Sunday 14th March

It's almost six weeks since I had my last bout of chemo. My next course is due in about ten days.
Since the last round of chemo I've been laid low with a cold and spent almost a week in hospital. And I thought that I was getting better.
I was due to appear at a charity festival this weekend and sing a few songs. I had to pull out because I'm just not strong enough, and the doctors told me that my immune system won't cope with any infection at all.

I was fed up with that, but not as fed up as I was when the doctors told me that I won't be able to tour this summer.
Here are the dates: Assume I have my chemo next week, the third week in March, and I'm well enough to have the final course four weeks later, during the third week of April. That will only leave six weeks to the start of the tour. It has been six weeks since my last chemo. I know how I feel today, and with the best will in the world I can't see myself surviving thirty shows in six weeks, without all the travelling and humping gear. I'm gutted, and that's putting it mildly.

I've been playing my stick bass a lot, and I'm getting better at it. I decided to try my luck and play along to a concert dvd this evening as there was nothing on the TV. I'm knackered, and I was sitting down!

On the plus side, my temperature has remained normal all week, and I finished my antibiotics today. I'm hoping that this heralds the end of that vile taste in my mouth. My scleritis is responding to the eye drops, although I hate applying the drops.

I'm housebound again, except for one trip to the eye clinic this wednesday.

A good night's sleep

I was ready for bed before ten last night and went straight to sleep. It was lovely having enough room to move and enough pillows. The next thing I knew it was seven this morning and Sue was getting ready to go to work. She'd lost half a day yesterday and her work still needs to be done.

After a cup of tea or two I was almost ready to face the day. Sue managed to get some eyedrops into my eyes and went off to work. I sorted out my pills for the day (seven now and seven later) and took my temperature which was OK.

A friend rang me last night to ask how I was getting on. I brought him up to date and then we spent ten minutes or so looking at our houses on Google street view. I've not been to his house since he moved and his new house looks very nice. Mine of course had two white vans on the drive and one in the side street. I can tell almost to the day when the google car drove down our street based on that information.
Being curious I had a look at my place of work. The google car never drove down our street. Anyone who has ever driven into Kettering town centre will tell you that it's a nightmare. The brief given by the council to the planners was to keep traffic out of the centre and it works at treat. You drive into the centre, get caught up in the one way system and before you know it, you're heading out of town again. It seems the google car got caught out as well, because he took an illegal left turn into Gold Street and drove through the pedestrianised section to make his escape. The evidence is there for all to see.

The drugs I've just taken have left a vile taste in my mouth, so I'm off to find some tea and something to take away the taste.

Friday- Thursday - part four

I was reading through recent posts on my blog and as recently as two weeks ago I was saying how well it was going, piece of cake, nothing to it, nothing to report, etc.
How quickly things change.

I must admit that the past week has fundamentally changed my outlook. My hospitallisation happened overnight, in a blink of an eye. I cannot now take anything for granted. Two weeks ago I was driving my van, seeing people, even spending an hour or two in work. I've had to relearn a few things.
My stamina isn't great, but it's a whole lot better than my immune system.
I walk to the shops or drive around. I get tired quickly.
OK, I understand that and can make allowances.

What catches me out is my lack of an immune system. I caught a cold and it laid me low. I developed thrush and it put me in hospital.
I can't plan for that.

Earlier this week a patient died in the next room to mine. Without going into details, the family were from an Italian background. There were fifteen people around the deathbed, from brothers and sisters down to grandchildren. The hospital rightly allowed them unlimited access, so there were always people outside, and although they whispered most of the time, it was still noisy.
During the evening's visiting time I could hear the patient coughing and retching. It sounded like their death rattle, even with the doors to both rooms closed.
Then the fire alarm went off. They said that someone had burnt some toast in another ward. We had to wait until 9.30 for the alarm to be switched off. When the all clear was given, the family came back on to the ward.
One of the nurses asked me to close my door and I agreed. I lay in bed with the lights off, trying to sleep. The patient died at about 11 o'clock and I could hear the cries of grief as I lay in the darkness. It was not nice. Not nice at all.

I'm with Woody Allen when he says that death doesn't scare him. He'd just rather not be there when it happens.

I have no idea about the patient's condition or how long they'd been ill. Who knows if they were carefree and in full health a few weeks or months ago?

I just know that I have a much greater understanding of my mortality and I'm going to have to think long and hard about my future....

Friday- Thursday part three

The problem with this sort of blog is that the latest post is at the top and sometimes it would read better if the oldest was on the top. It would certainly help the narrative.

My eyes started playing up last week. One eye was slightly bloodshot and the eye hurt. I also had it in January and it delayed my treatment for two weeks.
The condition is called scleritis. According to the internet-
"Scleritis is caused by an immune response to something such as an infection, trauma or a virus which then ‘cross-reacts' with the eye. While we want our immune system to fight infection we do not like the ‘side-effect' of this process which can cause conditions such as Scleritis and Arthritis (joint inflammation). It is surprising how many Rheumatological and eye conditions go together."

So that may explain the arthritic attacks in my hands as well. Treatment involves eye drops four times a day. I hate eye drops. I cringe away when I'm trying to apply them. If someone else applies them I reflexively shut my eyes as soon as the drop hits the eye (or even before).

I didn't bring my eyedrops with me when I was admitted. I did have some artificial tears that the eye doctor recommended I use if my eyes get tired, so the nurses used those for the first few days.
It didn't stop my eyes from getting more sore and inflamed. It spread to my other eye.

Finally an appoinment was made for me to attend the eye clinic on Wednesday afternoon. I was sat in a wheelchair and a student nurse walked me through the corridors and down two lifts to the clinic. When I got there I realised I didn't have my glasses so she had to go all the way back to get them. She returned with my glasses and told me that she was needed on the ward and that I'd have to ask the clinic for a porter to take me back.

Now I'm big enough and ugly enough to look after myself, but I have to admit that I felt very vulnerable. The Eye Clinic is a crowded and claustrophobic place at the best of times, but when you're sitting in a wheelchair dressed only in pyjamas and a dressing gown it's worse.
Luckily the doctor who saw me back in January picked my file up and I was seen fairly quickly, that is, only an hour and a half later than the booked appointment time.
She looked into my eyes with her gadgets, pronounced that I had the same condition as before, wrote out a prescription and told me to come back in one week.

All I had to do then was wait for a porter. Luckily he was there within a few minutes and he took me back to the ward via the service tunnels deep beneath the hospital. It cut out one lift and I had a scenic ride as well.

Now all I have to do is get the bloody eyedrops into my eyes.....

Friday- Thursday part 2

I arrived back on Lilford Ward during the afternoon visiting time. It was like I'd never left. I even remembered some of the nurse's names. Once again I had a room of my own.

I spent the next few days reading, (I read a book a day) doing codeword puzzles ( I completed a book of 60), reading the newspaper, and blagging extra cups of tea from the staff. I didn't bother with the TV or radio.

My obs (Blood pressure, temperature etc) were taken very four hours. I had antibiotic injections three times a day, plus various pills. One pill gave me a terrible taste in the mouth, like chewing dandelions. They took blood samples every couple of days.

I had regular visits from Sue and Chris. It wasn't so bad. I didn't feel ill as such. I just couldn't do anything. From Sunday to Tuesday I doubt if I took a hundred steps a day.

My lunchtime meal on Saturday consisted of a small slice of meat about 2 inches by three, one small scoop of mash, and four tiny pieces of parsnip. Less than twelve mouthfuls.
I blagged an evening meal on Lilford and ate everything that was edible. I was determined not to go hungry and lose weight. We order our meals each day. Monday's order is Tuesday's meal, etc. I asked for large portions every day. I can't tell if I got them, but having seen a small portion I expect I did.

One reads reports of patients suffering malnutrition in hospital. I lost weight the last time I was in, and I didn't want to lose too much this time. Even so, I was a couple of kilos lighter than I was last week when I was weighed on Wednesday night.

When I wasn't reading or eating or being measured, I tried to sleep. Single rooms are much better than four bed wards in that respect. However, I couldn't get comfortable on the bed. The pillows were too thin and the bed too short and too narrow. The drugs gave me a bitter aftertaste and I could taste it all night. It wasn't until I was ready to leave that I found that they'd have made me a cup of tea if I asked for one..

Other than that, I was bored and homesick.

Update Friday -Thursday part one

Where was I? Ah yes. I took my temperature at about teatime on Friday and it was above 38 again. Having been told off by the staff at the Centenary Wing for not telling them about my temperature on Tuesday (but we did) I decided to ring the hospital.
They told me to go to A & E and be seen there. So at about 8.00 on Friday night we arrived at A & E. I was assessed quite quickly and my BP and temperature taken. I was examined by a doctor and blood taken for testing. Soon after that I had a chest x-ray, was fitted with a canula and was admitted to an assessment ward by about midnight.
I was given some antibiotics by injection. The room had four beds and it was hard to get off to sleep.
The next morning I was seen by the doctors again and they told me that a bed was available on the haemotology ward. I was transferred to my new bed during the afternoon visiting time.

The man in the bed next to mine was about six months older than me. He had dementia and just stared into the distance. The staff had to almost shout to get his attention. He was connected to a glucose drip and was incontinent. His wife stayed with him, and helped feed him. A young man in his twenties called in for a while. It could have been our family.
It brought home to me how short and precious our lives are. One minute I was out and about and making plans, the next I was in a hospital ward being pumped full of antibiotics.

It made me stop and think.

Saturday 6th March 2010

Hi

Just a short note to say that Dave was admitted to hospital last night and may be there until Tuesday.

I will keep you updated.

Sue

Friday update

After publishing the last blog entry I went downstairs and sat watching TV. I was fast asleep when Sue woke me to say she was going to work. I woke up again when Chris left to go on a job. I managed to call into the clinic for an update and left a message.
I then watched tv/dozed until the phone rang. Sue said that my prescription would be ready from 12.30.
The phone rang again at about 11.00. It was the clinic. I relayed the story of the week and she asked for the full name of the antibiotics that my GP had prescribed.
When I go up to the hospital later I must have a blood test.
She told me off for not ringing in when my temperature went to 39.1 on Tuesday. I felt too ill to think straight- that's my story and I'm sticking to it.
As I said, I shudder to think what effect the chemo would have had.
I have another blood test and appointment to see the specialist on Monday 15th, with chemo booked for the 16th.
I have ten days to get over this cold

Friday 5th March 5.00 am.

I'm awake, just over three hours after going to sleep. And I ache.
My left kneecap hurts to touch and hurts when I flex the joint. There's no signs of bruising or any marks at all.
My right midriff hurts when I breathe in. One of the lower ribs hurts to touch.
My upper right arm hurts. This seems to be in the muscle rather the joint. I get a stabbing pain when I flex the joint.
My right wrist joint hurts. Possibly arthritic.
My left eye feels uncomfortable, like something is pressing on the eyeball.
My mouth tastes horrible. I keep coughing up phlegm.
I cough and cough almost uncontrollably.
If I lie on my left side it feels uncomfortable. The doctor said that this was due to an enlarged spleen. If I lie on my right side, my lower ribcage hurts.
If I lie on my back I cough.
My doctor assures me that my chest is clear, but if I sit or lie still some bronchial passages start making wheezing or bubbling or groaning sounds. I'm unable to control it in any way.
I chose not to have chemo this week because of the speed that my throat infection and temperature took hold. My immune systen is pretty shot anyway and I didn't want to make it any worse by killing it with chemo.
I wonder if these aches and pains are connected to CLL. I don't know.
My prescriptions for Aciclovir and Co-Trimaxole have run out, so I have to go into the clinic later today to pick up fresh supplies.
I'm hoping that they will postpone my treatment until Tuesday week. I'm due to be playing a set at the Alfest gig next Saturday. It's touch and go if I can make it, but if I have chemo there's no chance.
I've seen the rheumatologist and he's not going to start any treatment until I've finished chemotherapy.
The pain in my side has been niggling away for some time. I am due to have a CT scan after the last round of chemo, but that could be eight weeks away.
I went to the eye clinic and she gave me some drops and some steroids. I've since been discharged.
They took my blood pressure and commented that it was a bit high. I took a course of drugs and it reduced the BP to normal. I had my BP taken at the clinic last Monday. It's up again.

None of these aches and pains are much to write home about (or blog) by themselves but together they make life miserable.and uncomfortable.
Or am I being hypersensitive?

Hacked off

I went to the hospital yesterday and was there all morning. First of all I had to queue for a blood test. I was still waiting at the time I was supposed to be seen by the haematology specialist.I eventually had my blood taken and then walked around to the clinic. We queued for about half an hour before I was seen.
My blood results are good and the doctor was happy to start the treatment today (Tuesday 2nd March). I had a slight niggly cough and I told him I thought it was the onset of trachyitis. I get it every winter and it knocks me out for a couple of weeks.
He listened to my chest and pronounced it clear. We then had to go to the Rheumatology clinic. This was just an introductory meeting as the specialist didn't want to start treatment while I was having chemotherapy. He sent me to have some x-rays of my chest and my hands.
By the time we'd finished it was past midday and I was feeling worse. As the day progressed my cough worsened and I felt really unwell.
This morning I had a raging sore throat and I'm trying my hardest not to cough because it hurts.
I didn't go to the clinic but kept in touch with them by phone. Dr Lyttleton wants to start the course next Tuesday but that will cut across my appearance at the Alfest charity concert. I've asked if it can be put back to the 16th, but that hasn't been agreed yet.
I rang my GP and spoke to him by phone, explaining the symptons and the complications. He has made an appointment for me this afternoon. To be honest, I'd rather go back to bed.

Saturday 27th February

Two days to go before my next consultation with the specialist and I'm feeling OK but tired. I did a bit more than usual this week. There were some computer issues that had to be sorted out at work so I went in for a couple of hours. Our son Chris has been ill in bed and was supposed to help a friend move some furniture. I drove the van but stayed out of the way when there was lifting to be done. The next day my daughter Jayne rang asking for a van as her firm were moving office. Chris was in bed so I drove the van down to Wellingborough and did three trips around the one way system.
Not even a full day's work in total, but-
I'm working on the principle of, the more I do, the more I can do.
However, this is a good week for me. I should have another bout of chemo next week.
I'm usually pretty sore by the end of that week and need a week or two to recover.
This will be the fifth session out of six. I'm hoping to complete the treatment by April.
I'm pleased with how it's going so far, but I don't know how fit I'll be when I finally get signed off, and how long it'll take before I'm back to full fitness.

Sat 20th February

Almost nothing to report. I went into work a couple of times for an hour or so to sort out a computer and then get the legal software updated. My role in the firm is to keep us compliant with the ever changing regulations. Solicitors are almost the most highly regulated firms in the UK. This year so far I've had to amend the client care letter (our terms and conditions) to bring us into line with the new EU policy on the complaints procedure, and to include details of our indemnity insurance.
We've always had these systems, we've always had indemnity insurance. We have to have insurance or we can't trade. I just think that advertising that we have a complaints procedure and insurance is a big flag waving and saying "Here we are, come and sue us.)
Ok, rant over. I have my other blogs for that.
I'm still surprised how tired I am after these trips. I couldn't put in a full day even if I wanted to. Or maybe if I did, I'd never put in a second. Don't we just take our health and strength for granted?

What else? A friend called by on his way home from a business trip to the Midlands and spent an hour or so catching up on news. I had phone calls from friends and it snowed again.
I'm making good progress with the bass and I'm more in tune than out, so I'm looking forward to inflicting my playing on the public. Just be glad that my lifelong obsession was to learn the double bass and not the bagpipes.
I have another week before my next round of appointments at the hospital, and a month before my first concert of the year. And a round of chemo in between.
And then a holiday somewhere warm?

Friday 12th February

Another week gone. It's getting lighter so Spring's on the way. However, it's not getting any warmer.
I managed a couple of trips this week. I went into work for an hour or two, just to catch up. I can't believe how tired I was afterwards. I slept for more than 12 hours!
I also had to get my blood pressure measured. My BP has been high for about a month, and I was prescribed pills to lower it, with the instructions to visit my GP and have it measured. It should have occured last Monday. I was still very weak from the chemo so didn't get there until Wednesday. Unfortunately the surgery was closed for training.
I went to the eye clinic today for a check up. I persuaded them to measure my BP. I'm pleased to say that it's back to normal. And I was discharged from the eye clinic.

I collected my stick bass from my friend's and have started to practice playing it. It's quite different from my other instruments. It's fretless and you can't use a plectrum. (It's an electric version of a double bass btw). I've had a fascination with the instrument since I was a child. I love the tuneful thud it makes. I'm a bit late to try and emulate my favourite bass player Danny Thompson, who's been playing for fifty years or more, but I'll give it a go.

Le't's see what the next few days bring. As long as it's not snow.
My next appointments are on March 1st.

New blog

I've set up a new blog called
http://dave-beentheredonethat.blogspot.com/

I've had a lot of jobs over the years. Most of them were boring, and the only way I kept sane was through my music. I've decided to write about some of the jobs I've had along the way. Please check it out and add any comments.

Sunday 7th February

I've just finished my fourth round of chemo and I'm pleased to say that this one went the best so far (so good).
I was sick just the once, yesterday morning soon after I woke up. I'd only taken a couple of anti-nausea pills prior to the main course of Cyclophosphamide, plus a mouthful or two of water. Soon afterwards I felt the familiar warning signs, the taste in my mouth, and teh increase in saliva that precludes the event, and was in the bathroom in good time. Three almost dry heaves and that was it.
The worst part of the routine is waking up, feeling hungry and having to wait an hour after taking the dose before eating any food. Sometimes I think the nausea is as much to do with hunger than anything.
Anyway, my routine has been slightly different this time. I've been to the shop almost every day (except for yesterday when I'd been sick) and I've even used the car to take Chris & Heather down the town last night. My lower back & hips hurt quite a lot, but I've found that I can walk the stiffness off, even if it's only a few hundred yards to the shop & back. I still managed to doze through two rugby matches on TV yesterday, so somethings don't change.
Next week's plan is to try and get more exercise and get out and meet a few more people. I managed a trip to the local music shop last week, which was nice (if expensive). I bought a new hard case for my Yamaha acoustic guitar that I got in a swap for my Faith Jupiter acoustic, and Chris bought himself a Pearl drum rack, which should cut down the number and weight of stands when he sets his drum kit up.

I'm by nature a bit of a recluse and have to force myself to be sociable even when I'm fit. I tend to stay at home unless I've a reason to go out, a paying gig or a firm music booking for instance. There are lots of acoustic music venues in the locality, easily enough to go out most nights of the week, so I'll force myself to get out once my immunity builds up. Or maybe that's an another excuse for staying in.

Tuesday update

All good. Arrived at the clinic 20 minutes early. (Chris was ready, I was ready, so we went). They found me a nice reclining armchair and sat me down. Coffee and biscuits soon after, with further refills during the morning. Sue recognised one of the volunteers when we were there yesterday. I don't know if it was the same person today, but hey, they're friendly, they smile and they bring you drinks.

After the canella was fitted, the first thing they inject is a dose of piriton, so that's me drowsy and out of it for the rest of the morning. Fit the drip sir? Whatever!.
I alternated between reading the newspaper and dozing throughout the morning. The seat was reclined, the hospital table cum tray was tilted so I could read the paper and the day went by, punctuated by the nurses taking my blood pressure and temperature. Tuna sandwiches for lunch. Then during the afternoon the clinic started to empty as treatments were finished. I chatted to the guy sitting next to me for a while until he was ready to leave. Soon it was my turn to leave. By now there were more nurses than patients as they got everything for the next day's clinic. I was given a bagful of drugs and I was on my way.
I phoned Chris for a lift and made my way to one of the exits near a bus stop, sat down until Chris rang to say he was driving up the hill and then went outside to be picked up.
All in all it was a very uneventful day. I enjoyed meeting all the staff. They're a small team and you get to see them every time and learn their names. One of the nurses was on holiday in Antartica of all places. It's too cold here, so that's right out for me, even if it is summer there.
Tomorrow I will start with the chemo proper, with one drug for breakfast and another for lunch, with a side order of anti-nausea pills. Let's see if I can make it through the week without being sick. I've not managed it yet.

Monday Feb 1st

Just back from the hospital where I've been prodded & poked, weighed and measured, tried and tested. My blood test results are good. The Leukaemia cell count has been negligible for the last two or three appointments. However, they will complete the full course of treatment to be sure.
My blood pressure remains very high. They've given me some pills to try and lower it.
There was some debate whether to have another CT scan now or wait until the end of the treatment. In the end they decided to wait. I'm finding it too uncomfortable to sleep lying on my left side, which is indicative that my spleen may be enlarged. However they don't think it's a enough of a problem to change the treatment.

So I go back to the clinic tomorrow for a dose of chemo via a drip, and I'll be taking loads of pills for the rest of the week.

Friday update

Bored bored bored.
What a strange week. I've just got back from attending the eye clinic again. They want to see me in two weeks. What have I learned? I'm squeamish when it comes to touching my eyes for a start. I've struggled to apply the eye drops they gave me, so they want me to keep applying them for two more weeks.
My blood pressure is high, about 170 over 90. Considering that I spent a week in hospital in November with almost zero blood pressure, that's quite a swing. I don't know what has caused it, or if it will affect my treatment which is due for next Monday. I called in to the clinic on my way to the car park and bumped into Dr Littleton. He didn't seem too concerned, but then he wouldn't say either way would he?

What else is new?
They finally fixed the central heating boiler yesterday. It originally failed on December 9th. I've had the spares since before Christmas and it took a lot of calls to get them to fix it. One excuse was that it was a two man job (as it turned out, two men turned up but one could have done it). Another excuse was that they needed to order the spares (no you don't I have them here).
I hate calling helplines. I hate the rigmarole of pressing option one for this, option 2 for that, etc. I hate the cheerful voice saying how they apologise for keeping me waiting, instead of employing more staff. Most of all, I hate the music they play. Grrrrrr!

So, my next appointment at the hospital will be on Monday morning. All being well, I'll start chemo session number four.
I hope it starts warming up soon.
Don't forget you can keep up to date with my regular postings on Facebook and on my other blog www dot daveclemo.blogspot dot com

Saturday 23rd January

Here we are at the end of another week. My chemo has been postponed to Feb 1st, for two reasons. The first was another attack of arthritis in my hands, which coincided with an eye infection. I saw my specialist at the clinic who looked at my most recent blood test and decided that my treatment could be put back.
He arranged for an appointment at the eye clinic, whcih was very hot and very crowded. As a result, I've had a streaming cold all week. I was prescribed some eye drops six times a day, and some pills for the arthritis. The drops are impossible to apply by oneself, so I only have them as and when. I went back again on Friday and I have another appointment next Friday. My eye is clearing up by itself.

I've been following the news and reading the blogs. I've been posting all week on my other blog www.daveclemo.blogspot.com as well as regular posting on Facebook. If you use Facebook why not be my friend?

I saw this quote from George Orwell today
"In an age of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act."
It reminded me of this line from Paul's letter to the Galatians (4:16)
"have I now become your enemy by telling you the truth?"

Wednesday

My eye doesn't hurt today. The hardest part of the treatment is trying to get the liquid into my eye- and repeat it six times a day.
Other than that, I'm sniffing and snuffling my way towards a two barrelled (or nostrilled) head cold. I drove to Northampton with Chris yesterday afternoon. He had some business to do, including the transfer of his customised numberplate to my van (which I had to pay for) My tourbus now carries the numberplate C3EMO, which kind of ruins the anonymity that's desireable when you carry high value musical equipment around. We called into a music shop for some drumsticks and I had a play of a Gibson J45-50 that was for sale. I've always wanted one,but that was a bit expensive, especially for someone who's only getting Statutory Sick Pay and a medical insurance payment each month.

So Cadbury's have been bought by Kraft. I can't think of a single product that Kraft makes that tastes good. Everything is processed to death. They make Toblerone, a chocolate bar that hurts your mouth when you try to bite a chunk off the bar. So Kraft will need to tread carefully.

My main concern (and one which I suspect is universally shared) is that they keep the original recipes for the products. US chocolate is foul stuff, worse than Belgian chocolate. Any moves to tinker with a quintessentially British taste experience will destroy the brand.
Whether Cadbury's continue to produce their confectionery in the UK, while of concern to the local communities involved, is less important. If they change the recipe, it won't matter where they make it.
And I enjoy my daily fix of Cadbury's. It's only a few hundred grammes a day. I've got it under control.

Tuesday 19th January

I woke up on Monday morning unable to open my eyes because the light was too bright. My eyeball hurt and it was very bloodshot. I rang the surgery and was given an appointment for that afternoon.
Having done that,I rang the Treatment clinic at the hospital. My next bout of chemo was due for today Tuesday. I told them about my arthritic hands and wrists and the bloodshot eye. They rang back a few minutes later with an appointment to see my specialist at 12.00, and to have a blood test beforehand.
Sue and I set off from home at about 11.30 and my day of sitting in hospital waiting rooms began.
First of all I queued for my blood test. It was only about five minutes, so we got to the Leukaemia clinic in good time and found two seats and sat down. Someone kindly brought us a cup of tea, and we sat and I read the newspaper from cover to cover as the staff worked their way through the day's appointments. Eventually we got to see Dr Lyttleton, got weighed and inspected and pronounced upon.
My blood test was very good again. White blood cells good, platelets double what they were when treatment started, and leukaemia cells negligible. I'm back over 100kg again (which has its own problems, as I'm seriously unfit and getting bloated from sitting in front of the TV all day. It didn't help being housebound in the recent snow either.)
Anyway, a plan was agreed. First of all, my chemo could safely be postponed for two weeks. Dr Lyttleton was to arrange for the hospital eye clinic to look at my eye, and for the arthritis specialist to look at my hands, to see if there is any underlying condition. He said to go and have a coffee in the canteen while he made some phone calls. I'd not paid for my coffee and sandwiches when he was at my side saying that the Eye Clinic could see me that afternoon. I went back to the Centenary Wing, collecetd my notes and an explanatory letter and headed to the clinic by myself. Sue went to collect her mother who also had an appointment that afternoon in the same eye clinic. We were able to cancel my appointment with my GP and I walked to the Eye clinic along miles of corridors. I arrived and presented myself at the reception and looked for a seat. Every seat was taken. Eventually I found a seat and drank the latte that I'd bought at the canteen. My name was called and my eyesight was tested and blood pressure taken. (It was quite high, which made a change from a couple of months ago when it was very low)
I rejoined the queue and Sue arrived with her mother. Eventually I was seen by a specialist who shone a bright light into my eye (not good), then gave me some eyedrops to dilate the pupil and sent me back out into the waiting room. After a while she saw me again and then took me to another room where she sought a second opinion and they did an ultrasound scan of my eye.
I was then given a prescription for some tablets and eye drops, with a further appointment later this week.
I finally got home at 5 o'clock after 5 hours of sitting in hospital waiting rooms.

Today I have the early symptoms of a cold. I don't know if it's the results of sitting in crowded waiting rooms, of coming into contact with someone who has a cold, or something else. My eye is less bloodshot and isn't painful today. I have to apply drops six times a day, which is a pain.

Sunday night

I'm due to see have a blood test and see the specialist on Tuesday. If everything's ok then I will start the next round of chemo.
However, I've been sufferering with swollen fingers in my right hand the last two days and one of my eyes is very bloodshot and painful. I don't know what this is, so I'm going to try and see my GP tomorrow.
Other than this, life has been uneventful since the last post. I've even been to the shops to buy a paper. It was good to get outdoors after being cooped up for weeks.

Tuesday 12th January

I'm not feeling too bad these days. My illness and treatment undergoes a four week cycle.
Week one- I have the chemo. I can just about get through if I take the anti-nausea pills from day one.
Week two- Still feel ill. Usually have backache from where my kidneys have had a bashing
Weeks three and four- feel much better. I'd be out and about if it weren't for the cold weather.

Next week is week one again. This will be the fourth cycle of six. So far so good.

Here's a video I found on Youtube. It was shot during the 1963 freeze. If you like steam railways and 60s music you will enjoy this. This is an excellent film.

Friday 8th January

It's cold outside apparently. I've not ventured out for a day or two. There's enough food and drink, the central heating's still holding on,and I've a book of word puzzles for when I get fed up with reading, blogging or watching TV.

The news is full of shortages. We're short of salt and grit for the roads. We're short of gas and some businesses have been cut off. Some homes are without electricity because the ice has brought down power lines.

I'm a fervent denier of Man Made Global Warming. I say it again and again that we have more to fear from the cold than the heat. Recent winters have been increasingly hard. Each year it takes longer for the ground to warm up in the Spring, so the ground gets cooler each year. Governments take decisions based on information given to them, and the BBC and Met Office are in the pockets of the global warming conspirators. The forecast was for a wet and mild winter, so nobody is prepared for this. People will die. I posted a table showing the numbers of deaths each year that can be attributed to the cold. It's on my other blog.

The central heating boiler is working after a fashion. We daren't turn it off. We have two boxes of spares waiting to be fitted, but I can't get through to arrange an appointment. As I write the lights keep dimming as the grid struggles to keep up with demand. I prophesied this back in October.

Some people will insist that two bad winters do not mean that global warming doesn't exist. They claim that weather is not the same as climate. OK.

Let me say this. Two hot summers do not mean that global warming is the cause.
Weather is not the same as climate remember?

As I write I've some pills to take and another ten days before the next round of chemo. Assuming I'm not frozen in that is.

Lazy day today

I'm having a lazy day today. Maybe it's a reaction to the housework I did yesterday, but boy is it cold outside. It hasn't snowed for a couple of days and the ice is slowly thawing, but this part of the country is one of the few that hasn't had loads of snow dumped on it.

The central heating is still working after a fashion, and we have plenty of food in the house, so we ain't going nowhere.

There's an article on the BBC website that tells of how the cold is a killer. Here's the link
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/8442413.stm
This is the first paragraph
"Global warming dominates the headlines, but in the UK the cold of winter is much more hazardous to health - especially for the elderly and the sick.
For every degree the temperature drops below 18C, deaths in the UK go up by nearly 1.5%. "

I've blogged repeatedly that we have more to fear from the cold than from global warming. We have more to fear from the adherents to the new global warming religion than global warming itself.
We're in the grip of the worst cold spell since the big freeze of 2009, almost one year ago. Our winters are getting colder year by year. The Northern hemisphere is much colder than it was ten years ago. The world is cooling.

But, if local authorities base their salt purchases on the Met Office long range forecasts, what do we get? That's right, they're all running out of salt to put on the roads, and now they've stopped gritting all roads except the trunk roads and motorways. They're quiet at the moment because no-one can access them because the local streets are impassable. I've lived through the big freeze of 1962-3, and the bad winters of the late 1970s, and if I'm to live through this winter, I'm staying indoors with the heating on, assuming it keeps going and we don't run out of gas.

Wednesday morning 10 am

Some of us may be old enough to remember a Simon & Garfunkle song called Wednesday morning 3 am. That's the significance of the title of today's post.
I woke several times during the night and checked that it hadn't snowed any more. Chris has/had to drive to Harlow for 7.00 this morning and so went last night. I spoke to him a couple of times and he'd loaded up but so far was unable to get out of Harlow because the lorries were stuck on the hill leading to the M11. If he hadn't made any progress by lunchtime I suggested that he go back to the depot, unload and try to get home. It hasn't snowed more than a few flurries so far today.

I decided to walk to the local shop to buy a paper, about 200 yards each way. It's the furthest I've travelled in days. Boy am I stiff from inactivity. My hips just seem to lock up. I'm walking around the house to try and keep supple, and Chris is arranging for a treadmill later in the week. My brain is still active, I gotta keep my body active as well.

I had an email from a friend yesterday to say that I'm scheduled to play a set at a charity all-day festival in March. If I juggle the diary by a few days I should be able to do it and then have my last dose of chemo the following week. I'm playing my guitar most days. If I don't, my fingers lose their callouses, and then it's painfull to play.

I shall be posting on my other blog as well today

Tuesday 5th January

I woke up early and saw the fresh snow in the garden. That put paid to any idea that I'd walk to the shops to get a newspaper. I'm so unfit. The most exercise I get is walking up and down stairs. Two weeks in every month all I can do is lie in bed or on the sofa, and as I'm in recovery mode at the moment it'd be good to try and exercise my joints with some walking. But it's snowing, so I'll be peering out the window for the next few days.
I tried to contact the boiler repair people. I've had two boxes of spare parts since before Christmas and no-one has yet called around to install them. The phone was constantly engaged yesterday (surprise surprise) and when I did get through I was given another number. Which rang and rang. And rang and rang.

I'm also trying to sort out my mortgage protection insurance. They made a mistake calculating my annual salary so I rang them before Christmas and the staff member I spoke to agreed that they'd miscalculated. I chased them up yesterday to be told that they'd looked at it again and no, they hadn't made a mistake, and it's up to me to prove how much I earn per year. So I'm waiting for their letter before responding.

More later.

Sunday bloody Sunday

Today I did something different. I sat on the sofa in the conservatory. I also walked to the shop to buy a paper. That's it really.

I've posted some more articles on my other blog www.daveclemo.blogspot.com

New Years Day

A Happy New Year to you all. Yesterday was a non-day. I got up and sat in a chair, read a bit, drank cups of tea and coffee and ate from time to time. Watched some TV, read the newspaper and completed some word puzzles, and read some more of Ayn Rand's brilliant novel "Atlas Shrugged". Then went to bed at about 11.00. Chris had gone out for the night. Sue had gone upstairs suffering from almost terminal boredom. I set the recorder to record Jools Holland's Hootenany and went to bed. I read a bit and then slept.
What an exciting life.

I'm using my other blog www.daveclemo.blogspot.com to write and comment about non-medical matters. So from now on, music videos, cartoons, my thoughts on music, books, global warming and other stuff will be posted over there, so that those who are using this blog to keep up with my health can read about that here.
I've written a short piece about catching up on my reading today and posted it on teh other site.

Wednesday (I think)

This in between Christmas & New Year period is always a bit of a blur. The normal week is suspended and all the days blur together. I've just come through my third spell of chemo and so the last week or so has been strange anyway. I was OK until day 4 (Saturday?) when I got ill. I managed to take all five doses of chemo without spewing them up and I'm on the road to recovery again. This illness is strange. It's like six illnesses one after the other. Take pills, feel ill, get better. Take pills, feel ill, get better. In one respect I'm no different to how I was in October, which is different from, say, recovering from an operation or a broken leg. Then there's the "Next time I'll know what to expect so I'll be better prepared" syndrome. Which basically means putting everything on hold. You're either recovering from the treatment or getting ready for the next dose.

We once visited Portland Bill, near Weymouth in Dorset. Chris was about 18 months old and we remember that this was the time when he turned almost overnight from a baby to a toddler. I also remember carrying him on my shoulders along a street and forgetting to duck under a branch of a tree, so he copped a faceful of leaves. He's taller and heavier than me now, so I hope he doesn't hold a grudge.
Anyway, we visited Portland Bill. It was foggy that day and the foghorn at the lighthouse was sounding. I recall standing near the lighthouse. When the foghorn sounded it drowned out everything. The earth shook. It was impossible to think. Then it stopped and it was heaven for a few seconds. Then the fear of another blast on the foghorn began. The next seconds of silence were spoiled by the oncoming dread of the oncoming noise. When it started it was as bad as before. Each time it sounded was like the first time. It made no difference whether I knew when it would start or not. Eventually we left and went back to Weymouth, never to return. I couldn't stand the sound, or the anticipation of the sound.

I was reminded about that when I was lying in bed this morning. Actually, chemo isn't that bad as long as I take care of myself and don't get tired. I can cope. I wouldn't cope with living near a lighthouse with a foghorn. Ever.

Do you know the joke with the punchline "Tea break over. Back on your heads!"?

Monday

I spoke too soon. Yesterday was a bad day. Maybe I overdid it on Saturday. I helped Chris soundcheck his drum kit in the studio for an hour or so, and while I didn't do a lot, it was a lot more than I've done of late. Then I stayed up late watching TV. I didn't drink much either.

Something caused me to wake with a start on Sunday morning and boy did I feel ill. I went to the bathromm and lay on the floor for a whille, then ent back to bed. I managed to take some anti-naisea pills along with my chemo pills, and kept them down. I managed to eat some toast then slept til midmorning when I had a cup of tea and brought it back up. So, no more tea. I ate toast and sipped water and dozed/slept until Monday morning. When I felt ill again. There was nothing to bring up but I felt a bit better. However, my fluid intake for the last day has been a lot less than the litre and a half I'm supposed to drink, so I'm not out of the woods yet.

Boxing Day

So far so good. It's day four of the current cycle of treatment and I'm doing OK. The preemptive strike with the anti nausea pills seems to have worked. I'm still feeling a bit tired but slept all night last night instead of the usual three hours or so.
I enjoyed Christmas Day. I even put on a glitzy cowboy shirt instead of the usual t-shirt. Chris & Heather were here in the morning, along with Jayne and her new man Ian and Rob who used to live with us last year. Jayne, Chris & Rob stayed for Christmas dinner, but then it was just Sue and myself in the evening. Typically there were three programmes of TV at the same time and we could only record/watch two, so I watched James May's Toy Stories and Sue went upstairs to watch her fix of Christmas soap, whilst recording "Strictly". We did watch Taggart together, taking great delight in saying "There's been a muuurrrrrrdaaahh" at various stages in the story.

All this fine Christmas fare (we still have half a turkey to plunder and it's now Boxing Day) has blinded me to the fact that there are no less than three unopened packs of Cadbury's Dairy Milk in the fridge. That's 3x 400 gramme packs, 1.2 kilgrammes of the best chocolate in the world- unopened! That's over 2 pounds of chocolate. This situation cannot be allowed to continue. We must strike and strike fast and decisively.

Who wants a bit of choccy?

Christmas Eve continued

As I was writing the last post I became aware of movement downstairs. The cat roams freely at night so I ingored it at first. It was when I heard the cutlery drawer open that I thought I'd better investigate. I went downstairs and Chris is in the kitchen making a sandwich. He'd walked back from the pub in the town centre and crept in trying not to make a sound. Having a few beers and trying to move around quietly are not normally compatible. So we had a cup of tea and I had an early breakfast and we sat and talked until four in the morning when I thought I ought to get some sleep.
I must have slept for all of three hours when a text woke me up. It was Tracy from Oz wishing me a happy Christmas. It was early evening where he was, but early morning here. Anyway, I got up and took the first of the day's dose of pills.
I've reserved a time slot just after the Christmas dinner for my next sleep.

No change there then.

Christmas Eve

I tried to take my pills in the correct order today. This meant waking up and taking two anti-nausea pills followed by seven of chemo. I had to take those on an empty stomach and with plenty of water. An hour later I took the normal daily pills and had my breakfast. My fingers and joints were very stiff this morning. I don't know if this is a side efect by my hands were very bad during the first month of treatment when I ended up in hospital. The morning went uneventfully. Sue was cooking and baking and I was unwelcome in the kitchen, so I retired somewhere quiet with the newspaper. I felt sleepy and a bit cold, so after a breakfast of bacon & egg sandwiches, shared with Chris who'd arrived home after driving 950 miles in the last 30 hours, through snow and ice, up to Glasgow and down to London, finishing in Leicester this morning. O for the energy and stamina of youth.
I took my second dose of chemo pills at lunchtime (only five of these) and, feeling cold and tired, fell asleep fully clothed, in bed. I reecall Jayne bringing me a cup of tea but when I woke it was late afternoon and the tea was cold.
After an evening of watching TV fully awake (my sleeping pattern is totally screwed) I decided that I ought to get to bed, so as to be at least semi-aware of events tomorrow.

Those were the days

This is a photo I took of a commemorative plaque beside the road just outside Robin Hoods Bay, North Yorkshire. I was watching a documentary about folk singer Eliza Carthy on Sky Arts tonight and Eliza's family live there. Seeing pictures of the narrow streets leading down to the sea reminded me of the plaque.
I hope that you will take time to read the inscription on the plaque. It tells you in a few words how times have changed. We've had a few inches of snow and the roads are impassible (impassable?). Part of the problem is the ineptutude of many drivers. They just can't drive when there's snow or ice on the road. They drive too fast, all accellerator and brake, and too close to the vehicle in front. Another factor is we drive all year round with summer tyres, and the tread is too shallow to grip when it's snowy. Then there's the nanny state with the health and safety don't drive, stay off the roads, etc, when it's clear to anyone with an ounce of sense that if enough people drove on the roads the snow would be broken down to slush and drain away. The problem with that solution is points one and two- bad drivers and summer tyres.
Anyway, please take time to look at the inscription.

Boiler update

We had a call from a boiler engineer this afternoon. He had the spares to repair the boiler but hadn't been told that the boiler was upstairs and he had to reach the exhaust vent in order to dismantle the boiler. We showed him where it was, and showed him the sheet of ice outside the back door which was caused by the leaking overflow. He didn't have a ladder or someone to hold the ladder steady, so we persuaded him that it'd be better to leave the spares and get another engineer around once we'd thawed out.
The boiler leaks but it's safe and it's working. That'll do until after the holiday.
We live in Northamptonshire and the engineer had been called in from the Forest of Dean to help with the backlog. They hadn't had any snow so far, so he was surprised to see how bad it was.

Chris has had a busy day. He had to get up early to drive to Coventry to pick up a load and take it to Glasgow. I kept in touch with him through the day. He said the roads were bad on the M6 over Shap and on the M74 near Moffat going up. He followed a snow plough as it removed about 12 inches of snow from the carriageway. He rang later on his way back from Glasgow and on to London to pick up his load for tomorrow. When I spoke to him he had done about 680 miles and had another 85 or so to go. It was raining so he could drive at 70. Once he's collected the load he has to deliver it to Leicester and then he can relax for a couple of days.

My first dose of chemo has gone without too much trouble. I'm a bit sore around my kidneys so I must drink plenty of fluids.

Tuesday again

One of my favourite Dilbert cartoons

Tuesday

On Monday afternoon I was in my customary position stretched out on the sofa when the phone rang. I got up too quickly and felt a bit dizzy. After that I felt unwell and in the end decided to go to bed early. I must have gone off to sleep right away. The next I knew it was the following morning and Sue is calling to me to wake up.
I got dressed and went downstairs and had breakfast, forgetting to take my medication, and then Sue drove me to the hospital. She dropped me off near the clinic and continued to work, and I walked to the clinic, entered and went straight to the treatment area and sat down. After about 15 minutes one of the nurses asked if I'd been assessed because they didn't have my file. Doh! I should have read the appointment letter.
So I went downstairs and booked in at the reception. A few minutes later I was called through by a nurse. I was weighed (twice, the second time without my Doc Martens as they didn't believe I'd put that much weight on). I put it down to my all-inaction lifestyle (and Cadbury's Dairy Milk chocolate) and I'm currently breaking the scales at a tad under 100kg. I might have to start doing some exercise, but I'm content to wait until after Christmas and the current course of chemo.
Once the consultation was over I went back to the treatment room and spent the next few hours connected to a drip and alternately reading the paper and dozing off.
I was finished by four o'clock. Sue came and collected me and we drove home through crowded streets. The town was gridlocked again, a combination of bad driving, untreated roads and too many people out shopping.
I'll start the dose of chemo tablets in the morning and hope that I've got enough anti-nausea tablets to get me through the next five days.

Monday morning

Apart from a brief foray to the shops on Sunday, I stayed in all weekend. Today I must go up to the hospital to have a blood test, ready for my next chemo session tomorrow.

One thing about all this enforced inactivity is that I read a lot, watch a lot of TV, and surf the internet. So I followed the latest Climate fiasco in Copenhagen with interest. I've already posted about the hypocrisy of it all, the private jets, the limos, the five star hotels, the deliberate misinformation and scaremongering, the falsification of facts and the rest of the charade. What puzzled me most was why bother? Why do all these fat cats turn up at these events and shed crocodile tears while they cry wolf about the fate of the world's poorest? Why? What's in it for them?
I'm beeing too cynical when I say that the richest nations look down on the poor with distain, and hate them because they produce nothing but children, and knowing that any attempt to improve their lot will only make them breed more. (Their opinion- not necessarily mine) So they stand on the platform in front of the world's media and give away money we don't have to the world's poorest nations, knowing full well that the people who need it won't see a penny, but the leaders of these poorest nations will soon have a shiny new jet so they can swan off to the next global fiasco.
So what's in it for the like of Gore and the others who have grown rich by peddling Man Made Climate Change? Those of us who are old enough to remember Watergate will remember a phrase used at the time "Follow the money". So, where's the money coming from, the money that will keep these vultures circling?
The answer, my loyal readers, who show up to read how my leukaemia is progressing, (please forgive me for using this blog as a soapbox)- the answer is Carbon Trading.
If you are interested and want to know more, can I direct you to this website?
http://eureferendum.blogspot.com/search?q=big+carbon

That's it for now. Please keep warm (except my friends in OZ- stay cool mate)

Friday

We had a phone call at 7.30 this morning. The central heating engineer (who lives in our town) was going to call on us first because all his booked calls were many miles away and the roads were treacherous. There was a couple of inches of snow on the ground so Sue decided to walk to work rather than drive and I decided not to go in at all. I had hoped to sort the archive room out but that will have to wait until after Christmas now.
The engineer called around and took the boiler apart. His face was red when he found a bolt that he hadn't tightened last time he was here. There are other faults and he's ordered more parts, but it safe to use (as long as you empty the drip tray regularly)
While the engineer was working away I decided to listen in on Terry Wogan's last morning show. It was brilliant as ever and his producer Barrowlands chose all the tearjerkers that he could find. We had Nat King Cole singing "Stardust" followed soon after by Eva Cassidy singing "Over the rainbow". And another Janet & John story that was so full of single entendres I almost blushed. Wonderful stuff.

My back has cleared up and I only get the odd niggle. My immediate plan is to keep warm over the weekend and then it's back to the clinic for round three of the chemo on Tuesday.

I'm still shouting at the TV. There's plenty to get wound up about. I shout a lot when I look at the antics of the new Global Warming high priests. Their hypocrisy astounds me. They tell me that my car is responsible for the increase in CO2 and as a result we're all going to drown as sea levels rise. And they all arrive on private jets. So many that there isn't enough tarmac to store them all. They have to fly them out of the country and park them in Norway. Then they get into gas guzzling limos and drive around town- so many limos that they had to bring in over 2000 of them from all over Northern Europe. And they don't see the hypocrisy!

There are very few leaders who lived by the rules they sought to apply to the rest of us. I can count them on the fingers of one hand. (and have a finger or two left over).

I'm reminded of a man who was born in poverty and died a criminal, yet his followers changed the world.
No not Che Guevara, but Jesus of Nazareth. Just like the new Green Religion, whose high priests have learjets and live in airconditioned luxury (yes I mean you Mr Gore), the high priests of Christianity also live in palaces and attend summits and conferences and issue wordy statements and declarations. You can't change the world by issuing orders from above, and implementing them with a big stick. Plenty of despots and dictators tried that, and their statues are ground into the dirt.

That's enough. There's a TV that needs shouting at.

Wednesday afternoon

Good news. I contacted the insurance company about my leaking central heating boiler and they said they'd get on to it.
I hadn't heard by 3.00pm so I rang them back, explaining how a cupful of water gushes out of the unit every time it fires up. And how we can't use the airing cupboard to store the towels and sheets (because they get wet.

They told me that they can get someone out to look at it.


On Saturday.
Or maybe Monday.

Wednesday morning

I should rename this blog "living with a broken central heating boiler". Yes, it's sprung a leak again.

tuesday

It's been a few days since I last posted, which is indicative of what's been happening, i.e. not a lot.
The central heating system packed in last Wednesday. I reported it but they couldn't get anyone out until Friday. The only real inconvenience was having to boil water for the washing up, as we have electric heaters and an electric shower, plus a gas fire in the living room.
The engineer turned up on Friday. I left him to it. After a while he said it was fixed and left. The boiler was now worse than before with strange noises emanating and the pressure gauge fluctuating wildly. I rang them back but they'd gone home. I rang on saturday morning and because I'd smelt something burning they sent the gas supply people to the house. They checked but couldn't find anything (I think it was the main circuit board burning out), but they stuck a "do not use" notice on the boiler. On Monday another engineer turned up. He'd been to the house before. (Did I tell you that this is the worse boiler we've ever known and it hasn't worked for more than six months at a time since it was installed?)
He took the unit apart, replaced all the parts that the other engineer was supposed to have replaced, renewed the pump and tested it (the other guy didn't test it but left in a hurry)
Anyway we now have central heating and hot water again, which is just as well because it's going to get cold.
Luckily all these call outs are covered by insurance. The boiler is six years old. It is a combi type and they are rubbish. Our old heater worked for twenty years without failing once. We only changed it because we had a conservatory built and the heater had to be moved. It's true that the more electronic gizmos and circuits that are used, the more likely they are to fail. We will have to change this boiler again soon and I'll have to look for something that is a little more reliable, probably German.
Other than thatI'm feeling fine. The pills for my back pain seem to have worked.
I'm going into work on Friday for an hour to see what needs attention before Christmas. Next Tuesday is chemo day.

Wednesday

Wednesday started the same as Tuesday. Backache and stiffness. Today I was bullied by Sue into doing something about it. She rang the surgery and they rang me. The upshot was that I had an appointment to see a GP this morning. He said that the painkillers weren't going to cure anything and what I needed was some anti-inflammatory drugs. And Omaprazole to stop the Naproxen messing my stomach. And some Diazapam to relax the muscles in my back. It's just as well I have an exemption certificate or that lot would cost over £20gbp.
I hobbled back to the car and Sue drove back to work. I called in to say hello while she got the prescription made up. It was nice to see everyone and catch up with news.
Sue then drove me home at lunchtime and she went back to work. She's under a bit of stress at the moment and her blood pressure is up a bit.
During the afternoon the central heating failed. I hope it doesn't get too cold because they can't come out to fix it until Friday. At least that's covered by insurance.

Tuesday

Tuesday started early. I woke up at 5.00 feeling stiff and with pain in my back and pins and needles in the legs. All the symptoms of a slipped disc. I got up and mooched about, started to read the paper and got in and out of the shower in good time to be collected by Sue to go to the hospital. We arrived at the Pathology clinic to see the biggest crowd waiting for tests. Because my appointment with the specialist is dependent on having up to date blood tests, I was given a different waiting room number to those who just turn up and wait their turn. Usually this means that we can be in and out of the clinic in five minutes. I sat down and heard the number 27 called. I looked at my ticket- number 33. This meant 30 minutes wait at least. Oh well, I'll be late for my appointment at the clinic. I read the paper and was eventually called and they took my blood.
We then walked through the miles of corridor to the Centenary Wing. When we arrived the place was full as well. Every seat was taken. The receptionist said that they were running about an hour and twenty minutes late. Some more chairs were found and we settled down with the paper. I read the paper from cover to cover and also completed the crossword and the codeword puzzle.
Sue went to the Outpatients Canteen and returned with a coffee. It was almost three hours before we were seen. My doctor apologised for the late running. They were trying to see all their patients before Christmas. I think one of the doctors was off sick as well.
The consultation went well. My blood tests were encouraging. The leukaemia cells were once again negligible, and my white cells were low, which means that I'm still susceptible to infection. I explained my slipped disc and he thought that it'd probably get better on its own. He was surprised to see that I'd put on half a stone in the past fortnight. (I'm not. I've been eating like a horse, and gorging on Cadbury's Dairy Milk, and taking no exercise.)
So that's the story for now. I'm going to have my next round of chemo on schedule, starting on December 22nd. The doctor said that I could put it back a week, but I know what to expect now, so I'm happy to get on with it.
I ought to get out more. The doc says I should be OK as long as I stay away from large crowds of strangers.

Monday

Monday will be remembered for my backache and my inability to get comfortable anywhere except in bed. So I got up and had breakfast, read the paper, couldn't get comfortable and so went back to bed. Woke up and had lunch. Couldn't get comfortable because of the pain in my back so I went back to bed. Woke up when Sue made dinner, went back to bed because I couldnt get comfortable.
You get the picture?
Painkillers work for a while but there's a restriction on how many you can take in 24 hours. Anyway I slept until 5 this morning when I got up and started on the merry go round again.
Off to see the specialist on Tuesday morning. I'll ask him about this.

Sunday

I felt well enough to dress up warm and go out with Chris on Saturday afternoon. We drove over to Corby to collect some equipment that we'd put in for repair and whilst there, we called in to the catalogue clearance warehouse, which deals mainly in ex-Argos stock. There were a lot of people shopping, and there was a roaring trade in flat screen TVs at cost price or less. I noticed pallet upon pallet of blueray players and dvd recorders, two electrical gadgets that didn't exist five years ago, and now can't be given away.
Twenty five or thirty years ago it was VHS vs betamax video systems. One was relatively cheap and the other gave better results. What isn't always acknowledged is that the porn industry's decision to opt for VHS that sounded the death knell for Betamax. During the 90s there were a number of video systems using laser discs vying for supremacy. Once again, the porn industry chose DVD and the rest is history.
I wonder if the warehouse full of Blueray players at discount price could have anything to do with the rise of the internet, and sites like Youtube, where you can watch video scenes from almost every TV programmes, film, concert and pop video for free?
I watched TV in the early evening, then went for a lie down. I woke up just as Sue was going to bed, but being wide awake decided to watch Match of the Day. It's always good to see Chelsea being beaten. Unfortunately it's a rare occurrence these days. Then I started flicking channels and went to bed late. Woke up with backache. Went back to bed as couldn't get comfortable. Slept til 3.00. Got up to meet daughter Jayne's new fellow. Was persuaded to try Chris vibrating seat. Later I noticed that my backache had eased. Was it the seat, or the two painkillers I took before coming downstairs?
The rest of Sunday involved sitting in a comfy armchair alternately reading the paper, dozing, and watching TV. Sue cooked a lovely dinner.
Lazy days.

Following on from my comment about Youtube, I was talking to Chris about bands that I saw back in the 70s, and I mentioned the Sensational Alex Harvey Band. Here's a clip of the band on the Old Grey Whistle Test playing "Delilah". I love the instrumental section. very visual.

Saturday morning

I woke up at silly o'clock this morning. My back is still giving me grief. I got up and had some breakfast and took my pills. Sue went out early to take a friend shopping so I checked my emails and had one from my friend Bob Howe in Sydney.
Bob came over with Nicki Gillis back in the summer and we played a number of dates including the Great North festival near Castle Barnard in County Durham.

Bob found a video of our performance of the Eurythmics song "Thorn in my side" on Youtube, so here it is as a reminder of last summer, and a foretaste of next summer, when Nicki will tour the UK and Europe, and I will be back on bass guitar duties.

We've still got some spare dates, so if you're looking for a great evening's entertainment please get in touch.

Friday

Sue says that i must be feeling better because I've started shouting at the TV again. Well, there's plenty to shout about. The whole Man Made Global Warming conspiracy is starting to unravel as people realise that lies and spin are part of the scientific process as well as the political one.
I have plenty of time to surf the internet and I recommend you drop by Wattsupwiththat.com for an insight into what's going on. The AGW scaremongers would have us believe that today's temperatures are unprecedented and it's all our fault and produce a fatally flawed "hockey stick" graph as proof with no argument. Other scientists have asked for the data so that they can independently verify it, but no, they won't release it.

So what's this got to do with my current health status? Try this.I'm feeling unwell but don't wish to consider the fact that I might have a serious illness. I pay a specialist to examine me to give me a clean bill of health, and to disregard any symptoms or results that may prove contrary to my preferred diagnosis because they are an inconvenient truth. I obtain the report and tell the world that I'm healthy and have a doctor's report to prove it. My loved ones and other concerned individuals see the report and contrast it to my actual physical condition and are righly concerned. Are they sure about this? Did they run tests? All of them? can we see the results of these tests? Why not? Can we take the data and have it independently verified? Can we have a second opinion?

All right so my analogy is backward. I'm really ill but wish to convince the world that I'm well. The global warming scaremongers are doing the opposite. They earth is behaving much as it always did. The weather is variable. It's been a lot hotter in the past and it's been a lot colder. They are trying to convince us that the Medieval Warm Period and the Little Ice Age (which is the story of the planet's weather in the last 1500 years) didn't exist and they have the figures to prove it. OK, show us the figures. Let us have a second opinion on that.

If I were seriously ill but wished to make it known that I was healthy and well, people would question my motives wouldn't they? What is he hiding and what does he stand to gain or lose by this? So it is with those who are trying to tell us something that just blatantly isn't true. What are they hiding? What do they stand to gain by lying to us?

As you can tell, I am feeling better. Apart from severe back pain from when I put my back out while throwing up last weekend.

Another post soon

Thursday

I seem to be recovering well from the treatment last week. My hunger appears undiminished- take this afternoon as an example.
I had a can of soup for lunch, with four doorsteps of crusty bread and a cup of tea. I finished that and still felt hungry so I ate an apple. I nodded off for an hour and Chris came in. he was looking for something to eat so I persuaded him to go to the shop as I fancied a cake or a bun and our cupboards were bare. He returned with a pack of Chelsea buns (yum) and a danish pastry. I'd described a Chelsea bun but he came back with the danish as well as the buns. It tasted lovely! He'd also bought some crumpets and I smelled them as he buttered them from the toaster so I had a couple of those as well.
Hmmm... what's for tea?

On a different note, I had to pay for a prescription at the hospital pharmacy last month, so we looked at getting an exemption certificate. It took a bit of filling in and obtaining doctor's signatures and rubber stamps, but it arrived in the post yesterday the 2nd December.

What I didn't realise was that I'm entitled to free prescriptions when I reach 60 (along with my bus pass, and that's in about three weeks.......

Weds 2nd December

I must be feeling better. I was hungry all day yesterday and I'm enjoying the taste of my food. I had chicken soup with 4 doorstep sized slices of bread at lunchtime; steak & kidney pie and chips covered with HP sauce for tea; ate half a bar of Cadbury's Dairy Milk during the evening followed by a cheese and marmite sandwich for supper. Add in the apples, toast, cereals, bag of crisps and copious cups of tea, not to mention eating a pomegranite and getting juice everywhere and you get the idea.
When I started the treatment I weighed over 100 kg (about 15 and a half stone)and When I was weighed last week it was down to about 94kg which means I've lost a stone or so. I looked in the mirror this morning and thought I looked a bit thin in the face so I hunted out the bathroom scales. They were in the back of the airing cupboard. Sue says that they're not accurate, but I thought I'd weigh myself anyway. If they're weighing heavy I'm in trouble because even with eating all this grub I'm down to 93Kg or 14 st 9lb.

At any other time I'd say a diet that lets you stuff your face all day and still lose weight would be a winner, wouldn't you?

Enough. I'm off for a snack.

Tuesday morning

As Monday progressed I felt well enough to sit downstairs and start work on my accounts for this year- something that I dread even when fully fit. I managed to file 2008-9 with HMRC by the end of October this year, after what seemed like interminable phone calls and aborted sessions online. Most years I'm so wound up by the process that I put off filling the following year's accounts until the last moment. As my music career has been cut short by events I'm taking this opportunity to start work early.
I was also conducting a conversation by text with my son Chris, who left home on Sunday evening at about 10.00, drove to Durham, parked up for a few hours, loaded and drove to Glasgow, and then drove home via Northampton, a distance in excess of 700 miles in around 18 hours. I've driven to Truro in Cornwall and back in a day, stopping only for a walk on the beach at Perranporth, and I drove over 400 miles in a day and played a festival when on tour with Nicki Gillis last summer, but 700 miles on Britain's roads in a day is a lot.
Anyway, the upshot was that I ended up more tired than I realised, and was quite groggy when I dragged myself to bed at about 11 o'clock last night.
I must take it easy today.

Monday morning

My nausea cleared up as Sunday progressed, and I slept for most of the afternoon. I awoke feeling hungry and Sue cooked a meal for me which was lovely. So, after a good night's sleep I'm feeling much better.
I'm going to continue taking the anti-nausea pills for a couple of days in case the sickness returns.

Sunday

Saturday just drifted into Sunday. I stayed in bed all day. Slept a bit, read a bit, slept a bit,etc. I found that I could keep toast down so I had toast several times with the highlight being scrambled egg on toast for my dinner. I woke up at about 3.30 this morning with a growling stomach. I got up and tried to drink some squash, then went downstairs. At about 5.00 the inevitable happened and I was sick. what happened then was strange. Sue had got up and was helping me clean up when I coughed as I was blowing my nose and something popped in my lower back.I fell to the floor to get some relief from the pain, which eventually eased enough for me to get up and go back to bed.
I took some anti-nausea pills before I went off to bed and they stayed down, so I felt confident enough to take my morning drugs at about ten o'clock and they've stayed down as well.
Half the problem is that I've been told to take plenty of liquid, but if I drink too much, my body rejects it. So how much is too much? How much is too little?

Saturday

Not much to report about Thursday & Friday except that it was getting harder to drink the quantities of fluid that I'd managed a few days previously. I also had a heaviness in my stomach as if I'd eaten too much, and this was constant.
Sue woke me up early this morning as she was due to go see her sister for the day. I took my pills and drank some tea, all the while my stomach growling. After a while I took some anti-nausea pills and had a couple of mouthfulls of cereal.
Bad move. I started to heave and only just made it to the bathroom, where I threw up all that morning's drugs. I went back to bed and slept all morning. Sue cancelled her day out and busied herself around the house.
I've had some toast and kept it down. Now I'm about to take my last dose of chemo.
It's like a cumulative poisoning I think. At the beginning of the week I can take it all in my stride, but the cumulative doses of drugs just wear you down. I expect to feel this low for all next week, but I hope I don't.

Weds 25th November

Having a lazy day. Breakfast included about a dozen pills, and I had another 5 before lunch. Other than that, I'm alternating my time between reading a book, doing the crossword, drinking tea and snoozing. Rather a lot of snoozing in fact.
I hope it won't mean I'm wide awake all night.
I have to drink lots of liquid, and this has an obvious side effect, so must dash to the loo!

Tuesday

I've just returned from the second chemo session with no side effects except drowsiness from the piriton pre-med. I've got a big bag of pills to swallow in the next few days. As long as I remember which day it is I'll be alright. I take one drug on Mondays Wednesdays and Fridays only, another drug is six tabs one day and seven the next, while a third is only four a day (but an hour before food).
I'll have to draw up a spread sheet to keep up.

Monday 23rd November

I've just got back from the hospital. I had to have a blood test and then I saw the specialist who was pleased with progress. My leukaemia cell count is very small and the platelet count is going up. I've been feeling generally OK in the last few days so I'm booked in for the next round of chemo tomorrow. They give me Rituximab by drip, with the other two drugs taken daily for the next five days. I hope I don't get any more side effects like last time, when I ended up in hospital for a week.

I just love the names of the drugs that I'm prescribed. I can't pronounce half of them. Like Sri Lankan surnames, they have too many syllables. My belief is that they select the names by picking letters from a scrabble bag.

I've lost about half a stone since treatment started, and there are those who'd say that was a good thing.

Sunday

It may be down to the fact that I had a late night on Friday night, (one can only stay in bed for so long), but Saturday left me drained. Some friends called in during the afternoon and stayed for an hour or so, but that shouldn't have left me feeling dog tired and going to bed at 6.00. I dropped straight off and slept until about midnight. I felt quite thirsty and recalling how I'd got quite ill through not drinking enough a few weeks ago, I got up and made a cuppa followed by some breakfast cereal.
I sat and watched TV and drank tea until the early hours and then went back to bed.

I woke at about ten o'clock with a sick headache, so my morning pills were bolstered by some paracetamol. Sue got up soon afterwards, and after visiting a friend for a cup of tea, bought a newspaper,leaving me to sit in the chair reading about the latest revelations of corruption in high places and infidelity everywhere else. It's true what they say about political sleaze. With the Tories, it's always about sex, with Labour it's always about money.
A couple of hundred years, when the average peasant was lucky to earn fifty pounds a year, they paid high court judges five thousand a year, in the belief that as they were so rich they couldn't be bought. Did it work? I don't know. Would it work today? Pay our politicians more so that they wouldn't fiddle their expenses? Somehow I don't think so.

I got up from the chair to go to the kitchen and had to hang on to the furniture as I felt quite dizzy. I felt like that when I was ill a few weeks ago, so i'll keep an eye on it. My temperature's fine, but I feel quite weak. I can't believe how tired I get when I do anything different from my normal routine.

Friday

We had a request from a friend for a PA system for Friday night. I said that we should do it, because the person had helped Chris on the video shoot earlier this year. Chris plays drums in an Iggy Pop tribute band and they needed to shoot a showreel for the promoters, and Millsy works as lighting technician at the venue they used. Anyway, Chris drove overnight to his pickup point (he had to take a load from Runcorn in Cheshire down to near London Airport and then on to Bristol).

I kept in contact with him during the morning and then decided to draw up a list of all the components that he'd need. This was almost the first work I'd done in weeks. later, when he came home we used my list to select all the leads and cables that were needed. No, I didn't load the van.

After that it was Strictly followed by Children in Need, slouched in front of the TV.

Sue came in early from work and we had a cuppa while the TV played in the corner. There's a show on ITV called Golden Balls. I seldom watch it but I know that its host is onetime folk singer turned observational comedian called Jasper Carrott.

Back in the early 1970s I joined a traditional folk group, playing guitar, learning mandolin, and enjoying the craic. When we ventured outside of London to a Festival, we'd invariably set up a session in the beer tent, and I recall seeing Jasper sing his version of "12 days of Christmas" and "bastity chelt" at the Cambridge Folk festival of 1972. A few months later our band, now named "Captain Swing" played support to Jasper somewhere in deepest Enfield. I like Jasper. Like Billy Connolly, he started as a singer/musician, and like the Big Yin, he found that the audiences preferred the introductions to his songs, so that the songs grew fewer, and the comedy took over.

Anyway, back to Golden Balls. It's tosh, and, like Deal or No Deal, the contestants don't have to answer any questions in order to win. All they have to do is bluff to the other players about the values of the balls they hold. No problems so far, except when the contest is whittled down to the final two, they each try to convince the other of their honesty, and that they should share the prize pot. They then reveal their hands, either "share" or "steal". If they've both chosen to share, they share the prize. If they both choose to steal, they get nothing. If one says he is willing to share but reveals the "steal" ball. He wins the lot, and the honest one get nothing.

Call me old-fashioned, but I couldn't live with myself if I "won" a fortune by lying. I like quiz shows where the contestants have to display knowledge of some sort.

From politicians who milk the system to their advantage to pop stars who don't sing on their own records to tea time quiz shows that reward dishonesty, we live in strange times.

OK rant over. It's time for breakfast. Today I will be mostly watching TV.

Thursday 19th November

So, did I sit in bed and read the paper, or did I go downstairs? Choices, choices!
Today I mostly sat in bed.
Chris got back late last night from his driving job, and we sat talking until the early hours. I had every intention of helping him with his books today, but he didn't get up until lunchtime. He had written a list of things to do, and doing his books was on it, but somehow there were other more pressing things to do. Funny that.

I decided yesterday that I'd start doing my accounts for 2009/10. You know, actually get ahead? Well, that won't get started until at least tomorrow. Funny that.

It was quite gratifying to read a friend's facebook posting to find he'd quoted from my blog. Thanks to everyone who stops by to read my posts.

It's difficult to know what to write. Some days I'm tired but not sleepy, and other days it's the other way around. I can never tell which it's going to be. Friends ring and ask how I am. Compared to yesterday ot this time last year? I feel OK today, but I haven't walked anywhere, or carried files around, or sat over a hot computer or switchboard. I haven't driven miles, unloaded the van and set up the kit. I haven't spent all day in the studio working on a recording, playing, listening, mixing.

I will do all those things again, but I'm only a few weeks into a treatment that is supposed to take six months. I'll take each day as it comes, and be glad that I don't feel anything like as bad as I did a week or two back.

Weds Nov 18th

On Monday I sat in bed to read the paper. Yesterday I thought I'd do something different so I sat downsatirs in an armchair and read the paper. That's how different the days are. I sneaked downstairs on Monday night at around midnight because I heard voices. Chris had just got in from a rehearsal with Willie Sherkle and they'd just unloaded the van and were having a cuppa. Even though I only stayed long enough to say hello and get myself a drink, it was good to speak to someone different. Monday wasn't too bad actually, as daughter Jayne also called around for tea.
Yesterday I spent an hour or so entering figures on a spreadsheet for Chris. In the evening Sue and I watched some TV together, before she went upstairs to watch "I'm a celebrity". I can't stand the programme, although it has a hypnotic grip. Monty Python did a spoof TV quiz show back in the 70s. It was called "Spot the brain cell" and was subtitled "30 minutes of ritual humiliation of the old and greedy". How prophetic.
I spent the next few hours flipping channels and reading my book, until I realised I was very tired and should have gone to bed.
Today I will sit in bed and read my paper......

Monday 16th November

I spent Saturday afternoon dozing in front of the TV, trying to get excited about England's inept display against Argentina. Then I dozed some more, staying awake long enough to watch Strictly. Chris & Heather went out for the evening/night, so Sue and I watched some more TV (dozing really) before she dragged herself off to bed sometime after 11.00. I'd been in bed all day, so I decided to stay up a little longer. I flipped channels looking for something to watch.
Women treat the zapper differently from men. They use the zapper to see what's on, while men use it to see what else is on.
Before I knew it I was starting to get tired. I checked the time. 4.30. Chris wasn't home yet (they turned up at about 7.00 after celebrating a friend's birthday).
So I went to bed. And woke up at 10.00, took my pills, had some breakfast and settled down with the paper. Sue kept me supplied with drinks and even brought me dinner.
I stayed in bed, reading and sleeping. Sue came to bed and I slept on. I woke up at about 4.00 (having spent 23 hours in bed)and made some breakfast. I sat in front of the TV until about 6.00, when I realised I was dozing again so I went back to bed. Sue got up and went to work, leaving me in bed reading the paper. Enough is enough. I got up, had a shower and went downstairs for my second breakfast. I watched tv until lunchtime.
The only exercise I get is walking to and from the bathroom, and walking up stairs. Sometimes I really push the boat out and use the upstairs bathroom when I'm downstairs.
Prior to my diagnosis, my only symptoms were that I got tired. I don't know if I could manage half a day at work, let alone a full day. My resistance to infection is so low that I can't take the risk and go in to work, although there is work for me to do.
Only a week to go before my next bout of chemo.

Sat Nov 14th.

My urticaria keeps kicking in and it's driving me mad.Thanks goodness for hydrocortisone cream.

My friend Heather posted a card through my door yesterday. It was a painting of a Cornish fishing boat and inside the card she's written this:

"Be encouraged by the words of one of my favourite songs of all time!

Don't be surprised at all the trials you may be facing
But realise, there is a prize that's really worth chasing
It's your salvation, God is still good.

God is still good, he understands,
In every life, there is a plan.
He'll pick you up when you fall down
God is still good, God is still good.

To everything, there is a time, a place and a season
To every life, there is a rhyme, a race and a reason
Hold on to this, God is still good.

God is still good, in Him will I trust
God is still good, win lose or bust
Ashes to ashes, from dust to dust
God is still good, God is still good."

Which is a song I wrote about 10 years ago when I was working in a plastics factory making black dustbins and yellow builder's buckets. I lived with the song for 5 years before recording it on my "Ain't Quitting" CD, and the song was selected for constant airplay on a Christian radio station in the autumn of 2003.

Thanks Brian & Heather, for your card and kind thoughts and prayers.
Thank you everyone who emails me, sends cards, texts, and adds comments to the blog. I appreciate you all.

Friday 13th Nov

I slept in my own bed last night. I still have a few aches and pains and my urticaria (hives) was bad last night but I got through without scratching myself to death. I woke early this morning and had a shower followed by breakfast and then back to bed to read the paper. I've decided to keep to hospital routine for a few days, so that also included a nap mid/late morning.
Sue came home for lunch so we shared soup and rolls. I'm going back to bed to continue reading my book (this will also include a hospital regulation nap)
I'm feeling OK. I want to stay that way so I will maintain the hospital cleanliness routines and stay in quarantine for the weekend. The weather's going to be wet and windy so I wouldn't be going far anyway.

Back home again!

Hi everyone, I was passed fit to return home today. There are still a couple of niggles to deal with. My urticaria (Hives to you) seems to want to kick in again. There was a particularly lurid episode at around 7.30 last night. I've had a lot of blood samples taken from my arm and the skin is a bit sensitive. It suddenly started itching and after a few minutes was red and blistered. I showed it to the duty doctor and asked if I could put some hydrocortisone cream on it. He agreed, and within 30 minutes it had completely cleared up without a mark showing, no redness, anything.
Then there's my chest, my other elbow, etc all of which seem to have spontaneous outbreaks of itching and blistering. The doctors have now decided that the treatment isn't triggering it, so one less hurdle to freedom.
I've now got to set up a regime at home that will let me keep track of things, note any wierd happenings, and not be scared to ring the hospital when I feel ill.

They tell me that I was very ill when they admitted me on Wednesday last. My kidneys were struggling, my blood pressure was very low, 71 over 67 at one point, and I had diarrhoea. Not good. I'd actually started feeling ill on Saturday and I should have called them then. I did ring on Monday and they pumped me full of fluid but had no bed for me. I then had all manner of complications including severe arthritis in my hands, which ballooned up. I couldn't grip or pick anything up. Mind you, my hands were back to normal the next day.
Then my feet swelled up. I couldn't get a sock on, let alone my new slippers. I diuretic injection soon sorted that. My liquid output soared. I was in quarantine and had to use bottles to pee into. The nurse was bringing them in by the armful.
Eventually the doctors sorted out what was caused by my condition, what was caused by the drugs, and what was down to me. My blood pressure has been steady for almost a week, and the doctors finally agreed to let me go home today.

My next bout of chemo was due to have started next week, but it's been put back a week to give me some time to recover. My blood tests are showing negligible amounts of leukaemia cells so teh treatment is working.

Monday 9th November 2009

At last I am able to get back on to the site! Dave is still in hospital and we are hoping to get him home soon.. He is sleeping a lot but has had various things going on since I last wrote. He has a rash a reaction against some of the medication he has been taking we think, he has swollen feet and his hands at one point were swollen. He is off the drip now and his blood pressure seems to be holding up. Next week he has his second lot of chemo!

Sue

Wednesday 4th November 2009

After having a fairly sleepless night Dave woke feeling really unwell. He telephoned the Centinary Wing of the hospital and they called him back telling him to go in. They confirmed his blood pressure was very low and he was dehydrated. He spent the day on the ward having various amounts of liquid pumped into him. It was also decided that they would admit him and there would be a bed for him after 2.00.pm. At 5.00.pm he was taken to Lilford ward at Kettering General Hospital. I left him there just after 5.00.pm cam home, had some tea and went back to the hospital with our daughter Jayne ready for visiting at 7.00.pm. unbeknown to me visting had been changed and was from 6.00.-7.00.pm!! Well we had 10 mins with him. He is looking better but still getting stomach cramps. He is in a room on his own and cannot leave the room for fear of infection because he still has diarrhoea. Hoefully he will be back home soon.

Sue

Tuesday evening

I had dinner and took my drugs as normal, but then started shivering so I covered myself with a quilt. Soon I had backache and stomach cramps, which led to the inevitable trots. I took some anti nausea pills which helped for a while but another trip to the toilet put paid to that.

I'll ring the clinic in the morning. Whether they'll see me is debatable because of the risk of cross-infection.

All these secondary symptoms are bringing me low
There was an article in the Mail today

Copy this link to your browser to take you there
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1224750/New-drug-kills-leukaemia-worst-affected-adults-created.html

Tuesday morning

After sitting at the computer writing the last blog entry I felt quite cold, so wrapped up well and went back to sleep, only awakening at 9.30.

The good news is that my hands aren't anything like as bad. I can now grip with my left hand.
The bad news is that my chest is hurting and I fear that I'm going down with a chest infection. I get trachyitis most winters (an adult form of croup) and this could be the onset. I was hoping that my stomach had settled down but no. I've still got diarrhoea. Which is not good as it may mean my drugs go straight through. Oh, and a temperature of 38.2.

I rang Staff Nurse Heather to tell her and she said she'd report it, but didn't think they'd want to see me.

Monday night

What a couple of days. I started feeling unwell on Saturday afternoon/evening. There was nothing specific, just a bit achy and a slight tightness in my chest. During Sunday I began to get pain in my left hand. I have some arthritis in my neck and hands and it felt like the onset of that. As the day progressed the pain in my hand got worse.
I know it's bad when I can't even hold my guitar. During the night I couldn't even hold a cup, and as for unscrewing pop bottles..forget it.
I had another restless night on the sofa and in the morning decided to ring the clinic.
I spoke to Staff Nurse Heather and explained my symptoms, adding that I'd been reading those little slips of paper that you find in the drug packaging- otherwise known as the Hypochondriac's Charter.
The upshot of all this is that I was called into the clinic for some blood tests, a chest X-ray and examination by the doctors. They are unsure if the arthritis is connected to my leukaemia treatment, so they wanted to keep me in for observation for 24- 48 hours.
The only problem was that there were no beds available. None. Zilch. Zip.

So they gave some more anti inflammatory pills, more antibiotics and sent me home.

Which is better. I crashed out when I got home, only waking for my dinner.
I woke up at about midnight and feel better. My hands are still sore but the swelling has gone down and I can pick things up.

When I mentioned that we had a parrot, the specialist went "oh". Parrots can pass on pneumonia, so Billy will have to move out or move on. Bugger.