Move to ARI & first chemotherapy

My consultant at Dr Grays broke the news of the biopsy findings. He explained that the results showed that this was 'most likely' a Spindle Cell Sarcoma and that there were also evidence of tumours on both lungs, that at this stage could not be confirmed as cancerous.

Within a matter of days I was transferred to Aberdeen ARI Oncology (The ANCHOR unit). I was admitted on the 25th May (my 42nd birthday) and was scheduled to start a combination treatment of Chemotherapy the following day. As a surprise, during the admission process the staff realising it was my birthday, placed a request with the kitchen and a small birthday cake appeared that evening. To my horror, the other patients in the ward and all of their visitors insisted on singing me Happy Birthday !

So, the following morning on the 26th May (our 20th wedding anniversary) I started my chemotherapy on a combination of Doxorubicin and ifosfamide which was administered through a cannula in my arm. This was carried out over a 48hr period and followed by another drug called Mesna which helps protect the bladder and kidneys from the effects of the Ifosfamide.

On the evening of the 2nd day of treatment (Thu 27th May) I must have slept through the entire evening visiting session. I found out later that my husband, mother and brother had all been sat with me for a couple of hours but I had no recollection of them being there.

The events of the following 24 hrs are from what I've been told as I have absolutely no recollection of anything until late Fri afternoon. At some point in the late evening or maybe very early morning I took a turn for the worse. Another patient in the ward alerted the staff (by buzzer) that I was in distress and very quickly a team of doctors and nurses rallied to my bedside. I'm told that I had multiple neurological seizures that looked like a severe epileptic fit. At this point contact was made with my husband and my mother (around 0230-0300) and it was suggested that they should make their way to the hospital as a matter of urgency because my condition was described as critical but stable. The doctors were unsure at this stage if I was going to last the night !

On the scale of response, from Fully Alert, Alert to Voice, Alert to Pain and unresponsive I was at the bottom of the scale being totally unresponsive. Colin & my mum left the hospital a little before 0700 and set off for their accommodation seeing that I was now stable and a little more responsive.

Amazingly by afternoon visiting, I was more alert and had been moved to a single room. When Colin & my mum came in they were pretty surprised to see me quite so alert given the events of the early hours. I felt very confused of why I'd had a change of room and why I had many additional 'fixtures' on me, especially a cannula on my foot and ECG sensors over my chest.

I felt a bit alienated in a single room at the end of a corridor but the staff did make more frequent checks and it meant that I now had my own fridge that I could stash my supply of ice lollies in ! I spent the weekend in the single room before being moved back to my original bed space on the Mon and then was discharged back to Dr Grays in Elgin on Wed 1 Jun 2010.