Settling in to UCH

It has been quite a busy day today, my first "full" day in hospital. I am currently waiting for the first cycle of chemotherapy treatment to begin. A nurse has inserted a Cannula to administer the drugs; although they thought yesterday I would get the PICC line today, in fact this will not happen until Tuesday (at which point the cannula will be removed). As I write this, I am receiving a prophylactic dose of an anti-fungal drug (very expensive at £750 a bag!).

The consultant visited today (Tuesdays and Fridays), with his entourage of trainees, nurses and so on. It was very informative. He told me that my best chance of long term survival is a stem cell transplant, and that a relative as donor is the best bet. Each of my two brothers has a one in four chance of being a match, so this gives me almost a 50-50 (7/16) chance that one of them will be suitable. The transplant procedure carries risks, but if successful is my best hope for a long term cure. It will not happen until after the induction phase of the chemo is over (read that booklet I linked!), so I will return to this topic and all the various risks and outcomes later on, when I know more.

In addition, I learned that my cancer cells have a marker called CD20. Other cancers that have this marker have been shown to be successfully treated with a drug called Rituximab. Although this is not normally used in the treatment of ALL, clinical trials are being run to ascertain it's effectiveness, and since I have the marker my consultant has decided to include it in the drug regime. It has no long term side effects, but I may react badly on first dose (which will be Sunday). Wikipedia has something to say: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rituximab

I have also been given the timetable for the first cycle of chemotherapy. It lasts just over three weeks, followed by a recovery period, and then I will get some time off at home before being readmitted for the second cycle. The big variable is infection; as the chemo kills my White cells, the probability of infection nears 1! The infection could be relatively minor, or quite major and even life threatening. My initial stay is therefore dependent on how this plays out. If you are thinking of visiting me after about a week from now (all visitors gratefully welcomed), please refrain if you have the slightest symptom of a cold (sore throat, runny nose, anything).

Whilst I remember, if you do visit, ignore the sign outside the ward that says not to visit between 1pm and 3pm; this applies only to the guinacology ward opposite. You can visit me anytime.

Rose came this morning and we made a start on the paperwork for my critical illness insurance claim. This is one insurance policy I had rather hoped I would never be making a claim on!

After Rose left at about 3pm, I got a surprise visit from my old friend Pete who I was at school with, and so apart from family is the person in the world whom I have known the longest. Pete was at Cambridge with Patrick, and is how I had the fortune to make his acquaintance. Pete had just dropped his son off at UCL (the university with which the hospital is linked). We had a nice chat for an hour, and he promised to email some book recommendations, so maybe I will read something on this iPad at some point (although there does not seem to be much time).

My next action will be to try and find a decent email client for this iPad! You would think that the good Mr Jobs would have insisted on all four of the core apps being superb, but the mail client is very much the poor relation (safari, pictures and iPod all being pretty good).