Hickman line

Well, much as I thought, the last few days have been a series of ups and downs. Some days I feel that my energy is gradually returning and I can exercise or go for a short walk, the next I need to sleep most of the time. The abscess under my arm is improving with the antibiotics and my mouth ulcers have gone, so all is heading in the right direction. My appetite is even starting to return, though I think in the end my hatred of hospital food was more a mental block (having been encouraged to eat it immediately after the chemo, even when I was feeling very nauseous).

I had my first follow up visit to Hammersmith on Wednesday and for the medics amongst you, my blood counts were; WBC 2.2, Neutrophils 1.2, Hb 9.5, Platelets 46. My white blood cell and neutrophil counts have dropped since leaving hospital, but again that was fully expected as the growth hormones I was taking were a stimulant and raise these counts to artificial levels, which aren't sustainable in the short term. The expectation is that all my blood counts will improve from now on....next follow up visit is this Thursday,  so all will be revealed then.

They also decided to leave my Hickman line in for another week, as my platelet (blood clotting cells) count was too low. Annoying, but I guess they didn't want to have to make that embarrassing phone call; "well Mrs Hoban, the good news is your husband was in remission from his cancer.....the bad news, he bled to death when we removed his Hickman line". Anyway, my hope is that my platelet count will be high enough this Thursday for them to remove the line.....it's been a great friend for over two months, but I'm getting a little bored with it now.

So, things are moving forward gradually, but patience will be the name of the game over the next few months!!