Belly Pinch

 

Friday August 21 2020

Bit of a shock today. I went for a routine CT scan and they found some blood clots on my lungs. Some right at the edge of my right lung and some in the middle of my left lung.

They don't know how long they have been there. They were definately not there before I started chemo so they might have started growing after that or maybe after my last chemo. They just don't know.

It is a common thing to happen to people who have cancer and are going through chemo treatment. Both things mess with the blood and make it coagulate more and definately change things in the body. Three people in Velindre had similar results to me today.

Generally the body re-absorbs the blood and the clots go away by themselves. But because I am having treatment, they want to help it disappear by giving me blood thinning medicine. Obviously it is dangerous to have blot clots anywhere at any time. The nurse did say that probably everybody has had a blot clot in their body at some time or other. It is just that mostly we don't know about it. They only found out today because I was half way through my chemo sessions to see how I was doing.

The nurse did say that apart from the blood clots the scan looked good and it was doing the right thing to the cancer. I will find out more details with my phone consultation next week.

I went in without eating anything and did not take anything to read. I thought I would only be there for an hour or so. They sent me to the assessment ward. I was put into a ward with 3 other men who were being assessed. I had a bed and I sat on the chair beside the bed mostly. I had my blood pressure taken and temperature and some bloods taken. Then later the nurse got me to take my bra off and lie down on the bed with my shirt on and gave me an ECG. They put sensors on my legs around my chest, ribs and heart. And then a mobile machine printed out the result. I was doing my best to calm my heartbeat with deep breathing. My heart reading was OK. Just like in the movies... the wiggly wavey line.

After that I just had to wait for the results to come through and for a doctor or nurse to tell me what was going on and give me some blood thinning drugs.

So my scan appointment was 11.20 and the nurse came and had a chat with me around 3.30 - 4 pm.She was fantastic and very clear and calm about everything. It was a lot of information to take in at once. I was expecting her to give me a pill to take or something.

Another shock ...... the treatment is an injection everyday for 6 months ! ! ! If I have trouble with injections they can give me a pill but they feel that the injection is a more tried and tested way of solving the problem. It is important I don't miss a dose. If I do I have to ring them up and confess.

There are no side effects as such but I will become more susceptical to things going wrong because of the drug. If I cut myself I will bleed, I have to be careful with brushing my teeth I might bruise easily, get sore at the injection site and a whole other slew of things that might affect 1 to a 100 or 1 to 1000 people. I will just have to be extra vigilant. Halleliwia ! yet more things to look out for.

I had visions of waiting in for the district nurse to arrive every day for the next 6 months but she said I could do the injections myself. They are into a pinch of fat around the belly so should be straight forward to do. Then I would still have a life. Luckily I am not squeamish about needles. Even so ! ! ! The Idea .... I have to do the injections around the same time every day. So I will have to fix up a system where I know I have done it and don't forget. I choose a different injection site everyday, like an oval pattern across my belly or she said a smile shape. A smiling belly.

I am so naive. It did not occurr to me that unexpected things might crop up and have to be dealt with as this treatment goes on. I really thought I was dealing with it all very well. It is the cancer and the chemo that are doing unexpected (at least to me) things to my body. Well now I know I have to prepare for surprises. Always take a book into Velindre even if it just for taking a blood test you just never know what might happen!

I go to have my bloods done again on Monday. They talked again about possibly giving me a blood transfusion if my results were really low. That would be another long session I guess. Vampire anyone? I told her about my visual migraines that had been happening after having bloods taken. She could not give me an explanation for them. Breathlessness is a sign of not enough oxygenating red cells but also of stuff happening in the lungs. Of course today I am at my lowest ebb 7 days or so after treatment. After this my body starts to recover.

Learning to deal with surprises and learning to have patience as hours slip by in waiting rooms and hospital wards. I shall be a veritable Saint after a few more months of this!

Saturday August 22 2020

I have calmed down after the shocks yesterday. I've been quite domestic and done some cooking. I've done my first injection. It really was not so bad. It did not hurt going in just a bit hot when pushing the plunger and ached a bit for a while afterwards. Really not too bad.