On the 15th of March - this was my second chemotherapy session. We were due to see Dr T. at 9am so arrived for bloods at 8am as per the advice on the letter we received. We landed there and I had my bloods done by round 8:10 so waited for my appointment. At 9:15 we were called through to the room by a nurse where I was weighed again. Soon after a doctor came through - not Dr T. and asked how I had been since my last cycle. I explained that I had had no side effects other than a little peripheral neuropathy which he seemed confused by where it was.
He was not aware that I had had a scan so I asked for the results, he came back through saying 'the tumour has responded to the treatment'. I wasn't sure what he meant so asked 'is that good? Does that mean it's shrunk a bit?' He said yes. We were both really pleased by this, first bit of really good news that we have had. I asked the doctor whether I would be heading through to treatment straight after that but we were still waiting for my bloods to come back.
We waited back in the waiting room for someone to call and let us know whether I was ok for it. We text lots of people to tell them that we had had some good news and the tumour had responded to the treatment - whilst we had no exact measurements, anything is better than nothing. Lel emailed Dr T.'s secretary whilst we waited to see if we could get some more definite details about how it had changed, turns out Dr T. was on holiday for the week, hence us seeing someone else. I was quite sad as I liked him and would have been happy to see him again. Around 25 minutes later, one of the nurses came and called us over, putting my records into a bag for us to take through to Oak Road centre. My bloods were apparently fine.
We headed down to Oak Road to the reception and handed my notes over. They suggested that we go to Maggie's for a while as 'an analyser was broken' so it might be a while. This made no sense to me as apparently my bloods had already been checked before we went over there but I didn't mind going to Maggie's. After 20 minutes or so, I received a phone call from one of the nurses who called us over there for my chemo.
We headed back to Oak Road and upstairs where I was seated and asked for a heat pad for my hand in order to raise a vein. Having had this on for around 10 minutes, the canular when in much easier than last time and much less painfully. I warned the nurse that I had slow veins and she said she was actually having to slow it all down!! The treatment only took half an hour for the whole session this time, unlike the hour it took on the first occasion. Before leaving, I was given my other lombustine and procarbazine to take at home, as well as my antiemetics.
On going home we headed to do some shopping and did some basics then headed home for the evening. I took my lombustine and procarbazine before dinner, ate and had no nausea feeling or anything of the sort. At 8.45 or so I headed up to bed as it had been an early start for both of us. I got to sleep no problems at all.
At 1am on the 16th I woke up feeling really hot and sweaty and very very sick. I headed to the bathroom and threw up once before going downstairs to get some anti-sickness tablets. I got back up to the bathroom and as I did so I saw Lel had the bedroom light on. She came in to see how I was, and as I sat on the loo saying I was going to throw up, she started to say 'you're not going to throw up' at which point, I violently vomited into the sick bucket at the side of the toilet. There was blood in my vomit and I was scared by this so I asked Lel to go and get the Christies card from downstairs as I thought I needed to call them. I spoke with a lovely lady on the phone who told me, given the blood in the vomit that I needed to go to A&E and that she would call them in advance to warn them that I was coming.
As Lel drove us down, I was sick another twice in the car and as we got to A&E I got Lel to walk me in, leaving the car outside. I booked in and the took me straight through to triage where I explained what had happened and that I thought that this was my own fault and I pretty much knew what had caused it however I was scared because there was blood in the vomit. I suggested to Lel that she park and come through to the where they were going to take me in A&E. The triage nurse took me through to the HD area of A&E, getting me a red tag on my way through.
At around 2.15 someone came through to take my bloods but we were then left alone for around another 2 hours. At 4 or so a nurse came in and put a bag of plasma-lite on a slow drip through my arm after putting an antiemetic in through the canular. Until this point I had been sick every half hour or so as well as going to the loo a couple of times every hour. Around 5am, a doctor came through and said my neutrophils were low, down to 1.1, and they should be between 3.4 to 8. He suggested a chest x-ray and requested a urine sample saying that they would be likely to keep me in for a day or so and do another blood test the following day to see if the count had increased. Just before he came in, a nurse came in and put a high dose of antibiotics through the canular to try and prevent any infections. Once the antiemetic kicked in, I started to fell better. It felt like a switch had been flicked and I no longer felt sick at all, it was incredible. Until that point I had been retching or throwing up to the extent that I just wanted it to end.
The drip bag was going through really slowly, at around 6 or 7 another doctor came in, listened to my chest, discussed my sickness then told me that they were going to take me through to the ward soon, onto the haematology ward where there was the only side room available left - due to my chemo and low white cell count I needed to be in a single room so in a bit they would move me through.
Round 8am another doctor came through, the consultant from the haematology unit who said they would speed the plasma up, then put another bag through. He was happy for me to go home when the bag was through then come back the following day for another blood test. He seemed very practical and said if I felt ill, I should come back to hospital but to head home one the bag was finished with some extra antiemetics.
We left hospital around 10.15, getting home to the dogs that Emma had so kindly fed and let out for us in the morning at Lel's request. I went through and took my next dose of procarbazine with some antiemetics, took my temperature and went up to bed. Lel brought me my hot water bottle, cold water and I fell asleep soon after. I wanted her to go to work for the day but had no idea then she left as I was fast asleep, possibly round 11. I woke just before 2 but refused to move apart from the odd bathroom trip.
After being so ill and bringing up food from breakfast, lunch and dinner I knew I didn't want any food similar for some long time! I asked Lel to get me some GF white bread on her way home from work as I knew I would be able to eat toast but wasn't sure about much more, and definitely not lentil pie for some long time (nor would Lel sadly and it had been her favourite!). Lel got home round 5.30 and seemed very awake still, lord knows how she was so with it but she was incredible as usual! She took the dogs out, fed them then went for chips for herself. She returned, I had toast, she had chips and we watched a bit of TV. At 8 she fell asleep on the sofa, I left her until half past when I woke her to take the dogs out. I took another antiemetic before heading up to bed.
We both slept really well, I left Lel asleep until the alarm went at 6.30. We got up and after an easy morning headed to hospital for my blood tests doing at 10ish. At 1 today I had a call from a doctor telling me that my neutrophils were lower, down to 1 and my white blood count at 1.8 so rather lower than they should be. He suggested I get another blood test next week at my GP so I will give them a call later in the day or early next week. I'm a little worried about being at work next week with them being quite so low however I will have a discussion with Lel tonight about it and see what we decide.
