It's Great to be Home!

It's absolutely fantastic to be back here after all this time. I spoke to Happy Matt before I left and it turns out that although medically I wasn't quite ready to leave some other poor soul needed the bed and I was close enough for them to allow me to go home. My neutraphil count was 1.97, just a whisker away from the 2 they like it to be before you leave. Now it's just a question of trying to get my strength and energy back and something resembling an appetite.

So what's the experience been like? Well long to start with. It does help that they give you a rough time scale when you're starting out and I've followed that almost to the letter. They said three to four weeks, and it was three weeks and one day. For long periods I was too unwell to really care about or be aware of the passing of time, but as I've got better these last few days have started to drag. The hotel is a great idea as it softens the hospital element to a degree, although as I felt pretty unwell for periods I doubt I would choose to stay there ever again. I'd read blogs by people who had been through this and was amazed to read they'd been out for dinner whilst on chemotherapy. I didn't think this credible. But on the last day of my chemo I did indeed feel well enough to go out for a Thai meal, and on another night the cinema. So it can be done.

My overwhelming memory though is of sickness, either feeling nauseous (which is wretched) or actually throwing up. I think it's just the way my body reacts to all that poison being tipped into it. The medics did their best and I don't suppose it ever got out of control, but it did go on for a long time and was pretty debilitating. It affects your appetite, your mood and your energy levels as constantly being sick is pretty exhausting. It's the one big negative of the whole thing. On the other hand having been warned how nasty mucositis can be I think I escaped pretty much unscathed particularly in my mouth and throat thanks to the copious amounts of ice I ate at the time of the infusion. It's well worth the pain. I did suffer some nasty heartburn and disturbances to the lower bowel but I think I would have been very unusual indeed not to have had these side effects. That coupled with the nausea and vomiting made for an uncomfortable few days. It makes you realise just how toxic the chemotherapy they give you is.....I can't believe any cancer cells can have survived the onslaught.

The staff here are fantastic. I have been really well looked after and never once thought they had taken their eye off the ball. I've see the transplant registrar (Happy Matt) every day and the consultant (Kirsty Thompson) twice a week. As well as this the nurses are all absolutely at the top of their game and you know nothing is likely to be overlooked. The room has been cleaned thoroughly on a daily basis and bed changed as often.

So overall I think it's gone as well as it could really. Although I've had smouldering temperatures there's been nothing to make me feel unwell in that regard, so on the infection front I've been very lucky so far. I'm still at risk (and will be for some time) but that diminishes with every day that passes.