A bizarre and very unexpected twist in the story! I went into the Marsden on Monday early evening as planned; I had preliminary blood tests done to check that everything was OK for the next day's procedure; I was given antacids to protect my stomach, and intravenous fluids overnight, as I had to fast from midnight. On Monday morning I was given anti-sickness medication and steroids (to prevent an allergic reaction to the radioactive beads), then, with a nurse escort, I was taken in hospital transport down to Chelsea & Westminster, arriving feeling a little nervous but psyched up for the treatment...
...only to discover that in C&W's diary, I was booked in for next week, not this.
 |
| ... and seven days |
Clearly there'd been a major breakdown of communication between C&W and the Marsden, and somehow the fact that they each had different dates for the procedure hadn't been picked up. Everyone was terribly nice and extremely apologetic (while we were waiting for transport back the nurse bought me breakfast!), but it still means that I have to come back next week. (The beads are specially ordered from manufacturers in Australia, and go via Germany to be activated with radioactivity, then are delivered - presumably in a well-sealed container - to the UK within hours of the insertion, so there was no way the procedure could be brought forward.)
I was fairly assertive with a Marsden SHO, and later on the phone with my specialist nurse (I think the problem arose as she'd just come back from sick leave but it wasn't clear what her colleague was still dealing with on her behalf and what she was assumed to have picked up), but in fact I was rather relieved not to have to face the treatment just yet, and to have more time to recover from jetlag and chemo. It was nice coming home early, and feeling relatively well and independent - a bit like an unexpected day off work when it snows! So, apart from having to rearrange kind friends and family who have set up a rota to look after me, I'm treating this week like a "bonus week" to relax and take things easy. For a control freak, this seems a remarkably sanguine reaction! yet it doesn't really make much difference - it's just one of those things. I guess we never know if things happening at a different time would have changed the outcome.
So thank you for the good wishes that many of you have sent me, and I hope you've still got some left over for next week! It'll be the same timetable: going in on Monday afternoon, the procedure done on Tuesday morning, and a night or two in the Marsden before coming home to my lovely team of helpers. Thoughts, prayers, healing vibes or whatever you believe in all gratefully accepted!
What a muddle!! Will be sending lots of good vibes to you next week!!
ReplyDeleteGlad you had a good time in the US and hope all goes well on your next visit to the C&W!!
love Carolinexxx
Thinking of you and will continue to pray. You are a marvellous, strong person. All our love, Mel & Greg xxx
ReplyDeleteI guess what you've been through over the past two and a half years can only have helped your ability to be stoical, but how you typed the above without the use of contemporary acronyms like OMG and/or FFS, let alone more old fashioned alternatives such as "Aaaaarrgh!" is completely beyond me. I see from FB that the treatment has indeed gone ahead this week, and, first and foremost, every prayer and good wish for that.
ReplyDeleteBeing a fairly useless correspondent, I've just read about the last eight months of your blog in one go, and cannot begin to compose an appropriate response to so much information and such clarity of insight, such unfeigned honesty and lack of self pity in your writing. To read your story continues to be a genuinely humbling experience, however much you'd prefer it not to be.
Very sorry to read about the LM bust-up, by the way, but if ever something was put into perspective by subsequent events . . . . !
Love as ever from a corner of North Yorkshire that is barely 230 miles away from you, but sometimes feels as if it's beyond Neptune. X X. Oliver.