Actually started writing this on the 13th but only posted today, so the date above this is a bit misleading, but I don't suppose it matters much in the grand scheme of things.
First radiotherapy this morning but first a brief summary of my overnight last Thursday (as promised ).
Overslept.....unbelievable! Needed to be on the ward at 8.30 and woke at 8.55....that never happens to me!
Straight on the phone to the ward and they were great, said I'd be there in an hour and I almost was.....nurses took the piss mercilessly though, which made me feel much better. No available bed on the cancer ward so I was put on the chemo day unit to start with and then taken down for my RIG tube to be fitted (called it a PEG earlier, they're basically the same end product but with different fitting procedures). First part of this is a naso gastric tube stuck up your nose, down the throat an into the stomach to inflate stomach for the RIG to be fitted. Worst experience, by far, of this whole process. They can't give anaesthetic or sedation because they need for you to "swallow" it when asked.....absolute fucking nightmare! Choking, vomiting and crying ensued.....and that was just the surgeon! I was far worse....uncontrollable full body shaking, just awful. Luckily once it was in they could give me shitloads of sedation and local and the actual insertion of the tube (and the removal of the naso gastric) was pain free. Never again!
Yeo ward (in patients cancer) was full by now so I was taken to the Cherybrook Chemo day case unit to recover; then on to a bed in the adjacent haematology unit for the night......all very luxurious and modern compared to the rest of the hospital I have to say. None of this "pay a fortune for a postage stamp sized TV" for example, had my own wide screen with DVD player, staff were superb and I actually had the three bedded ward all to myself for the night (with private facilities obviously)! If it had been a hotel I'd have given it five stars on Tripadvisor. Even the food was edible ffs!
Was lucky that any pain was controlled just by ibuprofen when apparently some people need morphine and several nights as an in patient to get it sorted.
Only real problem was an aching stomach when I started to read the excellent "Man Who Hated Walking" by Overend Watts because it made me laugh too hard (maybe he could use a quote from this blog as an alternative to one from the New York Times on the back page if he, deservedly, gets a second edition out!) Thanks to my great mate John for the recommendation and to my big brother Mark for buying it for me.
Had to wait until 2.00pm to see a dietician to show me how to clean and flush my new appendage (I like to think of it as a piercing with attitude) which is all I have to do until such time as I need it but then they let me home.
Home....hmmm....over confidence or nonchalance maybe, went to bed Friday night without bothering to take any pain killers because it was a breeze, right? Wrong in spades! Woke up at five in indescribable pain, I say indescribable but I did in fact describe it in many and varied four letter words (few of which were "ouch"). I woke Deb, took two co-codomol and cried on her shoulder on the settee for about half an hour before it eased off. We had a deep conversation during this time which consisted of me saying "Sorry" and her saying "Stop apologising!"
Anyway, the lesson learned from that is always to play on the safe side with drugs....if you're prescribed them, take the damn things.
Anyway haven't, with my usual efficiency, got around to the radio/chemo yet (which I'm now four days into) but I'll try to update in the next day or two.....suffice to say that at the moment I'm OK, anti sickness working well, just a bit over tired. More soon.
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