HOME TIME!

It's a lovely Sunday morning here in London! The weather forecast is good and it should be another day for shorts and flip-flops! But even better than all that, is that today is the day that it's all over!
I was diagnosed on the 15th December 2010, admitted to St Bart's on the 16th, and can today, 10th April 2011, come home for good! All that's left now are my monthly bone marrow biopsy's. Check ups will be cut down each year until in five years time I get the all clear.

It's been a rough ride and my body's taken a beating! But I'm alive and well! Had I got the illness 60 years ago (before chemotherapy was used as it is today) I wouldn't have seen Christmas; but, thanks to the medical care I've received and the prayers and support from you guys I'm still here today! And will continue to be for a long while yet!

Yesterday they removed my PICC line, (below is a photo of it before it was removed) which was used for infusions, transfusions and taking blood. It's nice to be able to have a shower without having a bag tied round my arm!

What will happen to the blog I don't know. Perhaps I'll update it after check-ups, or if there's any other news. I have no idea yet. But feel free to keep an eye on it.

The last four months have been a huge learning journey for me. Discovering what's important in life and what isn't, how short life is and how we need to make the most of it, how to live with an eternal perspective and most significantly the beauty in suffering. The amount of good things that have come out of this amaze me! I can say now, at the end of it all that it was a worthwhile experience - but I don't want to go through it again! :D

Thank you to everyone who has gone through this with me. Thank you for your encouragements along the way. The text messages for me to 'keep my chin up', the cards and letters, the visits - thank you all so much!

I've been blessed with a hugely supportive family too. Everyday that I've been in hospital one or both of my parents have visited me. They've stayed many hours, putting up with me being spaced out on morphine, being asleep, sick, grumpy and all the rest of it. I couldn't ask for better parents.

And finally, I would not have got through this as positively as I did - perhaps not at all - without God's strength sustaining me, His love and mercy allowing me to trust Him and His promises and ultimate goodness giving me hope that whatever happens is part of a bigger plan that is for His glory. GOD HAS BEEN SO SO SO SO GOOD TO ME!

Guys, thanks again for everything! It's time to go home!

My peripherally inserted central catheter (PICC line) The blue tube travelled in through the vain, up the arm, to just above my heart. It has served me very, very well!

Bit more hospital fun!

First of all let me start with some good news! Over the weekend I bumped into my consultant and asked him exactly why I wasn't having a bone marrow transplant, to which he gave the best reply I could have hoped for! A while back he mentioned that there is a form of FLT-3 (the mutation I have) which isn't bad and doesn't affect the prognosis. However, only 10% of people with the mutation fall under this category - and I'm in that 10%! This not only means that I wont be needing the bone marrow biopsy but it also means the likelihood of me not relapsing has shot up from 25% to 40/50%!
Anyway, a bit of not so good news was that on Monday I noticed I had a bit of stomach ache which was getting progressively worse over the day. In the afternoon I went over to the day unit to have my observations done and they saw that my temperature was slowly creeping up. The doctor had a look at me and told me that I could stay at the hostel but if anything got worse I should phone the on call doctor immediately. At 0300 in the morning my temperature was 37.8 so I phoned the doctor (who was blatantly asleep) and was told to come into the hospital straight away. Since then I've had x-rays and antibiotics. The worrying thing was that my immune system was still at 0.0 so my body couldn't fight whatever infection it was that was bothering me. But last night, well early this morning my temperature was down to 36.6 and now 36.3 which is so much better than the 38 mark that it's been at for the last few days! I've had a blood test this morning and I'm hoping that that will show that I've got some neutrophils back too. 
So all's good now! Just hoping to get back home very soon!

Very nearly the end.

I came out on Sunday afternoon feeling a bit washed out, but very happy that I wont be having chemo again! Over the last week I've been going into Colchester for blood tests and have been down to Tollesbury a couple of times. It's just been great to get out of hospital once and for all!
I had another blood test yesterday and my counts had dropped loads. Going with how it worked the last couple of times I thought I'd be going back to the hostel on Monday, especially since my levels were pretty good on Wednesday. But nothing's ever the same so I'm back in the hostel now without an immune system. Just hoping that I can go for a week without an infection!
I'm quite pleased that they've dropped quicker than last time as it means they'll come up quicker and I can get back to normality ASAP!
I've been over to the day unit this morning for a blood test and this afternoon I'll get a bag of platelets.
Will keep you posted!