bit more time on my hands that day than I expected as my laptop crashed in a rather spectacular manner and as I was working from home there was little I could do. ….our IT team were very good and did eventually get me access to my e-mail via my home PC. In the meantime I caught up with some friends for lunch and managed to see Mr P for a quick consultation about another little ‘complication’ from the surgery. A few weeks after surgery I noticed a tightening in my upper left arm. This became quite painful and thin cords started to appear just under the skin running from my armpit to my wrist. This is called axillary web syndrome (AWS) and occurs quite often after the type of surgery I’ve had. The ‘cords’ are part of the lymph system that seem to harden after surgery. In my case it has improved a great deal and I now only have a few ‘cords’ and a funny lump on the underside my upper arm, which is getting smaller but Mr P wanted to check it out. The upshot is that it is fine. I wanted to mention it because it is quite common but little is known about it and some people apparently find it very distressing. They shouldn’t. I did some research into it and the acute phase when there is some discomfort or pain is very short and specialists agree that it does resolve in nearly every case after about 3 months.
One of the rather odd things that happens with AWS is that if you stretch your arm, as I do in Pilates classes, some of the cords will snap. This is a very weird feeling but also brings significant relief.
The rest of the bank holiday weekend was busy with golf, an eighteenth birthday bash and the first anniversary of a bookshop owned by a friend - Barton's Bookshop in Leatherhead. He had invited Prue Leith to cut the birthday cake and sign some copies of her recent book. The cake was fantastic…even Prue agreed. She is a delightful lady and I really like her book - called Choral Society. I recommend it.
The wig continues to thrive.
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