Hi Everyone,
So, at the time of writing this I am chemo +7 days today and I am re-hashing a blog I had kind of already written and made the original blog too long. I thought I’d break it up into a new one and publish it in a few days or so. However, this could completely change.
The new treatment calendar is as the kids say a ‘whack’ to say the least, I get it though, at the start of the treatment they’ll just need to monitor me for everything and I am in practically every day for a quick test and then I’m allowed home.
It’s a shame as it’s nearly always a cannula for bloods and though they’re using the smallest butterfly needles for this, it’s still a needle which of course you all know, I hate.
Ah well… ‘suck it up’ I guess. It’s not like I have any way out of this.
Though they’ve tried and tried, they just cannot get my port to give bloods but they can get it to take meds so long as they flush it out repeatedly beforehand.
This is the new norm and this is how it’s going to be.
As time moves on, the blood tests become weekly or biweekly at worst. I’m sure that will adjust to this.
To add insult to injury, I need to have a 5 day course of a drug called Filgrastim a G-CSF (Chemo starts on a monday, I start taking this 5 day course on the Friday)
This means doing even MORE injections, these are to be self administered at home. However, we all know that’s NEVER going to happen so it falls to Kerry to do it and she’s taken to this like a duck to water. She’s a trooper.
If you didn’t click the link, Filgrastim is a G-CSF (Granulocyte-colony stimulating factor) this is being used as other people on the trial have seen a significant decrease in their white blood cells (Neutrophils) they’re are now giving all trialists the G-CSF is to boost our bodies ability to create white blood cells.
As with most medications, you ought see the amount of side effects these come with, not just the 1/1000 ones, the 1/10 ones are bad enough.
I noticed from day 3 of the G-CSF course that I had major bone pain, I was told to treat with paracetamol and even though I offered that I still have a repeat prescription of tramadol available to me, I wasn’t told until 4-5 days after the pain had subsided to use the tramadol. *Yaaaay NHS*
I will say, I did end up taking two of them regardless.
Yet again, this is just going to be the new norm, I still have morphine available to me if the pain got worse but the pain seemed to be in my hips, femurs, ribcage and upper arms (Humerus it was not, har har har) I am encouraged by the fact I won’t need to constantly be on painkillers.
So yeah, that’s where we are at. Appetite wise, I’m good. I can eat. However, it’s faaaaar too early days to be making an opinion up at this time. I also have to have a steroid given to me on the day of AND the day after the treatment so I am ravenously hungry on these days. So suffice to say, I don’t want to jinx anything but I am okay for eating at the moment.
I had a really good bank holiday with Kerry. Though we’d planned to hit the garden centre on the Sunday we (read: me) neglected to check to see if Dobbie’s were open or no, so we may have burned a few miles off the car’s range for nowt, but we did then turn it into a nice day out at Tynemouth. Went to the market, had a walk around. Bought some art for Kerry and then had fish and chips.
So other than feeling grotty as you always do on chemotherapy and add in the 3-4 days of pain from the G-CSF meds, the main issue I have been experiencing is an inability to focus my eyes properly, this is with or without my glasses on, it’s just a hair off focused.
This means I haven’t been reading much, and trying to blog has been a bit of a pain.
I have also tried firing up a couple of video games and found I couldn’t keep my mind focused on the task in hand, so I had quickly stopped playing after less than an hour. What’s the point if you’re not into it?
It wasn’t so bad on the Playstation 5 as I am further away from the screen and I can definitely play better on the latter without my glasses on.
Perhaps the genre of the game I was playing helped a little. You tend to look ‘through the game’ when playing a car racer, rather than being ‘dialled in’ when playing a shooter or adventure game. Less to think about I guess. You kind of let your body take over.
Which leads me on to my next point…
I have been talking for a good while now about setting up a gaming rig to play car racers a bit more. So if you are in the know or you want to chime in on this and give some advice please do, currently this is what I am looking at getting (Please remember, I don’t intend to take it seriously or become some sort of SIM racer and some parts make sense that they be both PC and Playstation 5 compatible)
Rig – Playseat Evolution
Wheel Option 1 – Logitech G923
Wheel Option 2 – Thrustmaster T-GT II
It’s a bit of a dilemma really, one wheel is half the price of the other, I know it’s an expensive layout either way. I did come home from holiday with a load of money and I just can’t seem to make my mind up either way. Like I say, chime in if you’ve got an opinion.
Oh aye, New car.
So you know our love of Ford Focus?
Well you’ll never Adam & Eve it.
We bought a Nissan. The PCP thingy was coming to an end on the current car (The White Vignale) With it being the top spec Focus we got a really good trade in on the new car and with the fuel prices and shit going on, that and the whole state of the planet.
We got ourselves our first EV.
We have the 2022 Nissan Leaf. It’s only been on the road less than 6 months and only had 1,800 miles on it too. The book reckons it’ll gets about 160 miles on a charge and Kerry is absolutely loving it. Honestly, this is the only thing that matters really.
It’s no slouch by any stretch of the imagination. Put your foot down and it bloody goes. More so if you’ve got the eco mode turned off but we ain’t no boy racers. It don’t look too bad either.
The boot is massive, Rupert approves. We just don’t do Newcastle – Norwich or Newcastle – Newbury miles anymore. During the SHANdemic we barely drove at all, whoever gets the Vignale gets a really good deal. We’re having the usual delays in getting the house power upgraded by Northern powergrid so we can have a slightly faster charge at home (About 7 hours from flat IIRC) but we have taken it for one rapid charge at Morrisons and it was full by the time we’d done a shop.
It just means that road trips need to be planned a bit more. If it’s more than 160 miles away we have to factor in a 30 minute or more stop. Oh damn, we need to stop for a ‘Donalds or a BK. Shiiiiiiiiiiiiit. Like we wouldn’t have stopped anyways, heh.
Well, that’s my craic for now. I’ll sign off, it’s Chemo in 2 days and I am going to play a few games, eat some food I really want and then get back on session #2
– Cam
An honest blog about a guy's journey through cancer and chemotherapy 