Having written about a chemotherapy hospital stay, I think it’s time that I also described having my 5-FU bag changed, as that is the other side of my regular chemotherapy treatment. Once a week I travel to Worcester to meet the oncologist and report weekly progress before the bag that delivers my 5-FU and the [...]
As I mentioned earlier, we went to visit the Staffordshire Hoard this weekend, at a temporary exhibition in the Stoke-on-Trent Potteries Art Gallery and Museum. We had tried the previous weekend, but the queues were three-and-a-half hours long, we were told, so we decided that the easiest way to make the visit [...]
What an interesting week! Definitely not straightforward at all. It started with a late entry into hospital for the 3rd cycle, continued with a lovely week of visits with friends and a weekend away, and ended with another unexpected visit to hospital.
The 3rd cycle start itself was uneventful, except that it was the first time [...]
I’ve noticed that my food doesn’t taste very good in the first few days after the start of the chemotherapy cycle. I think it must be due to the dexamethasone (steroids) that I mentioned yesterday as being so good at controlling the nausea as well as maintaining my good mood. Last night’s burger and chips [...]
There were three of us oesophageal cancer patients out of the four on the ward, and the other two were first timers. I found myself telling them about a typical visit to the hospital for chemotherapy, and thought it might be of wider interest. The information in this post is specific to me, so please [...]
Hospital food is renowned. Even today when it’s a lot better than it was in the past, it’s still not great. Think of school dinners, but with smaller portions. I think most of us on the ward spend a disproportionate amount of time waiting for the next meal. With that in mind I thought I [...]
I didn’t expect to be writing this from my hospital bed1 as I had hoped to be here tomorrow, but an urgent phone call from the ward sister led to my early arrival in the ward. A funny end to a funny week.
Things were going rather well at the beginning of the week. The sickness [...]
Since it was founded four and a half years ago, LibriVox has run on donations of hardware and time. We have literally no money and no income. In that time we have produced well over 3,000 audio books, and placed them all into the public domain. Our book production rate is growing constantly and we [...]
Recently I’ve noticed that my scalp has been slightly tender to the touch. At the clinic yesterday it was confirmed that I would probably soon begin to lose my hair, and indeed this morning in the shower I was pulling it out in clumps while washing it. Time for it to go.
I asked Gillian if [...]
Not much news to report from today’s visit to see the oncologist, mostly because everything is going so well. We did discuss the Herceptin treatment possibility, though, which seemed to have excited him somewhat more than I have come to expect from his usual laid back self.
First, the sample has been sent for testing. Unfortunately, [...]
