Blood out of a stone... Cycle 6, Days 7 and 8

The upside of the new anti-nausea tablets is that they seem to work. The down side is that they make Steve feel very drowsy, a bit tetchy and make it hard for him to concentrate; even just reading a newspaper or doing a crossword is hard going.  He's also noticed a numbness in his fingers (a chemo side effect not felt before), has muscle cramps in his leg (whether that's another side effect or a pulled muscle, we know not) plus some minor loss of hair after washing.  Thank goodness there's not much more poison to take!


Having spent most of yesterday in bed, Steve decided to try to do without the new medication, if possible. Although he was sick first thing, he did manage to get through today's hospital visit without recourse to the new tablets and without dropping off to sleep.  And his head seemed clearer.  So..a good decision.  


Because he'd spent so much time in bed yesterday, Steve hadn't taken on much fluid.  This had a knock on effect this morning: dehydration can affect how easily or difficult it is to insert a cannula.  It took almost an hour, two nurses and four abortive inserts to find a  "good" vein, before Duncan finally hit gold on the fifth attempt. Talk about getting blood out of a stone.  By the end of it, Steve started to look like a pantomime snowman, with blobs of cotton wool stuck on both arms, where the needles had been removed.   


Five hours later, the tests had come back clear, the Velcade had been administered, and we were finally home again just in time to catch the last parking space in the street.


That's it - the penultimate dose of Velcade is done and dusted.  Just one more to go!  

"Some fans are on the pitch 

They think its all over..."

Ken Wolstenhome

1966

To be continued....