Had my follow-up appointment with the medical oncologist (chemotherapy) on Monday and Raj was happy to discharge me from their care. What that means is they see no need for me to see them again. So I'm now solely in the care of the radio oncology team.
Also took opportunity to clarify my status regarding ability to drive (or not). Having looked at the dosage of morphine, etc, he said there was no reason why I can't drive, so long as I'm responsible and don't drive if I'm feeling tired. A bit of a no-brainer there I would have thought, but it is another bit of freedom restored to me.
So, another appointment down and more good news.
There will however have to be a follow-up hearing test to ascertain what level of hearing loss the cisplatin has caused and depending on the outcome, ACC will apparently fund the hearing aid(s) as the hearing loss is medical treatment related. That will be good considering Raj was talking about $8k per hearing aid! We'll just have to wait and see.
On Tuesday they made the changes to the dosages in the morphine pump. Morphine reduced by 25ml and metodopramide was halved. This surprised everyone as we expected it to also fall by 20% or so. The potential impact of this is the nausea resurfacing and while I wasn't initially worried about it, the day's events would cause me to reconsider. Late on Tuesday afternoon, I got a call from the district nurse who would be on the night shift. She was asking if I was feeling nauseous and was worried they had no medical orders that would allow them to administer the metodopramide ampule if required overnight. I had been feeling OK all day and here they were now worried about what was going to happen overnight. About 10 minutes later I got another call confirming that she had tracked down a registrar who had faxed through the necessary order. So we were now all ready for me to suffer such severe nausea that I would have to call the district nurse in the middle of the night and have an injection in my butt to settle it down. While it was nice to know they had plans in place, I'm not sure I really wanted to know about them as it was just introducing a level of anxiety I didn't need.
Anyway, as it turned out, I don't appear to be suffering any ill effects from the dosage change, touch wood. That said, the last few days I've had a dry throat and had broken sleep as a result of numerous visits to the loo (increased liquid intake to deal with the dry throat). Even today I just don't seem to have the energy I'd had daily prior to the dosage change. Mentioned it to Jess (district nurse) and she doesn't think it is related to the dosage change - more likely the broken sleep. So must just be bad timing along with other healing/recovery related changes.
I'm a bit annoyed about the lack of energy, because it is stopping me exercising my restored motoring freedom. But for all you concerned people out there, at least I am being responsible and not putting myself or other motorists at risk :-). On a normal day, I tend to start running out of energy late afternoon, so at the moment travel plans tend to be timed for mornings, and with the timing of meds, that becomes quite a small window.
I'm logging into work daily now and trying to do a few hours work each day. Again hampered by my lethargy over the last few days, but it is good to be getting involved in things again. Quite therapeutic and certainly gets the brain working.
Eating wise, on Monday night I tried a combination of mashed potato, mashed kumara and mashed pumpkin with gravy. Again, not huge quantity eaten, but now have some of this in the freezer to be thawed as and when I feel like it. Tuesday night had a forkful of fish - different texture, but again baby steps. I seem to be forever fighting things on numerous fronts. I really want to be putting more effort into learning to eat again (which in reality is what I need to do), but the lethargy saps the energy and desire all in one. Keep saying to myself "baby steps" - it is important I don't force/rush any of this as it may lead to setbacks further down the track.
Enough for today I think - maybe a quick nap will recharge the batteries.
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