I meant to post this earlier this morning, but ran out of time....
I have been at St John's (SJH) today for the start of my final treatment. Hooray! It doesn't seem like six months since it all started - it seems to have flown by. I hope to post a quick post every day for the next couple of weeks (but don't hold your breath if I don't manage every day).
I guess that I have been looking forward to today for a while (approximately six months in fact!), but as I say it seems to have come round very fast. I suppose that it helps having the time broken up into the convenient three week blocks made the time disappear.
So today was a normal morning at the chemo unit. I was due at 10.00 and left the house just after 9.30, having taken my pre-chemo anti-sickness drugs. These are the ones that disrupt all my normal bodily functions (like sleeping at night and other boring stuff like that!). I got to the hospital and fought for a parking space. It was worse today than it has been - although there was a bonus because the parking charge has been withdrawn as from the end of last year. I did see lots of men in fluorescent jackets checking cars - people seem to just park anywhere and the car park is too small, so they were sticking things on cars on the end of the rows. I don't know if it was a polite reminder or a parking charge (probably the later in fact). Anyway I got lucky (or maybe someone was watching out for me) - I saw someone getting into their car so i just hovered around waiting for them to leave.
10.00 is the first appointment of the day, so I got my favourite seat in the treatment room, and was the first patient hooked up. There are very nice volunteers that bring cups of tea or coffee, so I was set for the morning.
The treatment went as planed and I finished just before 1.00. Normally during the morning, one of the nurses comes round and books the next appointment for three weeks time. It felt good telling them this time that I didn't need to book one.
Having said that, once you are in the system they don't let go (I have an appointment tomorrow with the geneticist to discuss the possibility that my cancer is hereditary. This has implications for my brother and sister (and my parents too I suppose) as well as all my children. I will blog about that tomorrow. Also as I walked out the door, I was handed an appointment to see the oncologist in a couple of weeks time. I will blog about that when I get round to it - this one is 'just to get me into the clinic system'. Like I say, once you are in the system, you can't escape.
To be honest that is unfair. Now that I have been diagnosed I am glad that they are going to keep tabs on me, and I am glad that I don't have to worry about the cost at all. I am so thankful that we have the NHS. If we had been in the US, I would probably had to have sold one of the cars to pay for the treatment. Those NI contributions and income tax don't seems to have been as much of a waste now. I always knew that, but it brings it home.
I can't remember if I have talked about it before, but just as I was starting the treatment and I knew what drugs I would receive, I googled them and worked out how much it would cost. I have two main drugs (I am only talking about the chemo drugs here, not the anti-sickness ones that I get at the same time), and I worked out that the cost of the treatment over the six months would be between 1200 and 14000 (depending on the dose that I received). As I say, thank goodness for the NHS.
That is enough for just now - I may write a sentence or two later, depending on how I feel and I will try to post an update tomorrow.
thank you and God bless
Graham
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