The Chinese lady

Went into St Helier on Monday where they inserted a drain into my buttock to get to the abscess/pocket of fluid. It was done under a CT scan and was very painful ~ I've really had enough of people looking at my bottom! They have had to leave the drain in so I now have a pipe which is attached to a drainage bag which is strapped to my thigh so it can drain all the fluid away - very attractive!- and I am finding it hard to sit or lie down so am feeling very sorry for myself at the moment. My chemo has again been postponed until 18th April to allow this latest thing to heal, I expect it will stay in for about 10 days to 2 weeks.

There's always a funny and this is a good one....... after I had had the procedure 3 doctors came to check I was ok to be discharged, one of them came back and asked if he could ask me some questions about the procedure, which was fine. Prior to that, a Chinese lady had been admitted and was in the next bed to me, she was a sandwich short of a picnic and was very strange. Anyway, whilst this doctor was having a look at my bum she lifts up the curtain, carefully drawn between her and me and says (you have to imagine the Chinese accent!) "young doctor, when you finished I need word with you" She gets a birds eye view up my bottom and is asked to let go of the curtain; the doctor says "actually I am not a doctor" (he lied!) and told her to let go of the curtain again; she replies " oh, you no doctor? but you velly lovely can I see you anyway!). By this time he and I are almost helpless, but she did let go of the curtain and normality was resumed!!!! I thought you'd like that one.

Poor Amy is off work with bronchitis so we make a poorly pair at the moment, but it's nice for me to have some company other than the cat during the day.

Am going to try to have a lie down and get some zzz's, they seem to have escaped me last night, so bye for now xxx

Oh deary me!

You remember my last blog mentioned about draining the abccess well.................. I got a phone call at work last Monday at about 10.30am from the Marsden asking if I could make my way to St Helier as they could do the drainage procedure today. It's apparently going to be done under local anaesthetic and takes about ½ hour; so I duely arrived and reported to casualty as instructed. After 1½ hours waiting, I was then called in to see the triage nurse to whom I explained againthat I had a bed waiting for me etc etc. They called up to the day unit who said that was fine so up I went to the 3rd floor. When I got there the sister said she was sorry but they hadn't actually got a bed for me so would I mind waiting in the day room. Whilst inthere they took my bloods and then a 3rd year doctor came and asked me so many questions almost down to how many veruccas I had had as a child! Eventually they found me a bed and I got into the top fashion gown that hospitals provide and sat and waited. (You may see a pattern of waiting emerging here) To cut a long story of waiting short, they told me at about 3.45 that the doctor who would be doing the procedure didn't know I was coming and had no space to see me until Monday of next week!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

To say I was a bit disgruntled would be putting it mildly, but at the end of the day, if they couldn't do it, there was nothing I could do about it, so I came home. The Marsden were spitting feathers when I told them and I seemed to be piggy in the middle. I think the worst bit was when I told the registrar that it meant putting my chem back again, she said the 'in the great scheme of things a delay in chemo wouldn't really matter' I pointed out that it wasn't her that had cancer and a delay meant a great deal to me ( the evil twins {my tumours} have to die!). Anyway, the upshot of all of this is that I am booked in to go back to St Helier on Monday to have the drainage done but this time I have to go at 8.30am and have to have nil by mouth since midnight and I will be in overnight! I really wonder if they know what they are doing, I cetainly had not expected to be kept in overnight but knowing St Helier, I'll probably be home tby lunchtime!

My chemo has now be changed to next Wednesday so hopefully things will then be back on track ~ it's all been quite unsettling and I really don't need the stress of it all.

I collected my wig yesterday and took it to my hairdresser who thought it was fab and will cut it to suit me slightly better. The back is fine but it's a bit puffy on top for my liking, but Robert said it will be no problem to chip chop it so I feel a bit better about it now. He cut my hair and made it look so good yesterday even if I don't have it for maybe much longer, I still need it to look nice and I think he did the best cut ever. I felt so good I had to go and do some retail therapy in M&S in their sale!

Am now just off to work so will post again next week sometime. xxxxx

Another set back

Well, I wondered how long it would be before I developed another infection and hey presto it was last week! I ended up in the Marsden on Friday with a temp of 104 and finally came out yesterday evening. I am now feeling fine thank goodness. They have finally decided that the infection is caused by a pocket of fluid, like an abcess, which never drains completely and therefore keeps building up and making me feel so poorly - I have to say that is what I have been telling them each time, so it was quite nice to hear the doctor actually voicing my thoughts entirely. The plan now is to drain the abcess surgically which hopefully will then dry up completely and will also have the effect of not leaking through the bowel wall where it hasn't healed together and the end result is that the bowel should then heal itself!......... we shall see. I am unable to resume my chemotherapy until this is done so am expecting to have the procedure at the beginning of next week so that I can have my chemo on Friday of next week. So everything is a bit up in the air at the moment but I am enjoying feeling well, especially with the weather being so nice at present.

Along with everything else, I had an ingrowing toenail removed this afternoon - the local anaesthetic is still working so no pain yet but I am prepared for it this evening. I was a bit surprised as I thought the doctor was just going to look at it but instead he did what was necessary (I didn't look!) and now I have a very attractive white 'dolly' on my big toe, so no chance of getting any shoes on yet, just as well the weather is good.

Spent a lovely morning chatting to my friend Liz and catching up on the news from the church birthday weekend which of course I missed having been in hospital. The services on Sunday appear to have been fantastic with some real 'tingly' hymns, I so wish I could have been part of it all.

Claire came with me last week to chose my wig, which we did; having said that, I was feeling so ill I think she could have put an Alice band with piggy ears on me and I'd have said it looked good! Liz has offered me her daughter's Mickey Mouse ears from Disney if I feel like a laugh - I might even take her up on that offer - bald head with big black mouse ears, what do you think?! Calire assured me the wig looked fine and I know she wouldn't let me get anything that didn't look ok. The lady who fitted me was not the most sympathetic at the Marsden and kept telling what I couldn't do with it like move the parting over and I couldn't cut it - I thought, well it's my wig, bought and paid for I shall do what I want! I shall take it my hairdresser Robert, who has promised to style it etc for me so 'yarboo sucks' to her!!!!! It did feel very funny on, a bit like a swimming hat, so I have a feeling I shall not be wearing it much and I haven't lost any hair yet anyway so it's not an issue but I am living up to my Queens Guide motto - Be Prepared.

Thank you again for all the thoughts, prayers and cards etc. Will write again soon. xxxxx

treatment has started

Well, this new regime of treatment has started and got off to a flying start - felt fine etc but oh boy has it kicked in now! I feel so fatigued and have a blinding headache all the time and have hardly been able to get out of bed the last 2 days. I get so frustrated as I just want to have my chemo and then be well in between but I know that's not going to happen. Tomorrow I have an appointment with the wig man at the Marsden to choose something, not that I have lost my hair yet but I guess it's only a matter of time - I hope that they have something decent. I know they like to see you with hair first to get something that matches as far as possible but I wish I could take Amy with me to help but she's at work, never mind. Have decided to stick to something more or less as my own hair ~don't think I'm quite ready to be a blonde bombshell just yet!

Have not been able to go to work this week which is getting me down, it's unfortunate that whereas last year I had 3 weeks between chemo's, this year I only have 2 so there's not much time to recover in between. Listen to me - what a misery I sound, still I'm allowed, sorry guys, it's just not been such a godd week this week.

Will write again when I fell a bit better, xxxxx