Slooow Improvement

A week since my last proper update, for which my apologies, but All is Well. Nothing much to report, I'm glad to say, other than a sloooow but steady improvement on most fronts.

I'm gradually feeling a little better each day and some of the peripheral medical issues are at last proving responsive to treatment. These include sore mouth and throat, and smarting eyes, none of which is particularly peripheral as far as I'm concerned, because they can make life quite uncomfortable, but they are indicators of general health, rather than essential for my overall recovery. And they're all better than they were a week ago.

Gradually too the Cocktail of Drugs is being reduced, which is a good sign as my body once again takes some responsibility for itself. About time too... Down to 13/14 doses of various delights a day, as opposed to almost 40 at its peak! The consultant microbiologist said that he could definitely see clinical improvement, so I'm off all antibiotics now except penicillin (and crossed fingers too of course, though that may not officially count as an antibiotic). Liver results are still a bit up and down, but nothing to cause alarm apparently; just a sign that the Graft versus Host Disease (GvHD) is still active, a hangover from the transplant. So although the transplant was a success in eradicating all trace of the leukaemia,it has left me with a legacy from which most of my current issues stem. But we may be winning.

Slowly.

I still sleep a great deal, and although hopefully that's restorative, it's also getting a bit disruptive because my body clock's getting further and further out of kilter, meaning that I often don't get to sleep till the early hours of the morning and then don't wake up till the afternoon.

Last night, for example, I turned the light out at 1 am, then tossed and turned a bit (always careful not to pull my feeding tube out, which operates overnight!) and slept through till 2 pm, when Julia woke me or I'd have gone on for ever. So still a way to go, but so far so good, and tomorrow (Fri 1st June) I shall have been out of hospital for 3 weeks since the latest discharge (from hospital, that is, as opposed to any other sort).

Managed a trip to the Barnes Wetland Centre yesterday where poor Julia got rather hot pushing her quite comfortable husband round in a wheelchair. Still too Feak and Weeble to walk very far unfortunately, but I am practising... Not much about in the way of avian life on the water, but it was a beautiful day and we did get a very clear

sighting of a handsome Great Spotted Woodpecker flitting up and down a line of fence posts, picking tasty morsels out of the cracks in each one.

And the Answer....

OK, you can stop holding your breath now.
Here's the answer.

Q: What's hard, brown and sticky?

A: A stick...



...of course.

Now, wasn't that worth waiting for?!

Riddle

Many of you will know that I have a Serious Weakness for very feeble jokes,so I thought I'd share one of my all-time favourites with you.
It qualifies on all counts from Criminally Corny to Grievously Groanworthy
Apologies if you've heard it before.

Q: What's hard, brown and sticky?

Answer will appear here tomorrow.
And NO posting of the answer first if you know it please!

Ice cream

First, my apologies for not blogging sooner, cos I know some people worry and assume The Worst.

But happily the reasons are pleasant, not the opposite:
a) there's been nothing new to report, which is essentially Good News, and
b) I've been too busy (!), what with friends coming to see me, hospital clinic on Monday (which is a 6-hour excursion for half an hour max with a doc) and the consequent need to rest afterwards, because I still tire very easily.

But I feel soooo much better than last week, which in turn was an improvement on the week before that, and the doc agreed that I seemed to be heading in the right direction, so nothing in the current strategy or drug regime needed changing.

And today I skipped merrily past another milestone on what we hope is the Road to Recovery: I ate through my mouth instead of the NG tube!
Novel idea, taking food in via the mouth, huh?
A whole teaspoon of ice cream too.

A teaspoonful of ice cream?

And another one in the evening.
No immediate or obvious side-effects either.
I can't actually remember the last time I ate like a Normal Human Bean with no assistance from a toob, but it must be months ago.
This could become a habit.....
Let's hope so.

Both Barrels

Discharged twice in one day yesterday!
A Right and Left, as they say on the grouse moor.



First, I was successfully released from the Marsden in Sutton on schedule at about 1030 a.m. with a couple of bags of belongings and a Handsome Collection of drugs, equivalent to the contents of several medicine cabinets. I walked out (with sticks). The drugs had their own wheelchair. Julia did a magnificent job of sorting them all out and producing a new Drug Chart when we got home. There are no fewer than 16 different varieties at the moment.

Then Julia and I came home via an appointment at the ENT department at the Marsden in Fulham to follow up on the operation I had some weeks ago there to remove a polyp from my sinuses. And there they discharged me from the clinic too, happy with my progress since the op and content not to see me again unless I feel the need, which we hope will be never.

Clearly this is all very encouraging, though of course no poultry is being counted for a little while yet. For a kick-off, I am still Matchstick Man, having lost plenty of weight, particularly in the last few weeks.



So filling out this Bag of Bones is one of my short-term priorities, along with steering clear of new infections, regaining a bit of physical strength and mobility, and encouraging recovery in my eyes, mouth and nose. Not to mention gradually weaning myself off the high drug count and assisting my own immune system to do its job properly once more. Plenty to be getting on with then...

And, boy, am I glad to be home again!
And at the start of a weekend as well.
Julia appears reasonably pleased too....

Birthday

I had a very different birthday (29th April) this year, as you can imagine, but none the less memorable for that. Lots of cards and messages. And visits from Julia, my brother Chris and son Ben. And to cap it all, a Chorus of Nurses produced a slice of strawberry cake and serenaded me with Happy Birthday. Ben had to eat my cake for me cos it wouldn't fit down my naso-gastric tube(!), but he didn't seem to mind...



I have attained the same age as the year of my birth, so work that one out!
Consequently, I thought I'd better have a look at the significance of the number 56 (oops! given it away).

The best I could glean from a collection of weird and wonderful numerology websites is that the number 56 is ruled by the Moon and is a magical number which can 'create wonders at unexpected times'. As a combination, 50 represents Higher Intelligence and Liberty from Bondage, and 6 represents Divine Grace and Freedom from physical ties. Sounds OK to me.

There are also 56 so-called Aubrey Holes at Stonehenge, named after the 17th century antiquarian John Aubrey who discovered them, which were created around 3000 BC, though whether they have astronomical significance associated with the lunar cycle or whether they are simply post-holes is a matter of some conjecture. Hmmm.

That aside, I'm glad to say that I appear to be improving, albeit slowly, and feel better overall than yesterday, which was in turn better than the day before.
Long may that trend continue!

Apart from the fluctuating liver and blood counts, which the docs are struggling to bring under control while keeping an overall balance in my vital bodily functions, the main issues for me are still sore mouth, throat and eyes, for which I have a cocktail of remedies (all of which provide only temporary relief unfortunately) and which are obviously not good for my Quality of Life at the moment. But these issues are high on the docs' agenda now and a gradual return to overall health will also assist. The dryness of my eyes prevents me from reading, using the PC or watching TV for any longer than a few minutes at a time, so my entertainment consists of mental puzzles (crosswords, Su Doku and the like) and very short articles for the time being, which is where messages and visits from Friends and Family also provide much needed relief and pleasure.

Julia has been a Tower of Strength throughout all the traumas of the last 15 months, and continues to be so, despite the enormous stress she is under from visiting me almost every day (about an hour's drive each way) and juggling her job to fit in. Not to mention having to watch and cope with her husband's daily fluctuations in health. She's also fantastically good at communicating with the medical staff, keeping notes and asking all the right questions. In short, I couldn't do it without her. One of my key incentives for recovery is the opportunity to look after her needs again for a while - particularly the need for a Good Holiday!

The docs' most recent verdict is that I'm likely to stay in hospital at least for the rest of this week, which is actually a bit of a relief because whilst I'd obviously rather be at home, the care here is both 24-hour and second to none, and it takes some of the pressure off Julia until I'm well enough to do a bit more for myself. The last thing we want is a premature discharge, followed by yet another crisis and an all-too-speedy return to hospital.

So we're doing what we can to avoid that.