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I am sure I posted yesterday, but it seems to be missing, and blogger.com has been unavailable all day, so now I will catch up ...

Yesterday was a restful day. I worked out a pain relief regime for my knee that seems to work. It is bizarre that the pain only gets worse in the evening/night, but whatever! I have three pain killers that can be taken together; paracetamol, tramadol and ibuprofen. I take them responsibly of course:)

Last night we watched the second semifinal of the Eurovision song contest. We are big fans of the show - the final is tomorrow, and we will be watching. We normally have party food and a bellyful of wine to accompany it, but this year I cannot drink to excess, mores the pity!

Rose played golf in the Lady Captain's charity event today, and her team came second (with the same score as the winners, but losing on "count-back"). Rose also got "closer to the pin" than the general manager on the 18th hole (par 3) and won a golf ball. Only a couple managed this feat, so well done to Rose.

This morning I had a visit from the district nurse to take blood and change my PICC dressing; it went smoothly enough.

Resting my knee

I had quite a painful night with my knee, so I decided to try resting it today, to see if it eases things. I also rang UCH and discussed it with them. I still rather optimistically hope that it will calm down if I treat it right. I have paracetamol, ibuprofen and tramadol for pain relief, and the hospital confirmed that I can mix and match them.

I have spent the day watching the tennis, and reading. Not much else to say!

Peaceful afternoon

Rose's car got serviced OK, and we spent a peaceful afternoon watching "The Apprentice" which we recorded last night. Still one of our favourites after all this time. The guy who got fired deserved it!

Not much else to report. The knee is still giving me pain, and it tends to flare up in the evenings, so I am trying to manage my pain relief accordingly. I will let you know how successful I was tomorrow.

One slightly depressing thing is that I am losing a bit of weight, even though Rose is feeding me exceedingly well - I need to eat more junk food!

Posting at home

Sorry there was no blog post yesterday, but sometimes it's hard to find the time when at home! It was an unremarkable day, the highlight of which was my walking into the town centre to the bank whilst Rose was playing golf.

My leg pain was actually caused by knee pain, which continues to be a nuisance. It is an old problem of mine, this left knee. Funny how leukaemia seems to bring out all my old conditions. I have had problems with this knee since my twenties, but it was never serious enough to,warrant any action. I very much hope it calms down again soon.

Today we are going to get Rose's car serviced while-you-wait. The weather is not so nice, so I guess we picked a good day.

I sent a heavily edited version of my Dad's obit tot the Guardian newspaper (a national paper in England). They have a section called "Other lives" on their on-line paper that has obits of non-famous people. You can read it here.

I have one more week at home; I go back to Ambicare next Wednesday.


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A pain in the leg

On the way home from the hospital I developed a pain in my left quad. It got quite bad, and I checked with the hospital that it was not a side effect of the treatment. They said "no", and if it persists I should just go to my local A&E! I have taken pain killers and the pain has subsided. For all I know it is psychosomatic - but it still hurts!

Brandy is doing well, and today she was allowed outside. This was nice because it meant we could go outside too!

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Pump up the volume

It is 2pm on Sunday. I am sat in Ambicare all alone, apart from the two nurses. I am hooked up to fluids, always fluids. I am waiting for the results of methotrexate level blood test which will arrive at around 4pm. If they are good I can go home.

Last night we had some fun and games with the backpack pump ...

Rose and I had a nice meal at the Lebanese restaurant just off Goodge Street. We were having a "normal" wee-interrupted night, when Rose woke me up at about 3:40 to say the pump is beeping, which it was. It was not the alarm, just a beep. When I checked it was because the rechargeable battery that powers the pump was running out of juice. There should be a mains cable in the backpack, but there was not! So, I rang the Ambicare mobile, which is held by the nurses on T16, and explained the problem. After a bit of panic, they managed to find a mains cable, so we got dressed and went over to the main hospital. It is surprisingly hard to gain access to the hospital at this time of night, but we managed, and we got the mains cable. After proving it did indeed solve the problem we returned; luckily, at no time did the battery fail!

However, ten minutes after we thought the problem was solved, the beeping started again. It is now 4:15 and I had just fallen asleep. It turns out the mains cable has a loose wire, and we had to position it just so to get it to charge. With the drug timings at midnight and six, the continual weeing and the pump problems, neither of us got much sleep.

We also had trouble on the first night, that was more easily solved. There was a low level beep coming from the backpack, that Rose pointed out but I ignored it. Eventually, in the middle of the night the alarm sounded! The cause was the small nine volt battery in the pump that I guess powers it's memory had run out. Fortunately there was a spare in the backpack, and swapping it solved the problem.

Still, for all these woes, it is much better to have had the treatment in Ambicare than to be an inpatient. At least I could go out to eat with Rose a couple of times, and the hotel is much more comfortable ... and let us not forget the breakfast!

Fingers crossed for the results later on ...

... The results came back at 14:30, and now I am home! I have 9 days at home before going back for the second half of the cycle.


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The last night of fluids?

I hope that tonight will be the last night of fluids. We have been planning my discharge for tomorrow (Sunday) evening; it all depends on the methotrexate having been flushed from by body. Unless the level today is very high, I will check out from the hotel tomorrow morning; if the methotrexate has not cleared I can always stay an extra night.

If all is well, I will be home for 9 days, and then come back here for day 14 of the treatment schedule - one day before the next methotrexate dose, just to make sure everything is OK to proceed.

Rose is visiting tonight. I am very much looking forward to it ...


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