Wednesday 29th October 2008

Another frustrating day at UCH! Hospital transport turned up at 7.40am Monday morning, as I was pouring rice krispies into bowls! We never expect them early and usually they turn up around an hour late so it was a bit of a surprise! Anyway, Sarah wasn't feeling very well, but had a sickness tablet and off we went. Had a bit of breakfast on arrival, but she didn't feel hungry at all. Got in to bed, and had a nap - most unlike Sarah!! Went over to Dr Marias clinic for a 10.20 appointment, and got back to the ward to await an echo to check her heart was still OK after all the chemo - just routine. Physio came and Sarah did some good work playing football again with Humera, and even managed a bit of standing on her bad leg - the improvement in her in just 2 weeks is amazing, although there's still a VERY long way to go.Sarah then said she felt tired and got into bed and had another sleep - again, not like Sarah - she woke feeling really sick and promptly was sick all over her bed and clothes!! Too late for antisickness!! Then Dr Shankar came round at about 3.30 to tell us that her platelets were too low to start chemo - they had to be 75, aqnd they were 71 and dropping - aaaahhhhhh!!!!! Probably for the best - she was feeling ill, and didn't look like she wanted to have anything, let alone the dreaded red bag of medicine.The echo still had not happened so we are going back on Monday for an echo then to start the chemo - hopefully she will feel better by then - the last 3 nights have been touch and go with high temperatures, and it being too cold for me to want to take her to our local in the middle of the night!! I have taken the duvet off, turned her fan on and opened the windows, but both she and I have not had much sleep as I have been monitoring her temperature every 2 hours JUST IN CASE it rose too high - 38.3 was the highest, but I managed to get it down again by putting the fan on!! During the day she seems fine, and is eating OK - its just at bedtime. She does seem a bit better tonight and she's asked me not to wake her up tonight - I might just leave it until bedtime, then if that is OK, I should be able to sleep peacefully. Oh the joys of caring for a cancer patient - my nerves are frazzled, patience wearing thin, and emotions running a bit high, but I can see the end,even though the closer we get to it, the further it moves away.