Blogspot fail

Ok! Well, that didn't work either. Maybe tomorrow I'll open up the clip in iMovie and see if I cant cut it up- Im guessing the problem is that there is a limit on the length on movie one can upload onto blogspot. Which is really quite unfortunate, maybe I should have made a tumblr for this blog instead- though I dont feel that's quite as accessible.

I dont really remember what I wrote about in the last blog, so I'l just tel you about this week and the coming week.

I had my first blood test on sunday as I think I mentioned in the first video. I may also have mentioned the stem cell harvest and how I expected it to be late in the week. Well, mum and I went in on monday morning for the blood test which went ahead without any issues, then went out and had a lovely breakfast and headed home. it was about an hour and a half after we'd left hospital when I got a call from a nurse saying my counts were unexpectedly very very high, and that today was the day for the procedure after all. So, I packed a bag for overnight, grabbed my laptop and off we went back to TCH.

So, I hadn't really thought about how they got the blood out and back in. What they did was they stuck a whopping great tube into my femoral vain in my left thigh. It was something like 15 or 20 centimetres long (grosssssssss) and was left in overnight. So the insertion wasn't that bad as it turned out, it was the feeling/knowledge of having it down a vain in my leg all that time. I wasn't really allowed to walk at all, which was fine by me. I was a bit terrified of something going wrong with the whole thing, and once I did start moving from bed to wheelchair to bed and stuff it was getting quite sore.

A group of friends visited me that night, which was absolutely lovely, even though I was only in overnight. One of them even bought me some beautiful flowers, which always brighten any hospital stay. There was a bit of confusion as to where I would be
and everyone got a bit lost. I wound up in what was essentially and leftovers ward for people recovering from surgery. It was actually just a big room with curtains between lots of beds. It wasn't really a good space to have guests though so my friends wheeled me down to the cafe and then hung out in the lobby until some of us started falling asleep.

Where I was didn't really bother me- I had something like 17 hours worth of films and tv shows on dvd or my laptop so I knew even if I couldn't sleep I could pass the time. I found myself quite uncomfortable (a combination of bone pain from the injections I'd been getting for stem cell growth, the tube in my leg and the stitches holding it there) so they gave me some endone. I had said to the evening nurses i'd prefer if they could write me up some strongish panadeine instead of endone as I didn't much enjoy its side effects, but that wasn't communicated to the night nurses who brought me endone afterall. I was tired and recognised it would probably help me sleep, so i took it and spent half an hour giggling dazedly at Dylan Moran on my laptop, before falling into a broken and strange sleep. I just hope my neighbours were also on drugs, I've been told I laugh and mumble in my sleep when I'm on endone.

Woke up the next day and basically dozed until mum arrived. Eventually I was sent back to the stem cell room where I was told they not only got the five million they needed, the actually got 8 million. So that was wonderful news, and meant I just had to have the tube taken home and then I could be on my way. Taking it out was much less comfortable, though more straightforward. There was no local this time, she just took out the stitches and pulled the tube out. The latter was probably the worst part of the whole ordeal.

It was strange leaving the hospital, I'd kept in fairly good spirits the whole trip despite being a bit ill that morning from the endone (presumably). In the car on the way home I think the stress and exhaustion of the two days in hospital hit me, and I felt quite dreadful. I dont really know what I did the next two days, I think mostly a slept and lounged around while my leg healed up a bit. I still have a dressing on it, but I've been out a few times- various coffee's and lunches and rather successful shopping trips. Feels good to finally be able to spend some of my govvy money.

the next thing is a PET scan on tuesday, which will probably take the best part of the day and is a bit of an awkward uncomfortable experience, but nothing so bad and I wont have to be in overnight which is the main thing. Next, is an appointment with the oncologist on thursday to look at the scan results I suppose and start working out the date for surgery. I'm not so much concerned about the surgery as I am about the days I've spend in recovery on drugs in hospital. That'l be unpleasant. However I can be certain my dear family and friends will continue to provide me with incredible support and visit very often and be generally lovely, so it'l be ok.

Despite all that it still feels kind of good to be at the point of surgery. It feels kind of like a milestone. instead of being in between chemo cycles that seem to go on and on, I'm (ideally) having what is left of the primary site removed, leaving two tumours left to deal with instead of three. Yeah, it feels like something be kind of excited about, especially hearing about the PET scans which should give us a good picture I think of what the tumours are up to.