My oncology appointment was with a Practice Nurse and he was very thorough. I came out feeling that things were looking good. The only slight concern was that where the cannula was inserted the skin turned purple after about ten days, felt hot and then began to itch for a day or so. It's still a bit red but apart from that it's not causing any problems.
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As I was first in I got to choose where to sit, then it was the poke around looking for a working vein game.
Three different members of staff had a go this time and the ninth attempt was successful. There was more talk about a PICC and more refusal from yours truly. What was amusing is that we were all apologising to each other; me for having difficult to find veins and the staff for failing to make a connection. When I finally left I suggested that they have a look for when I'm back next and book some leave.
After an hour of stabbing away at likely places on both hands, following sessions of me sitting with my hands in bowls of very hot water, I asked for a time-out and went for a wander around outside for twenty minutes.
It may have done the trick, or it was that the next staff member struck lucky because she only made two attempts and the second struck gold.
Plugged in and ready to go.
It turns out that my regime of not consuming fluids to get some control over my bladder isn't helping. Being properly hydrated will make finding a vein near the necessary valve (to avoid back-flow) should make things easier. So I have to balance the digging around with the likelihood of wetting myself!
So by about 11:00 am I was hooked-up and sluiced through with saline solution, then two doses of preparatory steroids before the chemotherapy gloop.
It's possible to sit and watch the readout displaying the delivery but it's a bit like clock watching so I plug-in my iPod and get stuck into my book.
At one point I put my book down, closed my eyes and got lost in the music. I was surprised to be prodded by a concerned staff member because she noticed tears streaming down my cheeks. She was worried that I was in trouble. I'm so used to Wagner moving me to tears that I hadn't noticed. Poor girl was probably more concerned that someone could be moved by Lohengrin than relieved to find that I was in fact okay!
So in due course I was sluiced out finally with another saline solution and about to be sent on my way when I remembered to ask if the PSA result was available.
You may recall that in February the PSA was up to 741. As of last Wednesday it was 178. That it has fallen wasn't a huge surprise, things have been good (relatively speaking) lately and I knew that there must have been an improvement but I hadn't dreamed of hoping for such a dramatic fall in the score.
It remains to be seen if the rate drops as far as quickly in future but I'll be happy if it just keeps going down. If further falls mean that I regain more bladder control, I'll be very happy. What the long-term treatment will be is anyone's guess, I just have to wait and see if the secondary tumours are also being affected by the chemo. The fact that I rarely notice the pain in my hip and femur could be another reason to be cheerful but best not jump to too many conclusions. Only further full body X-Ray will show and I anticipate that it won't be done until or if the PSA continues to fall.
To celebrate I went for lunch before my taste buds disappear again in the next few hours. It will be interesting to see if the side effects become cumulative as can happen. Whatever happens in that respect, feeling this good is not something that I'd anticipated so I'll not moan about the side effects.
My next session is at 2.30: pm on Friday 2nd May, preceded by another blood sample and oncology check-up on the 29th and 30th of April respectively. I'll update this with a general synopsis before then.
