Back in the land of the living

Let me try and fill you in what has been happening since Sunday morning ...

Sunday

As I explained , I awoke feeling lousy in the hotel, having slept OK. Then, I got a shiver, which is a sure sign of a raised temperature, and sure enough it was elevated, although not by so much. I rang Ambicare and they told me to come across immediately. I packed my rucksack, with the new iPad in it, and Rose cleared out the rest of the room.

When we met up in Ambicare, Rose said "I even brought the iPad".
"I thought I brought it myself in the rucksack" I said.
Lo and behold two iPads! So, it was not stolen after all, but merely misplaced. Goodness me I am not doing well eh! After the initial shock, it is actually quite funny, hilarious even. The police have been informed.

So, we now have one each, or perhaps we will sell one. Who knows!

My condition was deteriorating rapidly. I got bad riger again, and it took some time to bring it under control. They gave me two doses of antibiotics, and finally I calmed down and slept sort of. The porters arrived and took me over to the main hospital; there is a tunnel that connects the two buildings. After I was settled in, Rose left.

My blood pressure was crashing, so they infused quite a few bags of gelofusine, but my BP remained stubbornly low at 50/30. So they took the PICC line out, and kept pumping fluids. In the evening they decided to catheterise me (oh joy), so that they could monitor the fluids.

During the day I had diarrhoea, but just one off (so to speak), but at about 7pm it started in earnest, every hour or more regularly. With all the tubes, the catheter bag and so on, I could not make it to the bathroom in time, so the nurse set up a commode next to the bed. At this stage I was feeling pretty miserable.

Two things were markedly different this time from the last; my bad leg was fine, and I was not bloated with fluid. This latter is almost certainly because I had been eating much better, and my albumen level in my blood was much stronger when the infection struck.

Sunday night was terrible. Firstly, I had diarrhoea every hour, secondly, they were giving me red cells, fluids, trace elements, antibiotics and so on throughout the night. Then, the catheter is always a little temperamental when it first goes in (it leaked a bit), and of course they were taking observations every hour, or more.

The amazingly good news was that my BP stabilised at 90-odd/50-odd. This was fantastic news. The bad news was that I had had no more than 30 minutes of contiguous sleep, and I was very tired.

Monday

They kept fluids going in during the morning, and Rose arrived for a visit, but I was so tired I barely managed to keep my eyes open. In truth, I did not manage. Only the diarrhoea kept me on my toes! Rose left in the early afternoon, and although I was in no fit state to converse much with her, I really appreciated her being there.

My BP remained stable, returning to it's normal level, but my temperature was still fluctuating between high and normal. Most of the day passed in a haze, but my diarrhoea mysteriously went away in the evening, allowing me to get a couple of hours of sleep, in between the nurses going about their business.

During the night, after 1am, the nurse promised to leave me alone until 6am, and I got the best sleep so far. I thought I would be in good shape for Rose's visit today ...

Tuesday

... I was wrong. My sleep deficit was still not resolved, and I kept falling asleep. However, I was a little better than Monday. Once again, although I was not much company, it was lovely to have Rose here.

My general state is as follows: I am weak, but ambulatory, still catheterised though. My diarrhoea has not returned. My appetite is not great, but hospital food is not helping! My taste is holding up OK. I am not very swollen, but I have problem with my left arm. It is a bit swollen, because of the deep thrombosis I had there in January. These can take many months to resolve, and it's presence is making it harder for the fluids to dissipate. It is not terrible, but I have some bruise or muscle strain as well in the tricep that is making my arm weak.

They plan to de-catheterise me tomorrow morning, as early as possible. Later in the day, they plan to perform the final intrathecal that will complete this treatment cycle. Then, my blood counts should recover over the coming week, and I should be able to go home mid to late next week, for a couple of weeks.

After that, things are unclear. Originally I thought we would move ahead to the transplant, but there is some confusion over this. I asked my consultant to clarify, so I should find out on Friday.



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