13 Weeks

There was lots of tears, pain and joy in my 13 weeks in hospital. I remember having days where I thought I would never leave but from Sunday 16th June I am a free man...... well I'm a man on parole, but more on that later. 

I got released from Peter Mac around 2pm, after a quick goodbye to the fantastic nurses we jumped in the car to head to Queen Vic Market. It was a quick visit to QVM, we went to stock up on lollies and chocolate covered coffee beans (something we struggle to get in Singapore, but Lisa does make a great version from scratch). We also got some cheap steaks for our family dinner that night, the late afternoon specials at the market are fantastic. 

After QVM I made it to my Brendan and Rhiannon's place for Ryder's B'day. Getting to Brendan's and being able to see friends was a great way to spend my Sunday afternoon, for once I felt like a real person again. 

That night we had a family dinner at mum and dads where I had a small glass of wine. With the combination of 13 weeks without drinking and the antibiotics I am on I instantly got light headed. This is great, suddenly I am like a 16 year old having his first drink. Hopefully when I finally get back to Singapore I don't have to do a "down down" because I'm pretty certain I will set the record for the slowest down down ever (which is pretty hard since Steph is incredibly slow :-). 

Being released from hospital is a great step forward but unfortunately it doesn't mean that I am fully cured. The good news is I no longer have cancer but I still have a healing wound (from where I was cut open for surgery), infections, lost voice and very underweight (I have lost a 1/3 of my body weight). To ensure I am healing Peter Mac have organised a nurse to visit me at home 3 days a week. The nurse takes my blood 2 days a week and changes my wound care 3 days a week.  Apart from the nurse at home I have roughly once a week appointments with my doctors back at Peter Mac.  

I am hopeful after a month these visits and drugs I am on are reduced and I can start getting back into work and living a normal life.

So what can I take out of being in hospital for 13 weeks? There are a few things that this experience has taught me:

1. Cancer sucks

2. Blood isn't just the red stuff that comes out of your body. I can't believe how much more I know about blood now. 

3. The staff at Peter Mac and the hospital in general are fantastic. 

4. Never ever stay more than a week in a Singapore hospital if you are not a local (yes I still haven't gotten over the zero level of care I got from that hospital).

Most importantly the one thing that getting sick  has made me aware of is how grateful I am to have the friends and family I have (both here in Australia, Singapore and throughout my workplace). Throughout my 13 weeks I received incredible support from everyone from visits to hospital, presents and facebook messages. But most touching was the amount of friends who volunteered to donate their white blood cells, thank you all for your support. 

I look forward to seeing lots of you at the F#@! off cancer party I will be hosting when I can finally drink again. 

Counts going up, physio and a hole in my nose.

Today my white blood count finally hit the magical figure of 1!!!! Welcome back immune system, now get into gear and clear the infections and fix my voice box.

Anyway what has transpired over the last few days?

Yesterday I had a visit from my physio and and ENT (ear, nose, throat and eye) doctors. My physio has written me up a program and given me 1/2 and 1kg weights so I can start building some muscle. These are daily activities which I am yet to start so it will be interesting today. Again I feel like such a weakling since I can't do a shoulder press with a 1kg weight and I have to resort to the 1/2kg. Why does muscle take so long to put on and is so quick to come off?

My physio also gave me a new walker to walk with outdoors. Unlike my old 2 wheel drive walker this is a 4 wheel drive and is red so I am heaps quicker. My new walker for those who can't picture it looks like this but without the basket

My weight today is 53.7 which hopefully is the lowest I will get. I am eating more than normal so the fact I am still going down is crazy. Obviously more junk food and food from the so called "Health Food" aisle in the supermarket is needed.

The ENT doctor came to pay me a visit for 2 reasons:
1. The fact I have lost my voice for 2 weeks
2. Because the middle section of my nose fell out the other night.
  - I now have a hole between my nostrils just above the bottom of my nose. Apparently it is called Nasal Septal. Common when you get nasal prongs and oxygen or if you use cocaine. Over the last 3 months I have had one of those and it isn't the good one.

The ENT doctor found I had a bruised voice box probably from coughing to much (damn you ICU and your coughing exercises). Because my white blood cells have been low it is taking longer than normal to recover but hopefully not long now. In terms of the Nasal Septal I don't have answers but instead a cool party trick.

My last exciting update is I have been fully switched to all oral anti-biotics and anti-fungals. As you may click on the only reason the doctors do this is so I can go home. Sure enough as long as my body absorbs the anti's, I don't get a new bug (dictated by a temperature) and my wound/stoma nurse is confident I am independent I will be home on Sunday. Finally my 3 month hospital "experience" will come to an end.

Fingers crossed for the next few days

White Blood Counts

So my days now are made up of visits from the doctors in the morning where I have the same 2 questions....

1. What's my counts?
2. When will my voice come back?

For point 1 I am specifically referring to my white blood cells (the healing ones). Most people have white blood cell counts at 5 or 6 but mine have been close to 0 for way to long. This is because Chemo completely wipes you so you have to wait for your body to start producing again (mine is just taking a lot longer than normal).

I'm happy at the moment that my white blood counts are staying pretty steady from .31 to .21 to .25 today (an increase is always good). So hopefully we are finally turning the corner and my body is getting out of this vacation it thinks it's allowed.

On the plus the doctors have given me day passes for the last 3 days so I have been able to spend at least 6 hours out of prison..... ooooops I mean hospital. Here is how we spent the weekend

Saturday - Home Day
Went home for the first time since good Friday. Andrew, David, Gemma and Penny came round and we got pizza. Managed 4 slices which I was damn impressed since my stomach must be the size of a pea. Got to finally see a game of thrones episode with Dave (only a few left) and did stupid things like making sure I can survive when I get home (i.e can I get out of bed myself, can I sit on the toilet and get up). As I said stupid but things that were playing on my mind.

We eventually went back to Peter Mac and was able to watch all of the footy there (Go the Swans!!!!). Mum and Dad stayed to the end of the game which for those who don't know was a thriller. I do however feel sorry for the 3 other people in the room, as quiet as we tried I am sure they couldn't sleep through our cheering or angry words.

Sunday - Walking Day
Went to South Melbourne market, unfortunately couldn't find a nice beanie but did have a dim sim and doughnut. After that we went for a drive to see where Dad used to live and then to St. Kilda and Port Melbourne. At Port Melbourne we walked to the end of pier to have a look, amazing view and lots of nice apartments around that area. From there we found a cafe for some cake and coffee, I had a lemon lime and bitters and a cookie which would only look normal in a giants hand.

Sunday was the most I had walked in months so eventually I was pretty stuffed and we went back to Peter Mac where I forced half my dinner done (the dim sim really filled me up).

Today?????
So today I am heading back home and we are going to have a bbq. On the menu will be Kangaroo, full of protein and something I don't get in hospital. Probably not as much walking today but I will at least get some in since we are going shopping first for some warmer clothes.

I also got weighed today and I weigh 55.5kg. We think we have now taken the fluid out which means this is my true weight and I am off diarrhetic pills (these pills make you pee more liquid than you actually put in, it's amazing). So from 78kg when I am healthy to 55.5kg, I have a long way to go.

So hopefully my next blog update is one that says my white blood cells have jumped up closer to number 1. But right now it's back to my favourite game...... the waiting game. 

Where have I been?

It has been a crazy few weeks that I do not want to go through again. I have been transferred to Peter Mac  from St. Vincents because I was pretty much recovered at St. V's (or so they thought).

From the surgery or something at St. V's I have picked up a fungal infection. Usually your body will fight that off but when your body has no white blood cells (the chemo kills them) you can't fight infection. I have been on a lot of antibiotics but they didn't really seem to be doing the job.

So I am now on a special program where I have friends (A huge thanks to all my friends the response to donate it has been so overwhelming) donating their white blood cells. This involves them for 3 days having a machine take their blood spin out the white blood cells and put the other blood back. The blood then goes to me which helps fight infection.

Usually everything goes alright but I did have a reaction one night to the blood. This caused crazy panic in the ward and eventually I was taken to the ICU unit here in Peter Mac. In ICU you are constantly monitored so your freedom is non existent. If you need the bathroom you use a jug and you can't have the internet. It's not the best place to be, so over the next few days I was transferred from the ward to the ICU about 4 times (talk about crazy).

Finally I am now in the ward with internet access and a bit of freedom. The plan is to continue to give me white blood cells until my own white blood counts come to an acceptable level. I believe the doctors want me to maintain a white blood count of at least .3 and today I was sitting at .24 so not far off. For those who want to know healthy people have white blood counts of about 6 so I am a long way off being fully recovered.

Again we play the waiting game, unsure when I'll get out but fingers crossed it is soon.