A rare update

Woah, it's been quite some time since I wrote this up. There's been a fair bit going on lately, when I think about it; I had James, Ewan, Joe and Michelle over for lunch and video games Sunday before last, then went to see the Scottish Ensemble in concert on the Friday with Madeleine and mum. On Saturday, I went for a walk in the city centre with Harrison, and shot a roll of T-Max 400; street photography is where the Leica really excels, so I was happy to finally get the chance to properly break-in my M6. I think I got a couple of really good shots, too, so it'll be interesting to get that roll back from the lab. Also on Saturday, I went to my aunt Brigene's 60th birthday; the light was terrible – the Leica was wanting 1/4 of a second on ISO1600 at f/2.0 – though, and I was pretty tired, so we left after only about an hour or so. I stayed awake for the drive home, but fell asleep until 4pm as soon as we got back; I woke up for some food then and again a bit later on, but otherwise slept though almost the entire day. The effects of the chemotherapy are beginning to accumulate, again, so I've found myself sleeping through most of the week. I visited the clinic today for my check-up, and my blood counts reflect the drop in my activity; I've to be cross-matched for a transfusion on Friday, so hopefully I'll be a bit more lively at the weekend.

Being treated as an outpatient makes a nice change and, apart from a mix-up last week with my regular medication, it's gone quite smoothly so far. In fact, I've only had two clinic visits in the past fortnight; the rest of my time has been at home. Having said that, things seem to be picking up again. I have an appointment tomorrow morning to have some extra blood taken, then one later on at the Royal Infirmary, where I'll meet with the transplant unit staff. I've been warned that they'll try to talk me out of going through with the procedure, due to the risk of extremely serious side-effects; the transplant unit has already given me a list of things which I should do before the operation, one item on which encourages me to set my affairs in order. I suppose this means I ought to square my overdraft sooner rather than later. I'll get a couple of units of blood on Friday, starting at eight forty-five in the morning (!), but then I'll have the weekend off before I'm due in at the Southern General for a three-weekly dose of pentamadine; the co-trimoxazole which they had me on in my earlier bouts of neutropenia was apparently suppressing my platelet production a little more than they were happy with, so they're changing my antibiotic prophylaxis this time round. That'll involve a couple of hours spent with a nebuliser, but afterwards I should have another wee break from the hospital; the last break I'll get, it's looking quite likely, before my transplant and the culmination (or conclusion, if you like) of my treatment. Better make the most of it.

Other than that, there's not been much else happening. Amazon delivered my scanner, so I spent a couple of hours this week scanning in a sheet of negatives and taking a look at them. I've not scanned in any Leica negatives yet, and I'm not actually sure when I'll get the chance, what with sleeping upwards of sixteen hours a day and not really feeling particularly up to anything that feels like work during the other eight. I'll maybe try to do a big batch on the weekend, or early next week, and that'll give me some material to work on during the next isolation phase. I was hoping I might bring the scanner into the hospital with me, but it's really too bulky to deal with; better just to have as many files on disk as possible, when admission time comes. I'll post some images on flickr so that you lot can take a look at the people who've been taking care of me these past couple of months, just as soon as I double-check that none of them mind this. And just as soon as I double-check the spellings of their names.

Anyway: I'd best be getting to bed, I'm expected tomorrow at the Victoria Infirmary at breakfast time.

Phase three

On Wednesday, finally, my counts were sufficient for me to be given the intrathecal methotrexate which marks day one of phase three. There were a couple of modifications to the routine this time around — first of all, they decided not to take a bone marrow sample this time and, secondly, they let me out overnight; normally I'd be kept in for observation post-IT, I suppose they must trust me now to be sensible. Anyway, Thursday brought me my first of this cycle's two intravenous doses of vincristine; maybe I ought to learn guitar or something in the next two weeks, capitalise on the time I have before the peripheral neuropathy sets in again. I also received two units of red cells on Thursday, along with the welcome news that I wouldn't need to come back in for an entire week; all of the chemotherapy in this phase is oral, apart from the monthly intrathecal and intravenous work.

Me, mum and dad spent some of the afternoon today visiting the Burrell collection; we ended up leaving the house a bit late, so only got to spend an hour and a half or so wandering around the place before closing. Aidan came up to visit in the evening, before dinner time, and we played Wii tennis for a bit; he's getting better, no doubt assisted by his lack of cancer. Also today, I got back the first set of developed negatives from my new camera; Amazon promise they'll send out my scanner at some point next week, so I'm looking forwards to seeing how they look. Big thanks to Niall and everyone for getting me that :)

Anyway, I'm sure there were a couple of other things which I meant to mention today, I just can't remember what; maybe I'll post another update tomorrow.