Day zero is in sight!

Sorry but this is a bit of a long catch up blog.

Well I hope you all had a very merry Christmas Day whatever you were doing and your now out beating the mad rush for the Boxing Day sales that aren’t really sales lol? Cynical me, never?

My Christmas Day -3 started with the usual bloods and antibiotics via iv along with the ever increasing tablets (15 types) followed by an exchange of Mesna fluids and get this… I put on 4 kilos in weight in 8 hours just through fluids?? It soon comes out again that’s for sure once they give you something that is only locally known as the kidney tickler! Then on to day of chemo and atg whilst spending the morning on facetime with the boys and Olivia, plus my sister and brother-in-law had travelled across from North Devon to see them before visiting me for a few hours and bringing me lots of goodies yum yum.

If you have ever seen Scrooged then you might understand this. It was really bizarre and hard watching your family laughing, playing and opening presents but not actually be there to feel the excitement or be part of it. Although I could see and hear them as they could me it just still isn’t the same, much like looking through the window. Next year will be so different!

Anyway, the day went a lot better than Saturday with no real reaction to the atg although the doc put me on another antibiotic just to be sure which was fine as I am losing track of what I am taking now lol. The biggest battle I have at the moment (other than being away from the family) is controlling my diabetes sugar levels that are normally between 5 and 9. With all the different drugs that are going through my system along with the iv steroids it doesn’t seem to matter what I do to bring them down from 21. More Lantus insulin first thing in the morning, Novorapid insulin twice if not three times a day (and I have never needed Novorapid before), not eating or drinking anything with sugars in it to walking up and down the ward corridor until my legs begin to go weak. I give up! So I have decided to just go with the flow until day 0 when things should start to go back to normal.

MS wise the only real changes I am experiencing are an increase in tremors both in my head and hands (which is quite normal by all accounts), so you should feel even more privileged that I am actually able to type today lol. My mobility is a little slower than normal but I am still speeding around pushing my iv stand and monitors without my stick and been off to do my laundry so I should smell a little better? If there is a piece of advice I can give is to keep moving about as much as you can even if it’s just around the room (like a caged tiger) it helps not just with the mobility but also to get rid of the excess fluids. One thing with high levels of chemo is that it leaks out of your pours and doesn’t smell very nice? A small price to pay I think?

So today is Boxing day and day -2… The day started exactly the same way as yesterday with the exception of watching the boys opening presents and the visit from my sister. Today is the last day of chemotherapy, atg and Mesna (which will finish around 5.30 am tomorrow), which will be a great relief. No more having to pee like a champion racehorse!

Tomorrow will be day -1 which is a rest day so no iv meds other any continuing antibiotics. Hopefully I hope to have a bit of a rest, as the past week has been full on and tiring, as you literally do not stop from 6am to gone midnight. Then day 0… Transplant day when I will next update you all.

Until then and in a custom that I have fallen into now, here’s a classic that in a good but sad way has continued to make me laugh today. Enjoy!

Mark x

George Michael in James Corden's first Carpool Karaoke for Comic Relief