It's Monday morning and I am getting ready to head back into hospital tomorrow. I saw the consultant last Wednesday, which was a premeditated appointment and I had my line cleaned, my bloods taken and a catch up with said consultant. All went well and everything seems to be going in the right direction, I just got thrown a little bit when he said he wanted to bring my treatment forward a week. I sort of had planned in my mind that I would have another week away from the treatment but looking at the situation it makes sense to crack on with it.
The lumps/nodes and swelling in my neck has certainly reduced and while this is good, it would indicate it was a good time to hit it all again with another 5 days of chemo. It will be exactly the same routine as last time, 4 x 22 hours of chemo over 5 days with my pre meds as well. I'm guessing I will be back to weeing in bottles and showering at ungodly hours of the day again but I can handle that if I am making good progress. The onset of cabin fever I am sure will be there again, although the staff and the ward is excellent, being stuck in a room for 5 days in Chesterfield does come with it's limitations.
I did take me about 5 days after I got out of hospital last time to feel 'human' again and I have had a quite strange experience. I have had no side effects whatsoever (which I am not complaining about for 1 second) and things are actually growing back. I have had to cut my nails twice within the last 2 weeks and I have a chin a 15 year old boy would be proud of!! My hair is even growing back on my head, unfortunately I look like a baby chick, its that fine and fluffy but I am going to let it grow for a bit and see how it eventually looks!
One thing that has worked well for me, is too not look to far ahead, I only have this next week focussed on my mind and I know what is ahead of me. I have taken very little notice or researched about stem cell treatments because...….(a) there's too many big words in it for me and (b) I don't have to deal with it yet. When that time comes I will see what needs to do to get through it.
I am hopeful you can detect that my mood is good from this blog and I am ready and able to battle on for the next week, so that the end goal is met and we can all move on from this. Being 'normal' again does seem along way off at the minute but where would the fun be in that......AND WHO WANTS TO BE NORMAL ANYWAY????
