ABVD - 7/8

1 more to go!!

Yesterday was the fastest and least sickness-inducing yet. I was having the drugs by 11:50 and was done by about 3, with not really too much nausea.

poor right hand :(

Unfortunately, we did discover yesterday that the vein in my right arm is shot to pieces (it wasn't bleeding as profusely as it should), meaning that my poor left had to be used for the FIFTH time. It was really quite painful getting the cannula in because the vein is really hardened now through overuse, and it took quite a while for it to acclimatise to having a needle in it (i.e. it was painful for about half an hour before I felt able to continue with the chemo).

Yesterday night, too, we had a mini crisis as my temperature soared to the heady heights of 37.7 degrees centigrade at 8:30pm - the highest I'd ever seen it on my little digithermometer. The chemo hotline was rung, though, and they said it was a fairly common reaction; I also am not neutropenic (I have sufficient "fighters" in my blood at the moment... surely dying off as the chemo washes around my system) so they weren't as worried about me as they would have been otherwise.
 An anxious wait ensued as we made plans to potentially go to A+E and be admitted for the first time. I was getting quite stressed between 8:30 and the next temperature at 9:30, I have to admit, because I was not really looking forward to more hospital, more prickly needles, more stuff in my veins.
Fortunately, by 9:30 my temperature was down to 37 on the dot, and, finally, at 10:30, down to 36.6.... relieved, I passed out. Only to awaken again at 12, 3, 5 and 7 to pee... the amount of water I'd drunk and also had pumped through me in saline form in the hospital is rather voluminous.

I've taken 4 pills already today. Ugh. But anyway, I don't feel too awful actually. Mouth is a bit yucky and I'm a bit fatigued, but, by now, I know that's to be expected. The overriding mantra is that there's LESS THAN TWO WEEKS TIL THE END OF CHEMO. I can't wait.

I'm seeing the radiotherapy specialist on Tuesday to plan out that stage of my treatment. I'll update then, if not before.

T