Steve and I arrived at hospital at 11am and it took a lot of courage for Steve to come back in today. And courage seems such a strange and almost weak word to use.
On the outside its an obvious thing to do. Come in get the treatment so you have a chance at killing the cancer! But when you know and have been through the suffering that it caused last time it’s a very difficult thing to willingly put yourself through the same again. Especially as he is starting to feel better in himself. And we still don’t know if it is working!
But he is here and Steve has had his first dose.
It wasn’t until 7:30pm, as they had to put in the neck line in again which unfortunately wasn’t as easy as last time.
After an hour of trying they finally got the line in and he now has his tubes hanging out of his neck, waiting for the drugs to be put in.
Tom (Dr Powles – Consulatant) came around to speak with Steve about the number of doses he would like him to have this week.
He is aiming for 6 but given that Steve suffered so badly last time and that the 2nd week is always harder! (Luckily we didn’t know that before we got in here!) He is going to monitor how Steve is over the next 24 hours, by which time Steve will have had 3 doses.
The side effects of the first dose took a while to come but when they did, they did with force! Sickness was the worse and unusually it was before the shakes...... Which took us by surprise abit but suppose it just shows you how your body reacts differently all of the time.
I can tell already this is going to be a tough week as the side effects are lasting as long as they did on the 8th dose and Steve is still so tired from the previous time we were in.
The next dose will be at 3am............
Thinking about you this week.....cant have been easy walking back in knowing what to expect but you did it! Total respect for both of you. Good luck and stay strong.
ReplyDeleteLots of love Jill, Andy, Emily & Libby xx