Back in Land of Living

Well what can I say ?? I was soo pleased that I had finished chemo. Soo looking forward to a few weeks of normalcy when BANG the Universe decided I needed bringing back down to earth. And what a way to do it!! Woke up feeling very tired last Wednesday but put it down to all the effort put into selecting my new boots. However by Friday felt really fatigued. By the late afternoon felt very unwell and discovered I had a temperature. To cut a long story short I ended up in hospital with a really low white blood cell count. This is not unusual in Chemo treatment, but I had thought I had gotten away with it. The thing is the fact that white blood cells help the body to fight infection so a low count leaves you at risk of being unable to fight off any infection that your body comes across. So I ended up with a temperature of 39.1 and a really bad cold. I have spent the last four of five nights on the A1 ( cancer ) ward in a room on my own. It was a nice comfy room with en-suite and TV etc, and all the staff on the ward are brilliant. Unfortunately as you are all aware my body does not like having canula's etc inserted so that has been a bit of a nightmare. I started off by having one inserted into my foot ( that was so painful I cant begin to tell you) in Resus. Then after that failed because the veins in my arms kept collapsing there was a decision made to insert a line into my neck. I have since found out this does come with a lot of problems. Eventually thank God a young doctor managed to get a canula into the back of my hand. This was to enable the insertion of anti biotics into my body to fight off the infection. I can happily report that the drugs worked and I am now back home in my shed, a bit tired still but feeling a whole lot better. I would like to say a big thank you to my friends for visiting me. It does get very boring when you start to feel better, so a visit from a friend does help to pass the time. And a very big thank you to all the staff on A1 for enabling my recovery. So onwards and upwards - a few days readjustment and then back out into the world. Hurrah !!