Friday at 8am - Sam and I headed of to the RAH to be there by 9am so they could do a blood test to match my blood type and order my blood. They had originally booked me in to have my transfusion at 1pm but said the results should only take an hour or so to come back so I could wait and they would change my PICC line dressing while we waited so I don't have to come back on Monday! It took just over 1.5 hours for the results to come back but it was just easier to stay there and wait then go back. My transfusion started just before 11am and finished at around 3pm. This brings my total of bags to 19! I remember my first one like it was yesterday, it terrified me! I must say it did get easier as time went on, but I still never felt comfortable with them!
Before I left I asked them to print off my blood results from the test I had the day before, I don't usually ask for them, but thought it would be interesting to see. My platelets were only 35! No wonder my nose has been bleeding when I blow it, nothing major though! My neutrophils were only .63 (normal 1.8-7.5) so I was advised to stay home over the weekend as I am at a high risk of getting infection with a count that low. I took their advice as I don't want to spend a week in hospital right at the end of my treatment!
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| Bag number 18! |
I technically haven't finished chemo as I have a 21 day cycle, so the END is this Sunday 11th August and hopefully after that I can start to feel better.
My muscles have completely deteriorated and I struggle to walk far or stand up for more then a few minutes. This is from the steroids that I have been on. Also my heart rate is erratic so walking a short distance from the bedroom to kitchen makes me feel like I have run a marathon. My hands and feet are still numb (called Peripheral Neuropathy) from the IV Vincristine I have on day 8, I am hoping this will go away now, but have read that it can hang around forever!
I have a meeting with my Oncologist on Friday 9th August, so will hopefully find out more as to where I go from here then!
The other night I worked out how much of everything I have had since I started this journey! I know I have forgotten some things, but this is the main list....
2 Neck biopsies
1 Bone marrow biopsy
1 Neck Ultrasound
2 Arm Ultrasounds
19 Bags of blood
9 Months of chemotherapy
3 Pet Scans
4 Ct Scans
6 ECG's
2 Gated blood pool scans (heart scan)
1 Lung function test
Numerous bags of IV antibiotics
Numerous tablet antibiotics
70 Clexane injections in the tummy
10 Neulasta injections in the tummy
4 weeks in hospital
5 chest x-rays
2 Ambulance rides
696 Famciclovir tablets
170 Ozpan tablets
224 Procarbazine tablets (chemotherapy tablets)
336 Prednisolone tablets (steroids)
TOTAL of 1426 tablets in 5 months.. not including antibiotics!!
Liquid Potassium
Liquid Bactrim
Over 70 blood tests
2 PICC lines
13 bags of Adriamycin
13 bags of Bleomycin
5 bags of Vinblastine
5 bags of Dacarbazine
24 bags of Etoposide
8 bags of Cyclophosphamide
8 bags of Vincristine
13 bags of Bleomycin
5 bags of Vinblastine
5 bags of Dacarbazine
24 bags of Etoposide
8 bags of Cyclophosphamide
8 bags of Vincristine
Its crazy seeing it all written down!!!
