Wednesday 5th December

Wednesday

Much better today, the diarrhoea medicine worked almost instantly which was quite a relief as you can imagine. Blood pressure still up a bit so needed to double the dose on those tabs and have it taken again. I’d been hoping to go into work for a meeting/Christmas lunch with my Health and Safety buddies but the timing wouldn’t work out with my nurse’s appointment so I had to blow them out again. We did go to Costco after lunch and I managed to walk around the store which was better than I’ve been for days.

One of the few positive thing about the blood pressure thing is I get to see my surgery nurses again; they are both really sweet and kind. I got to know them when they were changing my dressings after my operation and they’ve both shown a genuine interest in how I’m getting on. In fact I’m very lucky because as well as being treated at the Marsden my GP surgery is very good, in addition to the nurses who I’ve already mentioned the receptionists are helpful and one doctor in particular is fantastic. She’s the one who referred me originally and she always seems prepared to put herself out for me without making me feel bad about it. I’ve never had much to do with the GP surgery before and I’ve been pleasantly surprised at how helpful and flexible they are whenever I need anything out of the ordinary.

Tuesday

Visiting the hospital today for checks on how I’m doing one week into treatment I was a bit worried how the journey would be with the tummy problems but I was okay in the end and we made it there okay. Everything seemed okay till they took my blood pressure which was higher than it should be. Now because of the clinical trial I’m on there are strict protocols to be followed, they took it again an hour later, it was quite a bit lower bit still about guidelines so they gave me some tablets for it and I had to have it taken again the following day. I was really worried this would mean travelling out to Sutton again but they said I could have it done at my own surgery then phone in the results. Gill my clinical nurse is really good and went through everything with me the doctor also gave me stuff for the diarrhoea.

The journey home was something akin to a nightmare! We hadn’t expected to be so long at the hospital and hadn’t taken any cash with us so we didn’t have lunch; in fact Phil hadn’t had anything to eat all day. Just to put a final cap on the day the traffic which had been really clear on the way in was blocked solid and it took about 2.5 hours to get home by which time we were both shattered.

Early night and hope for a better day tomorrow.

Monday

Bit better today; still had stomach problems but not quite as bad as the weekend and a little more energy. I was supposed to be going to the office party in London on Monday evening but there wasn’t any way I was fit to travel there so I had to give it a miss. We did go out to the library but the weather wasn’t good enough for a walk.

Sunday

Still had bad diarrhoea and I was feeling so tired I went back to bed after breakfast for the rest of the morning. We did manage a quick walk in the afternoon but that was about it for me and I just lounged around for the rest of the day this was the worst day so far.