Bags are packed and ready for off. I’m leaving the hospital tonight and heading for home. Yipee !!

Temperature has been stable for about 3 days and stomach beginning to settle down. Got to come back for a follow up here, at the Thursday clinic, and then up to Bone marrow clinic in Glasgow a week today.

Getting out just in time.... beginning to feel like a caged wild animal.

Well fancy that !! I’m back in hospital again, looking out over the Galloway Hills.

Got a slight fever on Wednesday evening after spending several hours pottering about in the garden. Did I over do it again ? I was on my legs for a fair time. Was it sunstroke or was it connected with a little piece of wickedness from earlier in the week or none of the above? Anyway, a few phone calls later and I was packing my bags for an overnight stay in Dumfries Royal Infirmary.

Christine and I left the house about 9.30 pm for the half hour journey into Dumfries. She set off back home about 12.30 am but they were still messing about connecting me up with antibiotic drips well after 3 am. It’s very nice to be so well looked after but utterly exhausting when all you want to do is lie down and sleep. But that’s just hospital admissions procedure; it always seems to take a long time.

Day 1: The following morning my haemoglobin count was 81. The Doctor in charge decided to give me a blood transfusion - two units of type A. Quite exciting to be given type A for the first time it’s always been type O up to now. A real sign that my new donor cells are settling in and taking over. Good bye to the old Rodg.
Although my temperature had subsided a little it was back up again in the morning so, with a bag of blood in my hand to a line in my arm, I was transfered from Admissions Ward 7 to Haematology Ward 10. Having had only 4 hours sleep I was feeling a bit rough whatever else was going on inside me. I snatched what sleep I could but there were staff coming in every 20 mins disturbing me for one thing or another. It was only after lunch that an extended period without disturbance occured and I went out like a light, dead to the world for about 2 hours. I felt refreshed by it.
Examination of tests that had been done on samples I’d left last week showed I did have a stomach virus - norovirus. Other tests were underway. I was definitly in for a second night.

Christine dropped by in the early evening and left me with the local paper which I read from cover to cover while the beautiful evening light faded. I managed to get the nurse to disconnect the transfusion line long enough to get into my night clothes and wash, then I crashed out on the bed and they were free to do what they liked to me. I remember little else until the first stirings in the corridor at 5.40 am.





Day 2: Midday. Big Chief Doc. wants me confined to my single room in case I still have norovirus or have CDiff. Says it maybe GvHD or a combination of several things: at the moment they’ve no idea. Definitely here for a third night. Damn ! the weather’s glorious; I want to be outside in the fresh air. Sampling this volcanic ash that’s coming from the Iclandic volcano and closing all the airports.

Almost 4 weeks since my last posting; they are becoming more and more spaced out as I perceive less and less change. In fact these last couple of weeks feel as if I have been going backwards but it’s only a stage to be got through and I should come through the other side OK. At least Spring is moving forward even if I’m not. The catkins of March have been superseded by April’s blossoms: The Daphnia is scented amongst the Primulas while the Daffodils have missed Easter this year and are only just underway.

The ciclosporin levels have continued to be reduced by 5 mg each week and are now less than half of what they were. It’s really taking the brakes off the immuno-suppressant and is giving a bit more space for the new cells to start taking over. However, being the container for this battle ground is proving to be not particularly pleasant for planet Rodg: headaches, flaking skin, diarrhoea, and this week, a sudden drop in haemoglobin. Liver tests done at Dumfries today show a rise in Alk. Phos.(ALP) and GammaGT and ALT. Not sure what the implications are of that ( might account for the upset stomach ?) but I’ve been told to sit tight for a week and wait for a decision from the Glasgow team next Monday. A little bit of Graft vs Host Disease (GvHD) is supposed to be good as long as it doesn’t get out of hand. The aim is to give my new French stem cells a little more leeway to start operating properly, allowing them to seek out and overwhelm my own remaining cells, including any indolent Lymphocytes still lurking in the depths. I was warned before embarking on this lark that the price of staying alive ‘might’ involve permanent GvHD. Let’s hope I’m one of the lucky ones and it remains mild and doesn’t last too long.

At last week’s meeting with one of the Glasgow consultants I was cheerfully informed that at my age the recovery could take more than a year .... perhaps two or more !! Not really what I want to hear just now; life is moving at a frustratingly slow pace. Without the haemoglobin it’s very difficult to exercise properly; the one mile walk up the hill to the ‘summer seat’ had me gasping yesterday and my head was booming. I expect that if the level is still low next week they will be organizing another blood transfusion. Ah well, just another day in the life.... no big deal.

The nice thing is that Christine’s had a good Easter in the Pottery. Very positive feedback from customers to the new work which is most encouraging for her. She’s still in a bit ‘stressed out’ about loosing the best part of three months work because of my illness but that can’t be helped.