Don\u2019t read this if you are sensitive to the language of toiletting or squeamish about medical procedures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I thought it might be fun to relay the progress of this cycle of chemotherapy in a certain amount of detail because according to the nurses it has been quite unusually full of incident. Oh how we laugh!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It all starts way back just after Christmas with an MRI in Tescos car park. The assumption was that something was growing that was causing me back pain. That was followed by one dose of radiotherapy which as far as I am concerned didn\u2019t really do much but of course I may be wrong. As part of that process I was prescribed stronger and stronger painkillers till I ended up with quite a pharmacy full of different varieties and a brain full of mush. They were worried about addiction I was worried about constipation and then sickness and just a tadet about Alzheimer\u2019s as Maria witnessed me incapable of remembering anything of consequence but bizzarely able with the German conditional tense\u2026mmm. all in all someone was worried about something. Since then I have been able to reduce the dose and I am now on just one remedy at a low dose.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the gaps between hospital visits have been getting stuck into Wittgenstein. Should you be wondering if you have Alzheimer\u2019s or are just a drug addict this is not to be advised.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Just had a very satisfying poo which is one of the great rewards of my current life. Particularly given that the catheter feels like it could interfere with that process, happily it seems it doesn\u2019t!!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As the opioids can make you sick, reducing the dose is a good thing because as the first proper cycle got established nausea became quite a big issue and I started to assemble a good number of anti sickness remedies to counter the fact that I stopped eating pretty much completely. This escalated toward constipation which I countered with mega laxative doses. The most effective was 6 sachets in a litre of water over 90 minutes however that was dependent on me not being sick. Quite a predicament.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You can see where I am going with this. It became an act of juggling variables, a bit more of this a bit less of that. Maria did a lot of the decision making, as I struggled to keep up with it. During this time I resorted to a wheelchair mainly because with no food at all I felt like I might feint.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There was a strange pause that occurred when A&L came up and for 3 days my apetite began to return only to stop again once they left. Eventually it has returned to 50% but more permanently which is fine and normal with this chemo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Alas the next strike was not peeing and this was the worst. 4 nights ago, it stopped. We went to A&E and almost as soon as we went through the hospital doors it started again and I was allowed to go home. Next night it stopped again and this time it really hurt. Went to A&E again and they measured nearly a litre being retained. Apparently that\u2019s a lot and I was relieved that I was actually ill not anxious although I am always both. They were amazing and within 30 minutes I had a catheter fitted. The relief was unbelievably intense. The experience of such incredible intimacy administered by the nurse should have been weird but to be honest it wasn\u2019t really. I know I shouldn\u2019t mention this but the nurses were young and female. Had I viewed this from a theoretical perspective before it occurred then I think I might have preferred a male, but as it happened I did not care a jot. It was very professional but yow it hurt. It bled a bit so I had Barbie pink wee for a day. It\u2019s all strapped to my leg like I am the terminator with cables and tubes powering me. It has a tap to empty it down the toilet and although I can\u2019t recommend it for comfort and style it is very practical and has meant I have had two nights of more of less uninterrupted sleep which both vinnie and I appreciate enormously. You can bathe with it on and obviously hygiene is a high priority.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Anyway this development triggered a bit of an alarm with the haematology team who of course want to know what the hells going on and why. I am just content to have a solution to the pain but the result was that yesterday, the third consecutive day we spent at the hospital .<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Oh no. I am in bed. The valve has got knocked open. FLOOD.!,!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
DISASTER.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So sorry Maria.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yes, not the best design, somehow it\u2019s emptied into the bed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fuck.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Will update after the 4th day at the hospital and day 1 of treatment cycle 2 \u2013 16 more cycles to go.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Chris<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Don\u2019t read this if you are sensitive to the language of toiletting or squeamish about medical procedures. I thought it might be fun to relay the progress of this cycle of chemotherapy in a certain amount of detail because according to the nurses it has been quite unusually full of incident. Oh how we laugh! […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3632","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-everything-else"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gravityisahat.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3632","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gravityisahat.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gravityisahat.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gravityisahat.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gravityisahat.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3632"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gravityisahat.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3632\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3633,"href":"https:\/\/gravityisahat.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3632\/revisions\/3633"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gravityisahat.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3632"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gravityisahat.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3632"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gravityisahat.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3632"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}