But wait there's more!

It's a new graaaaaaaaph!!! (wild cheer)

This graph shows what my key blood counts have been doing over the last few days. What you can see is pretty much in line with the expected reaction to high dose chemo. In the next few days we hope to see a the graph start to swing back up the other way as the stem cells start to work, although the platelets and haemoglobin may lag behind.

Today I thought I might make a long winded post about the condition of my bowels, but if I did someone might tell me to blow it out my ass, and there is way to much of that happening already... Suffice to say that neither my stomach or my bowels are happy at the moment, I'm not having much success getting food in or keeping it in long enough for it to do much good. Anyone visiting the Fitzroy gardens today is advised to watch their step, my breakfast is probably still on the ground in there somewhere as I doubt anything will touch what I threw up, dogs were running away yelping, flies dropped dead in mid flight. Throwing up in the gardens on a spectacular autumn day under a shower of golden leaves is incongruous to say the least.
The problems with my bowels/tummy are another expected side effect of the type of chemo I am having, the hope is that they sort themselves out within a few days.
I still remain infection free so even though things are not much fun at the moment, they are going to plan.
Sorry if I grossed anyone out today (ha, not really!).

1st Stem cell transplant

Hi all, just a quick update today to let you know things are still going ok inspite of the fact that the effects of the chemo have well and truly kicked in.
I had my first stem cell transplant yesterday without any problems, some people have a reaction to the preservative they put in with the stem cells during the storage process, all I had was a bit of a tickle in my throat. The preservative also made me smell of creamed corn for about 24 hours... I couldn't smell a thing but most other people could.
Now we wait and hope that I don't get any serious infections until my amazing little stemcells can start to work their magic and rebuild my bone marrow and immune system, it will take a couple of weeks until my system is back to a safe level. No one is sure how, but the stem cells take only 20 minutes to reach my bone marrow after infusion, when in the marrow they somehow know what sort of cell they should turn into and what sort of blood cell they need to produce. From what the docs tell me, the whole process is still a bit of a mystery.
Apart from being unbelievably tried most of the time I am on top of most of the other symptoms and I am managing to keep potential problems at bay. It takes a big physical and mental effort to do that when I am so exhausted, even little things like teeth cleaning after every meal can be a major mission, but with no immune system it is critical that the little things get done so that they don't turn into big things.

As I am doing so well I was let out of the hospital for a few hours in the afternoon, I can't even begin to tell you how good that felt. Might be possible to do the same tomorrow if all is good.
Cheers, Pete

Day four of 1st cycle of high dose chemo

Below is where we are at with the current cycle:
  
Day -4, Friday, 29th March, Chemo (prehydration, premedications, ifosfamide, carboplatin, post hydration throughout the day).Day -3, Saturday, 30th March: Chemo (as above).
Day -2, Sunday, 31st March: Chemo (as above).
Day -1, Monday, 1st April: Hydration all day.
Day 0, Tuesday, 2nd April: Stem cell transplant day.
Day +1, Wednesday, 3rd April to approximately day +14: recovery in hospital.
Day +15, Wednesday, 17th April: likely discharge from hospital!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Day +23, Thursday, 25th April: likely start second cycle (which will be a repeat of the above)

You will have noted that the day count starts at minus 1, with stem cell day being day 0 (why? because docs like things like that- and cold stethoscopes, they lurv cold stethoscopes, it's the smirk when they say sorry that gives them away. They particularly like ward rounds as it allows them to perfect the process and inflict the cold stethoscope on a lot of patients in a short period of time by hunting in a well organised pack: firstly, the specialist registrar distracts the patient with some questions whilst the ward Dr pretends to take notes, this is overseen by a nodding senior doc. Meanwhile, hidden behind these three, a bunch of baby docs stand around stealthily chilling the stethoscopes... a dark look is exchanged amongst the evil coven, and then they all lunge at once at the hapless victim.... anywayyyy, where was I...).
You will also note that I have finished all the chemo infusions for this cycle (yay) and that I get my stem cells back tomorrow (double yay).
Things continue to go pretty well, there are plenty of things to deal with, but that's the nature of the beast. We will just continue to deal with things as they come up, simple...

Breakfast is here! So is lunch, and dinner!

Dang, it's 5:00pm on the noggin and dinner has just arrived, I feel like I have just finished eating breakfast. Now that the effects of the chemo are kicking in the only thing that seems to be speeding up in my life is the rate at which food arrives. Normally I would consider rapidly arriving food a good, nay, great thing, even if it's just hospital food. Now, annoyingly, my appetite seems to be falling of a cliff at the same pace that I am getting food shoved in my face. Suddenly food is hard work, and my brain just can't figure that one out.
I knew this was coming as I have been here before, and I do have strategies to deal with it, but somehow it still comes as a surprise.
The other change that is taking place is in my energy levels and in my blood counts. Both have started to drop away as expected.
That's all from me today, it's time for me to have a snooze.
Cheers, Pete.