Bits and pieces going on now

After waiting so long for my counts to come up on their own, the doctors finally got bored early last week and decided to intervene. I've been taken off of the co-trimoxazole, which can suppress marrow function, and started me on a granulocyte colony stimulating factor, a subcutaneous preparation with the dual effects of encouraging neutrophil growth and causing pain in the bone marrow. After three doses, administered daily, my neutrophils were at 2.2 per nanolitre of blood, which is actually within the healthy range; I've not had counts like that since November. My platelets, on the other hand, weren't quite at the 75 they'd like to see before commencing phase 3, so that was put off for another couple of days.

Michelle Scott came round to visit us at home, on Thursday, to sort out some of the details on my Disability Living Allowance application. The three of us — me, Michelle and mum — spent a couple of hours trying to figure out ways in which we cast my condition in the worst possible light, so as to increase my chances of getting the grant. In the end all we could come up with were repetitions on the theme of my restricted freedom; having to remain within half an hour of the hospital; requiring round-the-clock supervision in case I suffered injury or developed an infection; living with the bruising and haemorraging risks associated with my low platelets. I mentioned my tingly-fingers neuropathy, though I think that's getting a bit better after my break from the vincristine; mum wasted no time in reporting this to the staff, of course, so I was treated to a nerve function test next time I was in the hospital — this basically involved Angus stabbing me in the fingertips with a sharp piece of metal and asking if I could feel it. I could.

I got Saturday off of visiting the hospital, due to my persistently sluggish platelet count, so me and mum went for a walk round the loch at the James Hamilton Centre. I made the circuit much more quickly than I did last time, credit for which must be shared between the improvements I've seen in my strength since getting out more, and the horrible weather; we didn't want to spend a minute more out in the wind and rain than we had to, so there was no doddling and no breaks. We had some tea in the cafe there, and then went home; I spent the afternoon inviting people to come visit me, now that my neutrophils were finally out of the 0.1-0.3 region they'd been in for weeks. As a result, Sunday was quite good fun. James and Ewan came round for lunch, a lasagna made up by mum on Saturday night and left in the fridge, and we wasted three or four hours talking about university stuff and going through the B3ta book; they eventually got a bit worried about when their train ran on a Sunday, and went home at about seven. Dad and I went for a walk round the block, afterwards, during which I posted a package of about seven rolls of film to the lab for processing; it'll be interesting to see how those turn out. We found our cat, Brenden, playing with another family from just up the road; they've been feeding him for years, they told us, and call him 'Jaguar'. I wonder how many other dinners he gets, it's no wonder he's getting so fat. I remembered when I got home that I'd intended to phone some old school friends when I was able to receive visitors; Aidan and Kieran came to visit at about eight o'clock, and we sat around talking for a while before playing Wii tennis for a bit. They took their leave when it started becoming obvious just how tired I was, though I'm sure they'd have kept playing all night given the chance; they left at about half past eleven to prepare for university in the morning, and I went upstairs and passed out until nine in the morning.

Dad drove me into the hospital in the morning, before (I assume) going off to work. I slept between about eleven and three, disturbed only to have my blood taken and to get the results (platelets still too low!). I wasted the next hour or so listening to music and surfing the web while I waited for dad to come back and give me a lift home; the doctors didn't see any point in having me in again till Wednesday, so I have another day off from visiting the hospital. We stopped in at the supermarket so that he could get some things for his dinner; I was to have fishcakes down at Gran's house. I spent the rest of the day relaxing and planning the things I should be able to do in three or four months once I have all this free time and no 30-minutes-from-hospital restriction.