Monday was last day of treatment - so here is the obligatory Yippee!!
However, I'm struggling to be overjoyed right now as of course that is only the end of phase 2. Phase 1 was diagnosis and preparation, phase 2 the actual treatments and phase 3 is the recovery & clearance.
For some reason, I was disillusioned that the recovery would be the easy bit. Treatment has been a right bugger at times - even to the extent it curtailed all my blog posting for a couple of weeks. Actually, it curtailed bloody near everything for 5 or so weeks. Once the first side effects kicked in early, it was a monster that required ongoing serious medical intervention to control. Even then, there were times when control was only used at the end of the phrase "out of.."
Monday was the last of 35 radiotherapy sessions, so as has been the norm, the weekend was yet again an unpleasant time as the medical effects for the previous week again accumulated and delivered an all too frequent blast of discomfort.
How Ruth S & Moira kept me out of the hospital on Sunday night is beyond me, but by god the three of us got almost no sleep and with the aid of some morphine top-ups we made it to Monday. The girls had Monday off anyway - supposedly to celebrate end of treatment - but instead it was a case of us all needing to catch up on sleep, so the celebrations were more of a limp yahoo as opposed to a strapping YIPPEE.
Even though the treatment was literally a matter of minutes, we spent all morning at the hospital seeing specialists, consultants, etc. The events of the weekend were laid on the table (including Ruth S going to battle with the on call oncology registrar over morphine top-ups) and meds have been revised, adjusted, amended to try and keep things smooth.
That said, the morphine top-ups have continued this week, but with less frequency, so that is a victory of sorts. Monday night not pleasant, morphine top-ups reintroduced with regularity. That was Monday.
Tuesday was a strange old day. Moira was my sole care giver for the day because of some confusion about when we wanted Heather. Believe me, if ever there was a case required as to why I shouldn't be on my own, Monday night / Tuesday is that case. Someone was looking down on us when Moira had booked Tuesday leave as well.
Tuesday morning ended up having a little vomit that caught us both by surprise. Needless to say Tuesday night wasn't wonderful, but top-ups were slightly less frequent.
Wednesday was all hands back on deck as normal and in fairness, seemed to be having a pretty good day. Then the lights went out and the fun began.
First top up was 7:15pm - before the last round of normal meds were even due - and were basically every 4 hours after that, so disjointed sleep. Ruth S ended up having to stay until Heather arrived to ensure the cover and once Maree the dist nurse arrived, it all got fun. She rang Bernard Coombs (radio oncologist) and agreed on revised top-up program. With Heather being here, have the right people on deck to make sure we're not safely exceeding the dosage, so here's hoping for a settled day and night.
I'd like to hope we get to the stage soon where a good day is consistently followed by another good day, instead of a 50% chance it is being followed by a shite one.
In closing, interesting point to remember is that even though the treatments are finished, the pain still works it's way through the system for the next week and then will abate quite quickly - so here's hoping.
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