Mike's Treatment Diary

March 31st  End of week 2 Radiotherapy and end of the month 07:31 Note to self, give yourself an extra 15 minutes before you leave, Friday traffic isn't as heavy. I'm sitting in the car park doing my tounge exercises, today's session is at 08:15. Starting to get some soreness in the back right hand side of my throat now, this is only going to get worse so yesterday's meeting with the speech therapist discussed transitioning off muesli to porridge for breakfast and starting to take regular paracetamol. Heavier duty painkillers may well follow.

Thursday 30th March 08:48 Wating area for Radiotherapy. Session at 09:15. Throat is now beginning to feel a bit sore, the odd Halls Soother is managing that for now. I see stronger painkillers on the horizon.

Wednesday 29th March 08:50 Chemo day today, session starts at 09:30 and will last for several hours followed by Radiotherapy. Traffic was pretty good today aside from the usual crawl on the south end of the M11 past Loughton/Chigwell. 10:20 Dressing changed and first drip attached, Magnesium Sulphate solution. 13:20 Just finished the Cisplatin (chemo) drip, now I'm on a litre or so of Sodium Chloride solution. 17:00 I was done in the chemo day unit by about 14:00. Down to Radiotherapy for a 10-15 minute wait before I had the treatment. Back to the car and home by about 16:00. Could have been worse. Don't feel too bad thankfully. I have more steroids and antisickness tablets to take for the next couple of days on top of the usual. I also got a mouthwash that has a painkilling effect once my throat starts to properly hurt. There is a background discussion ongoing about whether I should have a feeding tube inserted directly through my skin into the stomach to enable me...

Tuesday 28th March 07:59 In the radiotherapy waiting area for today's session. All done and dusted by about 08:15, met one of the consultants and the dietician the went off to get a blood test ahead of chemo tomorrow which is at 09:30.

Monday 27th June Another covid free test, today's Radiotherapy appointment is at 17:35. 18:00 Another session done and dusted. Tomorrow has been rearranged to 08:00 now I don't have the lurgy.

Friday 24th March Breakfast:

Thursday 23rd March 19:50 As routine as its likely to get today. Covid test was +ve again, no surprise there. Appointment was 5pm today, thankfully I left plenty of time as I spent about 25 minutes stationary on the M11 as the junction with the M25 had two independent accidents on different slip roads.  I don't seem to have any major covid symptoms and I don't have any radiotherapy effects yet either, which is nice.

Wednesday 22nd March Today's appointment is at 18:00 so I have a day of rest to hopefully start to shift the covid. 18:00 Done for today, nothing more to report. Not feeling any particular pain in the neck, nor any major covid symptoms. 

Tuesday 21st March Basil woke me up at 05:30 today.... not looking forward to the clocks going forward next week. I tested +ve for covid this morning. After many phone calls it looks like I will still get the Radiotherapy, they will move my appointment to the end of the day to avoid contact with other patients. Chemo tomorrow will likely not happen until I get a -ve test. Its now 17:20 & I'm back at the radiotherapy department awaiting treatment. I'm going to have to come back at the end of each day until I test -ve. Ho hum. Mask head.

MONDAY 20TH 08:20 The shiny new multistorey car park has opened, hopefully I can now avoid getting to the hospital hours ahead of time.  My appointment is at 08:45 and I'm sitting in the waiting area. 09:45 Session complete. The mask that was made a few weeks back still fits tightly & I was clamped to the table for about 10 minutes as the machine did its business. Now waiting to see the doctors and have a blood test. 10:32 Blood test done, now I'm at the pharmacy for more drugs. I can collect these tomorrow as it seems totale hours to process. I got home just before midday after hunting down the cheapest petrol between the hospital and Stortford. Tired this afternoon so early to bed tonight.

15:00 Thursday 16th In the chemo day unit for a change of dressing for the PICC line in my arm. Hopefully a short 30 minute visit, next week I'll be here every day and for the following 5 weeks.

It's Saturday morning, it's Emily's birthday, Luke's come back from Nottingham for the weekend and the sun is out. It's been nearly two weeks since the pump was removed and I'm feeling OK. Next week I'll try to get some of the list of physical DIY jobs done around the place before I start radiochemotherapy on Monday 20th. Thanks for all the continued wishes, offers of help, chats, cups of tea and/or pub lunches. All this is much appreciated and is reassuring to know there's much love out there.

It's Thursday evening & so far the aftermath of chemo two has been less impactful than the first one. I actually managed to sleep in bed last night without experiencing much in the way of pain or reflux. Fingers crossed that it will continue to improve.