Day -4

Nothing exciting to report over the last three days really. It’s been a very sleepless and busy few days. I am hooked up to medication and fluids literally 24/7.

I have a continuous transfusion of Mesna which helps protect all my organs from the chemo and ATG, I have a drug intermittently to make sure I’m passing out all the fluids that’s going in, anti sickness before each chemo, pririton to stop any side effects from the ATG and a few more that I can’t remember.

The chemo is administered through transfusion over one hour in the middle of the night. I have someone coming in to the room probably every half hour so sleep is virtually impossible. But at least I’m being closely monitored. My temperature and blood pressure are checked every hour and are sitting very stable, temperature in the 36° region and blood pressure at normal levels. I don’t want to talk too soon but after 3 doses of chemo I haven’t been sick yet. Two more doses to go so fingers crossed I won’t be.

I haven’t lost my appetite yet either in fact I’ve become more hungry to the point where I’m having to have a midnight snack and cup of tea. The nurses bring me a sandwich and make the tea – it’s lovely – unlike the tea that comes round on the day time trolley!

I am having 1gram of steroids daily which is a very high dose and I’m putting the increase of appetite down to that lol. I am prepared for my appetite to decrease and I have been told I’m likely to stop eating and drinking for a few days because I could get something called Mucositis which is a painful inflammation and ulceration of the mucous membranes lining the digestive tract, usually as an adverse effect of chemo. The nurses are looking for signs of this daily and will prescribe a mouthwash to help with that if it occurs.

Since my last dose of chemo in January, I have been surprised how quickly my hair has started to grow back. When I shaved my hair off back in December my scalp was still quite spiky because some of the hair folicols were still there then January it went completely bald and smooth and February it started to grow back. Archie touched my head the other day and said ‘oh soft, not prickly’ – yep, thanks Archie! I am more than prepared for it all to fall out again and will probably take longer to start growing back because I have had more chemo going in to my body this time. I’m going to take vitamins to help detoxify my body when I’m out of hospital and also look in to any supplements to help stimulate hair regrowth. I’m ready to have my hair back to be honest. Although I do like how easy it is wearing the scarves.

Hoping for a bit more sleep tonight …….