Post date: 08-Jun-2012 08:03:33
Yesterday the senior consultant that is looking after me came in for a chat. Again he was doing the ward round before the results of the blood tests had come back from the lab. Nothing really new – he wants to get on with the planning the next cycle of the treatment. He said he expected me to get home within a couple of days based on the way my blood levels where going. As soon as my Neutrophils hit 0.5 he wanted me to go…
So I had my normal morning of stats being taken, drugs being given and people in and out making the bed and cleaning the room… Then finally at about 11:45 one of the support staff put her head round the door to say she had heard I was going home. I checked this with one of the nurses and it would appear my Neutrophils were actually up to 0.6 (0.3 the day before).
Then later after lunch one of the doctors came in and confirmed it formally (I was almost completely packed by then). Below is the basic timetable for the next couple of weeks:
7th June – Go home
11th June – Go back for bone marrow test (to be confirmed)
18th June – Cycle 2 starts – details depend on test results
The slowest part of being discharged is getting the paperwork and the drugs from the pharmacy. Luckily we only live ten minutes drive from the hospital so I was able to go home as soon as Isabel was able to collect me and we could go back for the stuff later.
Isabel came in mid afternoon and carried all my stuff out to the car – yes even the exercise bike. Thankfully she could get the car quite close.
This time coming home felt a lot more natural than the few hours out I had on Tuesday, I did not have the same sense of anxiety as I did then.
It is very nice to be at home for a few days but as I have said before it is the results of the bone marrow tests that are more important medically than being let home.
I still have very low neutophil levels so although I am at home I have to take all the same precautions in terms of not going out – I can’t even go to the shops. I am not planning on seeing anybody over the weekend then next week we will keep it to the visitors who had been booked to see me in hospital (if you still want to come).
Isabel did inform me this morning that there was no breakfast trolley in this establishment and I would have to go and get my own tea and cereal :-)
I will be creating a new blog page to cover the time I spend at home ‘Home Stay 1’ that I will keep updated while I’m at home. So this will be my last posting in this section…
… 9k on the exercise bike yesterday, glad to hear Les is keeping up with it as well. I plan to use my bike during the week I’m at home…