I am feeling rather sad as I found quite a lot of hair in my hairbrush yesterday afternoon; I was hoping the cold cap had worked and maybe it has delayed or will reduce my hair loss, so I plan to continue with that during the next chemotherapy session tomorrow and will hope for the best.
Apart from that I have been feeling fine since my last post; however, Amy and I did spend five hours in the local Accident & Emergency Department last Friday night as I was concerned about my left eye. A few weeks ago I had a big black “floater” appear which was checked out by an optician who said my eye was healthy and my brain would adjust to the floater, so I would hardly notice it – which has happened.
This may sound familiar to some of you who I know have had similar experiences, but then I started getting flashes of light and then it felt as if I had something physically in my eye so we went to get it checked out. To cut a long story short, I was given antibiotic ointment and an appointment at the eye clinic at Royal Surrey County Hospital, which was yesterday. The doctor said it was “posterior vitreous detachment”, not a detached retina and nothing to worry about, but to blink as much as possible to lubricate my eyes as chemotherapy dries them out. I often have dry eyes anyway and have drops and ointment which I will continue to use regularly.
Carrie arrived from Chicago last Saturday and we have had a lovely time meeting up with friends and family. Carrie was with me for the Port-a-Cath insertion on Monday, which went fine (Colin was briefly in Cyprus closing down our villa for the winter). I was lightly sedated because the radiologist said he would be using a local anaesthetic so I wouldn’t feel anything. I was awake while he chatted to the nurse during the procedure which took about an hour including recovery time. The most painful bit was inserting the cannula into the back of my hand to put in the sedative. I could feel pressing and him rummaging about in my chest, but no pain.
The doctor had explained the insertion procedure but did not say anything about how I would feel afterwards and once the anaesthetic had worn off in the evening I was in a lot of discomfort. My throat, neck and chest hurt but once I went to bed and lay on my back it all felt much better. Getting out of bed was painful but over the last few days it has got better and I am looking forward to the dressing being removed so I can see what it looks like.
I received a very informative letter from my consultant yesterday explaining all my results and saying he would discuss my future treatment with me on Monday 10th December at our meeting. So I will post next after that meeting.
Colin says there are now fifty of you following my blog which is just amazing. Thank you all for your continued support.