Tuesday, day of getting my minor surgery and getting the biopsy done!! Didn't feel half as bad as what I had yesterday but still wasn't great had a bit of a cough still, but at least there weren't any fevers, didn't sleep the best again and had about 3 hrs sleep and then intermittent after that, seems to be the general form of it lately. I had to be up at hospital for 11am and it appeared that everyone had to be up at that time! I was the second person taken into the ward so I thought this was a good sign that I might not be too long before getting in to theatre, a lot of time went past and a lot more after that and then the anaesthetist came around and said about going under general anaesthetic which at that point I said that I had only been informed that I was going under local and told him about my chest and cough, he seemed to agree that it was probably best going under local as there could be complications with going under general when you have problems with your chest. Think I have enough.
A bit later a surgeon came in and asked a few questions and wanted to feel where the gland was that was getting removed and I showed him and he said about general and had to explain to him about going for local. Same happened with another surgeon that came in. Then the main surgeon came in and he had obviously been speaking with all the other guys and knew a little bit more of the full picture and he was happy to go for local and would have preferred to go local if he was getting it done, so everyone was happy. It turned out there were complications with one of the earlier surgeries and some people had to be sent home and have to come back another day, thankfully I wasn't one of them. Finally at 5pm, the last person, I was taken round to theatre got hooked up and marked and the anaesthetic and sedative administered, only felt a bit of a wave of tiredness hit me and soon passed and spent most of the time asking the surgeon questions. The main surgeon didn't do much but the younger one that was in training used to be a plastic surgeon so I knew I was going to look good after, he had some problems getting hold of the gland though and the main one had to step in to get it and then he showed me the gland, it was like a wee jelly bean, a red and white one, I don't know what I was expecting but it wasn't quite that.
Then into recovery and back to the ward and had to wait there for a few hours to make sure everything was ok and that was that, off home. Have to leave the plaster on for 2 days and keep it dry, surgeon said to leave the stitches for a week and the nurse said a couple days so i'll leave them for a week, they are dissolvable ones so they come out when they're good and ready.
Wednesday was my mum's 60th birthday so we had a bit of a party for her that night, the morning though I felt a bit rough with coughing but thankfully it wasn't too sore on my neck, my neck just seemed a bit tight and the odd sharp pain but nothing much, nothing I would really need painkillers for. By the end of the day I was shattered and went to bed and 3 hours later I was awake coughing, lay around for a while longer but gave up after another 3 hours of coughing and sleeping and then finally the fever kicking in badly so I got up and went down and watched some Stargate, by about 8 everything had seemed to have settled again and I tried to get another bit of a sleep. But when I woke up the cough kicked in again and the fever came back a bit later. After a while though everything calmed down again, had a bit of a sweat the rest of the day though, but at least I wasn't burning up. Thursday evening I took off the plaster and the cut doesn't look to bad, it looks very tidy and not too red or anything, I'm sure it will change more over the next few days or so with the stitches coming out and getting settled. But I'm very pleased with it.
Friday morning I got my 3 hours sleep and then a dodgy 3 hours after coughing and thinking I should get up to settle it and lying on a few minutes and then doing the same thing over and over for another three hours, although the last hour I felt the fever coming on and was gradually getting more and more sweaty as the night went on, but then with shuffling around the cold air was getting at me and I started to shiver. Was really glad when I got up that I could have a shower as I couldn't the last couple of days and to warm up a bit too.
Today is hospital day, I doubt the biopsy report will be back so will probably just be a quick in and out visit. The usual wait, bloods, wait, doctor routine. But when I was in with the doctor he told me the plans that they had for me, I knew they had a few ideas of what they were going to be doing so was nice to finally know rather than being left in the dark and waiting for results and tests, even though I am still waiting on the biopsy report.
So the plans are to start back on chemo again, which was basically the only path that could be followed, but this time instead of R-CVP or R-CHOP they are going for (R-)ESHAP (unsure about the R part at the moment) and I will have to go in next Wednesday to get a PICC line put in.
Basically with the ESHAP you go in to hospital on the Monday and stay in till the Friday to get basically continuous infusions for four and bit days, the main concern, or at least one of them is with the kidneys so they have to give you a lot of fluids and other things to clear it out of you kidneys as fast as possible. You have to go in every 3-4 weeks depending on how you body copes with the previous one and if the counts are back up to "normal" again after. I don't know how many cycles of that I will be having but I'm going to guess there will be about 6 of them at least. If everything goes the way they should this is the plans, hospital on Wednesday to get the PICC, Friday get the results of the biopsy and Monday start on the chemo.
Doubt I will be doing much to celebrate this at the weekend with the stupid cough, but will have to see and may be able to do something, I'm just looking forward to maybe shifting this cough for a while!!