§ The Limbo Dance: signifying an emergence from death to life. §
5 September 2016: Email update to friends and rellies – coming home?
Dear all
Well, we’ve had an exciting few days!!
Hair………..
As you know, John was periodically pulling tufts of hair out of his head on Friday, which has now become a bit of a cascade and hair is floating everywhere! Taking a shower means that John is more hirsuit on his body when he leaves the shower than when he went in!!! And the caps we ordered to cover his embarrassment have not yet arrived, but the nice new slippers I ordered for him have (more on that in a minute)…..
Trip to the loo, my darling
The tests finally showed a urine infection of polyoma, which the doctors are not unduly concerned about, but either as a result of that or something else, they decided that John was deficient in magnesium so promptly filled him full of litres and litres of saline solution (again) with the magnesium in it. Consequently, nightly trips to the loo continue. Fortunately, the other problem regarding his toilet habits has now cleared up, so a bit of relief there.
Morning and evening John has been hooked up to a drip of cyclosporine (the immunosuppressant) so it’s been fun, fun, fun when he’s needed the loo as his ‘friend’ has always gone with him.
Move over drip – make way for pills
On Sunday, however, a new and exciting development, as he was no longer on a hook-up to the drip and sadly, he had to say goodbye to his ‘friend’. Instead, a tub full of exciting pills (some of you may have seen these on Facebook, which John called his ‘amuse-bouche’ before his ‘main’ of an English breakfast) including the cyclosporine, is now being provided morning and evening. Meals are now very exciting with his assortment of ‘smarties’.
Growing..growing…growing…
Every day, the nurses have also been extracting blood samples from his intravenous catheter, or ‘line’ as it’s called, as well as from a vein in his arm so that they can match the two to make sure nothing nasty is getting in, or was lurking anywhere. The samples are also tested daily for any signs of new white cells (of which he has been at zero) to indicate whether the transplant is working. Yesterday, Sunday, the doctor reported that instead of zero in the white cell department, John now has a reading of 0.3. Hip-hip-hooray!!! Zipper-dee-do-da!! Fanfare it from the rooftops!! John has some new cells!!! The transplant is beginning to do its work. When the reading is 0.5 he is no longer classed as neutropenic, so off the the endangered species list.
Home James?
Today, the doctor and the nurses have been very upbeat, to the extent that they are talking of sending him home TOMORROW!!!! We’ll wait to see if it happens but we are very excited at the prospect of having him home. (Slight caveat to that, actually – I had been hoping to get the house thoroughly cleaned and the carpets shampooed before he came home, which, of course, I haven’t done, so he will return to a grubby-ish house. Me? Worry? No…. not a bit of it!!)
As I said before, we are in good spirits, and still enjoying a joke and a laugh – and it’s even better now that we have news of things working, although there is still a way to go in keeping the various viruses and bugs that seem to lurk everywhere away from John. I have my sword ready…….
So the brand new slippers duly arrived – this is one of my attempts to keep John germ-free – and I have sent them across to the hospital today for Paul to deliver. They will, of course, be coming back tomorrow. And what’s the betting the germ-laden ones come back home too?? Hoping they’ll find their way to the bin by themselves. Now, if only the caps will arrive tomorrow, that would be good!! Otherwise, it’s a bobble hat he’ll have to wear……..(I’ll take photos, I promise!! Tee-hee!!)
And now, it’s my turn for some attention
In the meantime, whilst John has been hogging the limelight, I thought I’d have a go at trying to get some for myself. As some of you may already have seen on Facebook, I decided to do a dance with the pavement in the hospital car park. The pavement won the competition and, having landed flat on my face I now have the most enormous black eye. Very pretty. I was, of course in the right place, and hobbled into A&E, only to be ushered over the Adult Walk-in Centre for minor complaints. Minor??!! Minor??? Excuse me……….Anyway, the staff were all very kind, said all the right things, patted me on the head and sent me on my way with sage advice of to rest……..Hmm…(well, I have done today, anyway!).
Next instalment to follow
Will update you again once John is home or there is more news to tell.
Lots of love
A very excited Anne
P.S. John’s post on Facebook:
Hopefully it’s my last day, so it’s boiled egg for breakfast!!!