“Make the Best of the Weekend - the Methylpred is Next Week”

Friday 6th to Sunday 8th July 2007

I go down for my blood test on Friday to find that I have lost over 2 kgs despite all the food consumed in the week - I am 73.2 kgs. My results are: Wbc: 8.2; Neut: 7.5; Lymph: 0.5;
Hbn: 10.8; and PLT: 129. I see Tm Corbett about my mouth ulcers and a rather painful swelling on the back of my hand where I had had a cannula some weeks earlier. He prescribes me a short course of anti-biotics to prevent any possible infection, some anaesthetic mouthwash (Difflam) and increasing the Aciclovir from 3 tablets to five times daily. The lump on the hand is probably a small thrombosis and he says it will go away naturally in time. I have two hours sleep in the afternoon, during which Vikki Bevan leaves a message on the answer phone that my Methylprednisolone next week will have to be the usual dosage - to comply with the clinical trial protocol - but that I will have a nine day course of prednisolone tablets starting on the Saturday following to help wean me off the high dosage steroids and hopefully reduce the possibility of the muscle wastages withdrawal symptoms I experienced last time. Hope it works!
The “birthday” balloon ride I had arranged for Tina for Saturday evening unfortunately was cancelled at the last moment. It was a very nice, clear evening and we would have had superb views, but the wind was too strong. So we have to arrange it for another day. We go to Worthing on Sunday morning and drop in at the end of Lily’s 4th birthday party - mayhem! - and then back to Matthew’s to see how the kitchen / dining room re-construction is going. They have been in chaos for weeks.