Looks Like I Will be Pill Popping for Another Year

Monday 18th to Sunday 23rd March 2008

I am up to London for a day’s work. I have a meeting two floors up from my office and another in the afternoon at Scotland Yard, which gets me out again. With plenty of background reading to do at home, Easter and our week in La Gomera to come, I shall not be back in the office for two weeks. In the evening we go to Worthing and meet up with Matthew and co. to see Joseph and His Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat. It is Ella’s birthday and this is her special birthday treat. It was great, but bless her, she fell asleep half way through the second half of the show!

On Tuesday I have the Citroen serviced, do some paperwork and then go to Brighton for my Pentamidine nebuliser. As usual the taste is bitter and I cough up loads of stuff on the way home – and yet more productively with my physio once I am home. I work all day Wednesday background reading for my project, while Tina has a day out in Tunbridge Wells with cousin Jane. I get a call to tell me that my Dermatologist’s appointment is on 11th April. That is quick. I am still to hear from the ENT people about an appointment for my sinus problem! Incidentally, my sinuses seemed to have unblocked some days back and I stopped using the nose drops. However, a few days later, back it came and so I am back on the nose drops again. It seems to have regressed quite a lot – which is slightly uncomfortable and very annoying.

Thursday morning is my Brighton clinic and I see Tim Corbett. My weight is 75 kgs – no change in two weeks. It takes three attempts to get blood from me today! My blood results are good – Wbc: 3.1; Neuts: 1.6; Lymph: 1.1; Hbn: 12.9; Plt: 77. My neutrophils have stayed constant remarkably for the past four weeks without any GCSF injections being necessary - all very good news. Tim comments on my sinusitis persisting, because my immune system recovery is slow. The more detailed breakdown of my white cells indicates this and shows that and I need to remain on Ciprofloxacin (or similar), Voraconozole and monthly Pentamidine and Vigam for the time being. Tim says it could be a year before I can come off these. He has yet to get a full response from Mark Jackson on my changing over to Colomycin, which needs a nebuliser being supplied as well. I hope to hear more on that later. Apart from the usual rattles in my chest, there are no problems with my physical examination. Tim agrees that a dermatologist should look at the place on my head, albeit it is has reduced in size and appearance. He will send me a copy of his GP letter so that I have it with me when we go to La Gomera, should I need it for any adverse reason. I will take my supply of Amoxycillin with me anyway, just in case I pick up a cold. I am to see him again in three weeks.

We have Easter weekend away at Linda’s in Leicestershire and we leave after breakfast on Good Friday morning and have a really enjoyable time. On Saturday Tina, Linda and Anita go shopping to Nottingham, while Bob, Paul, Tom and I go to the pub. I later find out that three pints of Pedigree at lunchtime is just a little too much for me in my slightly dodgy state of health. I am a little subdued for the rest of the day! We wake on Easter Sunday to a carpeting of snow, but it is gone by late morning. We have a good circular walk along the towpath to Shackerstone and back – about two and a half miles - with a stop for refreshment in the village. This is followed by plenty of lung evacuation physio! My sinuses are still playing up. We drive home on Monday morning and the day turns into a clear bright afternoon but still with a wintry feel about it. Can’t wait to fly off on Wednesday for a week of sun, rest and recuperation.