Following a month break while we enjoyed a holiday in Italy and being able to forget about the whole cancer thing for a while, dose nine kicked off 2nd May. Dr Storey had recommended an 80% dose for the last four rounds to try and improve John's quality of life, and we happily went with her expertise. John felt a little sick during the day, but perked up when a young lady from the Beatson cancer centre turned up offering a complimentary massage. He opted for a leg and foot massage and it took his mind off feeling grotty for a half hour. What a lovely thing. Hoping for a head massage next time, seeing as she visits every other week. So far we have been on opposing weeks to her, but we should now be aligned for future visits. Once home the indigestion immediately began again for the next few days making sleep more difficult and John a little more tired.
Chemo 10 was 16th May and apart from the nausea it went as normal. John was still fairly positive after the appointment and continued with some DIY and gardening but quickly became exhausted and spent a fair bit of time in bed in between sessions of finishing re-laying the hallway flooring. Then, on the morning of the line flush, 5 days later, he scared the living daylights out of me by collapsing mid-procedure. Jennifer, the community nurse, was just about to put the waterproof dressing over the PICC line site as he slumped forward, unconcious. Jennifer grabbed and raised his feet while I tipped him sideways and down onto the bench and Jess caught his head and supported it. I took his pulse - strong and steady, but he was grimacing as if he was having a fit. He briefly came round after a few seconds to say 'what?' before losing conciosuness again for another 15-20 seconds. Eventually he came round and asked where he was while we all crowded round him looking worried, albeit the panic being over, in the main. Jennifer went away to report it to the GP, confident it was just a fainting episode and nothing to worry about, and called later to check in. John felt shocking and spent most of the rest of the day in bed, getting up only to eat barbeque and tearfully tell me he loves me. I told him he didn't need to do any more chemo if he didn't feel like it but he reassured me he wants to see it through. I am secretly relieved.
chemo 11 - Little to report this time except feeling sickly and just wanting to sleep / focus on not being sick whilst at the hospital. Some of it is just feeling a bit sorry for myself (John) but I wanted to stay positive as Amber is coming up for a few days. The next few days were quite full on with Amber and by Sunday I was quite tired, but didn't want to show it. It's a good job I'm towards the end of it as all my blood results are at the lower end of the spectrum - no wonder I feel rough!
13th June was the 12th and final round of Chemo under this first regime. John went over on his own this time as Liz was working in the afternoon. A little bit of anxiety as earlier in the week Jennifer had not been able to draw bloods through the PICC line which may indicate that it has moved, but Pamela at the ward was able to make a success of it with some help from me with deep breaths, coughing hard and a bit of heparin. Interesting that many drugs are in glass vials. With me being on my own, it's a good opportunity to sleep and time passed by quickly. On the way home I grabbed some chips then had curry for tea, interestingly little indegestion. The next steps are a scan in about 2 week's time then a review with the oncologist about next sterps informed by the scan - appointment booked for 11th July to find out how I score.
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