I'm free

After five weeks I have been discharged from St Luke's Hospital. The infection has cleared up and I'm feeling great. My weight is down to 111.2kg and I can buy clothes in Mark's and Spencer rather than Mr Big. I'm not at home yet. I'll be sojourning with my parents until surgery and probably after that for a little while. The advantage is that they are very close to both St Vincent's and St Luke's so if there are any incidents I can be there in a few minutes. Of course it means I'm not all that keen on being far out of Dublin so my travel will be limited.

The second batch of chemotherapy was not as easy as the first batch. The drugs were identical but of course back then I had only just started radiotherapy. By the time the second batch started I'd had four weeks of treatment and my body reacted very differently. Despite the drugs I did feel nauseated and there were some side effects.

Anyway, what's next? I've been scheduled for a treatment called Brachytheraphy next Monday. This involves inserting a nasal-gastric tube and dropping a radioactive pellet down it to irradiate the tumour from the inside. The radiotherapy I had irradiated from the outside. After that I'll have a further CAT scan and maybe a PET scan which will allow the surgeon to see what progress I've made.

Apparently, I'm looking at a mid-May timeframe for surgery. I hope they schedule me for the second half of May as my niece, and god daughter, is making her first holy communion in Brussels in mid-May and I'd like to be there even if it does involve being out of the country. I definitely want my parents to go but they'd probably want to stay in Dublin if I'm in hospital.

Comments

[Deirdre]

"inserting a nasal-gastric tube" Been there! It is a really weird sensation! For me they were using it to take stuff out of my stomach as opposed to your putting stuff in.
At least you are free - It works wonders for your mental health.
Still thinking of you.
D.

[Brian]

Great to hear that things are continuing to improve. Here's to well timed and, above all, successful, surgery!

[James]

Nice to hear you are home Dave.

J

[Maura]

Good to see that your treatment is progressing, Dave, and you're back at home. Best of luck with the next batch of treatments.

[Howie Modell]

Good to see you out and blogging again. I was getting worried.

It was great to IM for a bit ..

Keep getting better!

howie

[Fiona]

Oh, I had that tube too - if they offer you sedation -

Take it!

- would be my advice. Of course I just wanted to get it over & done with & have a cigarette afterwards. If you can't be a good example, sigh, you'll have to be a terrible warning.

If no sedation: well, watching the images onscreen is at least distracting & strangely interesting. It's not painful, and I am a coward, really, it doesn't hurt. There are no nerves in there. Otherwise we'd know when we were really ill, let's face it.

All the best, so glad to hear you are out for a while : )

Now's a good time to visit the Botanic Gardens. Very few people, fields apart, easily avoided. Oh, those germ-laden people with their smug immune systems ; )