Reaction to chemo

Well...

I did want to do a more upto date blog article.  I was going to have chemo and then after write what the chemo was like, but sadly I fitted into the 5% that had a bad reaction to them.

I even planned to do a picture every day of the changes to me and what the effects of chemo can have (in my head i was going to re-enact the person on youTube signing and dancing in the chemo ward attached to a drip while dancing to a Kelly Clarkson song) but believe me i was unable to lift my head off the pillow, never mind smile for a selfy!

I can not really remember what it was like, after having my treatment all was well until i got home,
thinking back it's all bit of a blur but first there was sickness, a lot of sickness. I did not eat before the chemo and i wish i did, i felt that maybe i should not have had chemo on a empty stomach. The sickness is grim, like i said i did fall into the 5% that have a reaction so if you are reading this and about to have chemo for the first time, try and not to worry.

The sick was green! a very bile sickness, it was not nice. I had to go back into hospital and I think I was there for about 3 days, but yet again i am not sure. I was in and out of sleep.

My visitors probably regretted visiting due to the high costs of the Yorkshire Cancer Centre car park and the lack of communcation out of me (on the other hand this may of been a blessing).

It was nice to get back home, but then the diarrhoea started, and at this point of reading this blog, you probably will be thinking why didn't I read the blog about flower arranging or something a little more plesent.

So back to the hospital it was for another 3 days, the good news is each night i stay in hospital  I get paid due to my private health care, which is almost getting to be my full time job these days.

The nurses had a welcome back party for me (which i was so out of it the first time I went in I could not remember what i had said, or who they all were) but still, there were really caring.

If you ever want your own room in hosptial just say you have diarrhoea and you will get your own private en suite room, this does come with a warning, the only down side is your not allowed to leave the room, and after 3 days you do realise why the windows don't open.

Another 3 days in hospital and i started to come back to the land of the living. When your sick after chemo, you really appreciate the time when your not sick.

The next time I have chemo there are going to fill me with sickness drugs, i am hoping that all will be better the next time around than this.

Its come back!

This is one post i haven't really wanted to write.

A month or 2 ago i got a call saying that my blood ca-19 had gone up to 90, anything above 30 and they are worried.

I had a CT scan booked, i decided to carry on and still celebrate my birthday at the start of Dec 2013, it was my 40th, and we had planned to go to London.

It was a great weekend, the hotel was lovely, and i went to all the good markets of London, and ate a lot of street food, I loved it.

But when i got back to the hotel, i didn't feel that well, i thought it was due to a lack of sleep so with that i went to bed but woke up thirsty around 2am.

I was not sure if i was thirsty or felt sick, I went to the toilet and wanted to go,  my temperature suddenly rose and i fell off the toilet, i won't go into graphic accounts of the evening but my stools where foul smelling and bloody, i collapsed.

I awoke just as quickly and felt my temperature come back, with that the adrenalin kicked in and i stud up and called for an ambulance.

I spent 3 days in hospital, it looked like this was down to a burst blood veslal and had nothing to do with the cancer, but it had shown a 1.5cm mark on my liver.

I got back home and had another CT scan in Leeds, and this showed the same.

So, here we go again! i start chemo next week, 14th Jan, to say I'm nervous is an understatement.

But i will keep a recorded on how it all goes on here.

My first chemo

This was wrote in December 2012

Well, I was very quiet driving up for my first chemo injection, but it was ok, the nurse said I won't see the side effects for two days, but as for now, all is ok.

It was in a ward where they were about 6 armchairs with curtains around, like a normal ward but without beds.

The nurse said it is a very different word when your not used to it, it is, it's strange how we all pop in, sit down, get injected with poison, and then leave, but the people in there seem really nice.

When you tell people that you had/have cancer people can react in a way that they don't know what to say, I don't blame them, I would probably be like that myself, but in that ward, it's normal, so I was taken back slightly when a patients parter asked what type of cancer did I have, she also said I sat the same way as her jack russell, nice!

The nurse also said its an eye opener in there, it's is, as it seems quite a mix bag of people, mix ages etc.

I'm on two types of chemo due to been on a trial, the trial is called ESPAC-4 which is a mixture of drugs gemcitabine (this is injected) and with Capecitabine which is in tablet form.

There was also anti sickness drug which I had to take, the nurse said it may make my bum feel itchy! The only feeling I had was a sensation in my balls!