After my first chemo

I arrived back in Dr Grays on the 1 Jun and was put straight into a single room. The hope was that I'd only be here a few days and then get home. Over the next few days my hair started to come out pretty quickly. A young student nurse on placement in Ward 7 showed me great kindness while my hair was falling out, by combing it through for me and discretely disposing of it. You know who you are; thank you very much :-)

I was in Dr Grays for another week having ended up running high temperatures and being treated for infection. As part of the infection control my room was placed under isolation. This meant that my daughter, who had a festering cold, could not come in to see me. Because Colin was in the same house as her, when he came in, he had to wear a mask. Part of my white cell count became unmeasurable for a time, but over a few days it picked up again fairly quickly until I finally got told that I could go home on the 9th Jun.

I was discharged on the Wed evening, with a truck load of prescriptions and really enjoyed being home in my own house and sleeping in my own bed having been in hospital for 4 weeks. I got through Wed night, albeit needing painkillers every couple of hours, reasonably well. Thu night was a different matter and I seemed to have an increased temperature with my skin being very hot to touch and suffering from some very dizzy spells. After a call to NHS 24 and a doctor coming to see me I was back in an ambulance and on my way back to Dr Grays around 2am on the Fri morning.

Initially I was admitted into the High Dependancy Unit, where I was surrounded by high tech equipment and seemed to be hooked up to all of it ! A head CT scan revealed that I did in fact have a brain !!! but there was a small swelling on the brain which would explain my dizziness. This was described as encephalopathy.

Later in the day though I was moved back to Ward 7, but into general population not a side room. Over the weekend I had a tumble while on the way to the loo in the middle of the night and fell against another patients bed with enough force to move the bed a few feet across the room. That was me now confined to bed and only allowed out of bed with assistance.

It was about now that my hair was really coming out in clumps and I decided that it was time for what was left to go ! Colin came in that evening with his clippers and the remaining few tufts were gone. The nurses said that they could probably organise a queue at the bathroom door for haircuts, but Colin declined ;-) I was now the proud owner of several styles of head gear thanks to gifts from friends & family.

I was hoping to maybe get a day back home before my next visit to ARI, but that was not to be. On the 16th Jun I was transferred back to ARI.