Where did January go?

Hello, where've you been? Oh, it's me that's been absent, sorry.

You can take it that no news is good news. I have been SO well: totally symptom-free, infection-free, even avoiding all the bugs that everyone else has got. All the more surprising because I have been out and about, mixing with people and just discovered the other day that my white blood count is low (Neutrophils 0.8 for those who like that sort of detail).


Following the fire, the hospital got back up to speed remarkably quickly, but was hampered not so much by burnt-out bits as smoke and water damage. Some wards remain closed because the closure of corridors for remedial work have cut off fire exits - rather important, we all agree. Smoke damage did for the hospital's high-spec water filtration system that is used to make up the IV chemo. I never thought about it before, but it probably is sensible that they don't just go to the tap to mix the infusion bags. So, the orders were to be inventive where they could, and in my case cycle 3 was already much delayed due to my infections before Christmas and then the fire.

Etoposide is chemo drug that I had in my previous regime that can be administered orally. It was explained that rather than delay more or send me to another hospital I could take a tablet twice a day for 14 days and that would count as a cycle. Not so efficacious as the IV and with extra side-effects as it was oral. I had NO side-effects, in fact half-way through I accused the oncologist of giving me a placebo. She held up that day's blood tests and said "So why do you think your platelets, haemogolbin and whiteys have all gone walkabout"? (She's Australian and therefore direct, but quite good ;-)

Since Christmas I've been turning the every-other-day walks into walk-jogs, moving from walk 5 mins jog 2, to today's walk 2 jog 2. I'm feeling full of energy and working (from home, not real work) mixed in with reading, visiting Mum (now out of hospital and recovering) refreshing my French and watching my hair grow. I've been starting to believe I'm going to enjoy some good health for some time, only slightly mindful that it's the end of November that I last had IV chemo. So, it was with some surprise that when I went in to the Marsden on Monday for an overnight IV session that they said my white count was too low to be putting more poison into me and would I come back next week?

Initially, I was more frustrated with how this put out some of my plans than considering what it meant. As I've been feeling increasingly "normal", I've been making more appointments and commitments and was annoyed to be reminded I'm not quite the superman I sometimes like to believe. It's been two weeks since I finished the oral chemo and my bone marrow is slow - getting slower? - at creating those essential white blood cells. I'm not at all downhearted about it, just a bit put out and carefully considering how this affects what I should commit to over the coming months.

I could commit to blogging more frequently? Nah! though I continue to appreciate the comments, even if I don't know who they're from (Fab Al???). For those of you - many of you - who have said you wanted to post a comment but the technology defeated you, it is fine to bypass setting up a profile and press the "Anonymous" button, but you can still sign, if you wish, in the main text box.

And I have tried to get back to friends and acquaintances who discovered I had cancer only when tuning into the News on 2 Jan. Sorry!

A bientot!