Chemo delayed, Christmas isn't

I came into the Marsden for cycle 3 of regime 2, but instead am back on antibiotics. Latest word is I'll be home for Christmas, but will have no time for Christmas shopping. Result!

Trouble is that when I came in for one of my infamous week 2 infections on 7th December, the first cannula I had fitted was painful and after just one shot of IV became blocked and unusable. So I was fitted with another, and after 4 days of general IV antibiotics, and after my temperature came down and my white blood cells bounced back (they had all but disappeared) I was sent home with 4 days worth of oral antibiotics. As soon as I finished them, I developed a painful, angry-looking swelling at the site of that first cannula. I was persuaded (thanks, Dear) to go to the hospital and get a doctor to have a look and came away with some more, specific antibiotics. That was last Friday (and I sneaked in a CT scan due the following week), by Monday it was no better, in fact a bit worse. So I went up again and got some ointment, too (and sneaked in the routine blood tests ahead of the chemo due on Wednesday). The doctor was interested to see if my white cells were high (as if!) which would indicate an underlying general infection not just localised to my arm. They were bang on my base level, so back home.

Wednesday in for chemo but the admitting nurse didn't like the look of my arm and declined to cannulate me, suspecting I wouldn't be fit for chemo. Much deliberation and inspection followed and I am now in for maybe 3 or 4 days (was expecting chemo to last 24 hours) on the strongest IV antibiotic they've got. No question of feeding me poison while that's going on, so chemo will be - at the time of writing - between Christmas and New Year.

A little setback but not the end of the world, there's always someone worse off. In the bed opposite me today, a 19 year old was told bad news about his multiple stomach tumours and in the bed next to me an older man was told all the medicines available have been tried and his tumour continues to grow. They'll try and "make him comfortable". I've got a sore arm, and a disruption to my plans. Oh, and I've been told the CT scan shows more movement in the right direction - I'll try and upload it as soon as I've seen it.

Count your bleesings and seize the day!

Paul