Colds, coughs and clots

I remember when I used to gauge a bad week in it raining, or Tesco’s didn’t have something I wanted, I would swap last week for one of those.

So where do I begin in this one…..

Since Simon started chemo we have been really careful about people being around him with coughs and colds, but this time of year it seems everyone has something and unless we shut him away or put him in bubble wrap it’s very hard to avoid the dreaded bugs, we had done quite a good job until about 10 days ago. Simon came home from work doing a remarkable impression of sneezy, and my god he sneezed!

This was a start of sore throat, cold/flu type symptoms and him genuinely feeling rotten.

When you start chemo you get a pack of information and in that pack is a card with emergency numbers and a list of symptoms that if he gets them he needs to phone the hospital. One of them was a raised temp, along with flu symptoms, etc. We played Russian roulette with a thermometer but no matter how many times we took it it was raised and so after a pretty hefty debate I called the hospital. We duly gave the symptoms etc and were told to attend Brent Ward to see the doctor.

Brent Ward is the oncology ward, we have never been on the ward and Simon has never wanted to be in it, purely because of the psychological effect of being on the ward and what being a patient on one could lead to. Being in this ward was a major struggle for Simon to deal with but thanks to the nurse caring for him and the Registrar who spoke to him they made this stay bearable for him. Once again the brilliant NHS staff have done their magic. IV antibiotics administered by the bucket load and within 24 hours Simon was home again.

We now had Simons CT to prep for, these are, as I have said in previous blogs, steeped in anxiety, fear and any other negative thought and feeling you can throw at them. His scan was early morning which was good and the imaging staff within no time had him in the scanner. We had already discussed how the results would be fed back to us, Simon wanted me to get them first and then relay to him….. sorted. Scan complete, Simon left and I walked back to the office. Within 30 minutes Simon was calling me, the radiology department had called him and could he come back to the hospital, present himself to ED as they had found blood clots in his lungs…….. another full day in hospital seeing Doctors etc, Simon will now have three months of clexane injections and in blood thinners for life. Apparently blood clots in patients with cancer is common and so this was actually reassuring. Still something else to get our heads around.

Scan results day!

Following all of this we had an appointment with the oncology team to discuss the CT results with us. Of the six tumours Simon has four have reduced in size, the oncologist was clear to say these are all small and a reduction in size is a really positive thing. So we move forward with another 12 weeks of chemo and then another CT scan.

This news is so encouraging and we take this with quiet reflection and move forward. Through all of this Simons drive and strength to get through this continues, he continues to work full time.

As always, onwards and upwards Mr C

TTFN