I Definitely Feel On The Up

Monday 18th to Sunday 24th February 2008

I get my copy of Mark Jackson’s letter following the consultation with him last Tuesday in his chest clinic. It underlines all the points he made to me. I then get in touch with Steve Devereux’s secretary, Judith, at Kings and she gives me an appointment with him for Friday morning - which is great. I want to see if he will give me clearance to go back to work as well and this will enable me to move quickly if he says yes - which I am hopeful he will. We have been thinking we deserve another trip to La Gomera, what with everything we have been going through. I fix a week from the Wednesday immediately following Easter.

On Tuesday I meet up with old colleague Chris Pascoe for lunch in Lewes. We chat over latest happenings for both of us. I then have my Pentamidine nebuliser in the Elton John Unit, at Brighton courtesy of Abbie. What with my nasal / sinus trouble, I am quite woozy afterwards and have a sit down for a while before leaving. I am already coughing up loads of stuff on the drive home and when I get home my lung evacuation is 250% more than usual. This is the power of the nebuliser, even though it is not its intended outcome! I feel a bit unwell for the rest of the day. I am sure Pentamidine is good for me, but it sure doesn’t make me feel good!

Next day Tina and I do a two mile fast walk to get the blood circulating and I feel good afterwards. I receive a Google Alert from the MedicalNewsToday website about Campath and its potential usage for earlier CLL intervention where fludarabine is not appropriate. A clinical trial compared Campath with Chlorabucil in previously untreated patients with B-cell CLL. What draws my attention, however, is the higher overall response rates and the mention of a median “remission” period of two years. Interesting.

I am back to the RSCH on Thursday morning for a clinic with Tim Corbett. My blood results are good - Wbc: 3.7; Neuts: 1.9; Lymph: 1.2; Hbn: 13.4; PLT: 108. He decides that I should wait until next week’s blood test before having a next GCSF injection. He wants to get back to Mark Jackson about his recommended substitution of Colomycin for Ciprofloxacin. So I am to stay on Ciprofloxacin and Voriconozole for another month. He also wants to have a more detailed analysis of my blood results to see whether I need to continue on Pentamidine and Vigam, but to have the Vigam due for me next week anyway. He checks out my sinus / ear congestion and wants me to have a CT scan on my sinuses. Although I am having no pain from my sinuses, I still have ringing and some discomfort in my left ear and very reduced hearing from it. The right side is considerably better. It is a real bind and wish it could be sorted out. Tim agrees with Mark Jackson that it would be good for me to get back to work as long as I am aware of the potential for infections.

We have a quiet Saturday. Anna, Nick and Eva are with us until tomorrow morning, when they leave for France and Spain. I have another two mile walk in the morning, which makes me feel good. The evening is electrified by England beating France at the Stade de France - a repeat of the World Cup semi-final. We have Sunday lunch at Matthew’s. I feel rather tired through the afternoon, so we come home and I have a couple of hours’ sleep. This is my first afternoon snooze for nearly two weeks. However after my lung evacuation physio on a couple of afternoons this week I have felt so knackered that I have laid on the bed to relax afterwards and dozed off for 15 minutes or so. Under the circumstances I think that is forgivable.