Steady as she goes...

As the days pass now my blood counts will be hitting the low levels before slowly crawling up to the level needed for chemo 2. The good news is that things have stayed at a reasonable or manageable equilibrium over the last couple of days and with care and attention I should be in good shape for chemo 2. Symptoms include wobbly tummy (I will spare you the detail), mouth sores, sore gums, and night sweats (currently going through 2 pairs of PJ's a night as eventually I start to chill). The mouth issues are just annoying, I have mouthwash and other things to deal with this and I am not letting it stop me eating. This morning Lee noticed how thin I had got as I was getting changed, sadly not so much having a smaller tummy more just general loss of body mass as I have dropped from 13st 6lb to 12st 8lb in ten days, despite eating pretty well and good healthy food. So I am working away on the mouth stuff, eating as much as I can, and resting when I feel I need it, which is quite a lot.

On Friday I returned to my old haunt of the haemotology outpatients department, area 2. Kirsty and the team were all there, these are the nurses who administered the AVBD chemo the last time I was being treated, and they were genuinely disappointed to see me back. I am now a "veteran" in their terms, as most folks are cured of Hodgkins on the first pass, so it is unusual for them to see one of us back again. The reason for the visit was blood sample taking and maintenance of my Hickman line, both went smoothly and I was back home inside the hour without any problems. I will be back in again on Tuesday, then on Friday and then the following Tuesday, while on Wednesday I will visit the specalist blood transfusion team at a different hospital who will be responsible for getting my stem cells out later in the sequence after chemo 2 has been completed.

Normal life is also continuing along with many small projects to sort out electrical systems in the new bits of the house, sorting out of books and papers, putting up pictures on the newly painted walls etc. So far I have done hardly any of this type of stuff, as I have not been very well, sleeping and watching movies has been the majority of my time consumed. Hopefully this week I can start to make some progress in these other areas.

One thing is for sure is that the Aston Martin is going to make its first serious progress into emptying my wallet, its going into the garage for its service as part of the warrenty runs out on the 3rd of Feb and it is a year since it was fully serviced (I bought it with the existing warrenty from the last owner still with four months to run). I have an air bag light which is sticking on and these guys charge about £100 an hour just to look at the car, so I am bracing myself for the bill. Hopefully with the warrenty still operational any big stuff will be covered by that.

So sore mouth, sore bottom and sore wallet - a bit of pain all over, but in reality things are manageable and I can potter my way through to chemo 2, if this is the worst it gets, it will be no problem.

Best regards from a stormy scotland, beautiful Mozart clarinet in the background, chicken cooking for sunday dinner in the oven - all is good with the world here, I hope it is with you too.

Cheers

Gerry