My Chest Infection Bug is Identified

Monday 1st to Sunday 7th October 2007

To the RSCH on Monday morning for my blood test, with Tina driving as I still do not feel comfortable driving. The top stitch on my Hickman Line was taken out, the line flushed and the dressing changed. Ros Johnston checked my chest and sent me for an x-ray with the probability they would arrange for me to have a CT scan as well, including my sinuses. I am to go back on Wednesday so they can check progress. My blood results today are - Wbc: 3.9; Neuts: 2.6; Lymph: 0.9; Hbn: 10.6; PLT: 103. My weight today is 75.2 kgs.

I am sleeping most afternoons for at least a couple of hours, but on Tuesday I sleep a total of between four and five hours either side of lunch. This is remarkable as I am also sleeping well at night.

Back for another check up and blood tests at the RSCH on Wednesday. My neutrophils are down to 1.8 today. I find that I have an allergic reaction to the transparent plaster - IV 3000 - holding my Hickman Line and this is replaced with Tegaderm. I hope that is ok. The CT scan has been requested but it may take a couple of weeks before I get it.

Jim Rodgers calls round on Thursday morning for coffee and a chat. We then have a walk up the High Street for some fresh air and find ourselves having a pint of Harveys in the New Inn. I can taste the beer! Before that I call Judith, Dr. Steve Devereux’s secretary, and am able to get a slot at the end of his clinic tomorrow as I am concerned about my cough, my tiredness and my loss of appetite, bearing in mind my oncoming transplant.

I drive to Kings on Friday for my pre-transplant session. (Tina drives home but gets the worst of the deal!) No one from the team is available when we arrive, but I eventually get some clarity about what blood samples are needed. I set the cat among the pigeons at the bloods room as they have no prior notice of the request, but the receptionist is as efficient as ever and soon sort things out. The funny thing is they are not trained to make use of Hickman Lines, so it is back to my arm. I am seen by Steve Devereux about 12.30pm. He is very attentive to my chest cough - upper respiratory tract infection actually - as this needs to be sorted out before going into the transplant procedure. He gets me a CT scan today on my sinuses - and full body for staging purposes. That’s much better than waiting two weeks or so! He is sympathetic to my appetite loss issues and takes me off Corsodyl and Nystatin (hurray!) but keeps me on Itroconozole (ugh!). He suggests I stop the Furosimide as well. He also explains that my tiredness is natural considering the heavy chemotherapy regime I have been on, the nasty chest cough, the medications and hospitalisations I have had over recent months. He does not need me to see Mansour or any of the team as it is only three weeks since the last time and the priority is to get my chest sorted out. I have a provisional appointment to see him again in two weeks. We leave much heartened and reassured by this session.

On our way home I get a call from Jason in the RSCH day unit telling me that the laboratory has found a bug in my last sputum sample and that it is sensitive to Ciprofloxacin. So we go straight down to Brighton, collect the prescription and call into Asda to get it dispensed. I am later told that the bug is Pseudomonas, one which is quite regularly found but specific to people who are immune suppressed.

I am catching up on my diaries of our breaks away this year and have two of them done by Sunday. Saturday and Sunday are Rugby World Cup quarter finals days - a good excuse to keep my feet up and ease my water retention problems! England confound the critics. Australia and New Zealand are both sent home early! We walk up the village on Saturday afternoon as Tina wanted to see the plot I have bought in the cemetery. She likes the position - it is facing west, against the old cemetery wall below a very healthy looking holly tree. I am very pleased this has worked out so well. On Sunday I have a late afternoon nap. Our dinners this weekend have been fillet steaks and pork fillets. They are tasty, but I am still off wine - unfortunately! Whilst I am still having coughing sessions, I think things are getting slightly better.