We're back in...

Well as you saw from Meg's last post, we came into hospital bright and early on Monday, packed and ready to go into the next round of chemo, had the routine blood test to check that Meg was well enough to have the chemo, and then it occurred to the staff that they hadn't given her the dose of dexamethazone that she should have had 12 hours earlier! So....they sent us home again with the medicine this time, and asked us to come back in on Tuesday morning, very early and very hydrated so that the chemo could be started pretty much straight away. Meg drank a litre of water on the 30 minute journey into the hospital so they were very pleased with her and things started happening. It was pretty nerve wracking again when they were preparing to give Meg her paclitaxel (the new trial chemo). They load up a trolley with emergency resuscitation drugs and have the oxygen ready in case she has a sever reaction to it, and watch her very closely for 3 hours while the infusion goes into her body. Fortunately for Meg, she was pretty dozey from the pre-med and slept through most of it while I watched her like a hawk, feeling her heartbeat, watching her breathing, asking questions, and praying. After that 3 hour infusion, she has another hour infusion of carboplatin followed by an hour infusion of ifosfomide. Meg knows all the names of the drugs and rattles them off like she's talking about her favourite movies!

I bumped into her surgeon yesterday too, and he confirmed that the plan was to remove as much of the lobe of the liver that was diseased, plus her lymph nodes, if her chemo has significantly reduced the size of the tumours. When I relayed this information to Meg (she did know the plan but was feeling quite fuzzy at the time) she said "But how can he take the two lymph nodes when I've only got one left?" I was a bit nonplussed as to what she meant and told her she's got lots of lymph nodes all over her body. She then blurted out "Oh! I've only got one fallopian tube!!" That was quite a bizarre conversation.....

It was lovely to see Lisa, Jay and Donna last night who popped in for a visit and a natter last night. Meg wasn't feeling too chipper so was very quiet (sorry Jay....) but seeing bright, friendly faces was great. We're always happy to have visitors; you'll always find us on ward 3B!

Meg was doing pretty well with the chemo in that she wasn't feeling sick; just very tired and "wiped out". We slept OK ( I have a bed again which is wonderful!), and only had 3 trips to the bathroom through the night. We were woken by the cleaning lady, busily cleaning all the hard surfaces, mopping the floor and making a bit of a racket, so I got up!! Meg didn't fancy any breakfast but I tempted her to try scrambled egg which the kitchen made specially for her. She managed to eat about half of it then gave up. Our lovely room mates, Ali and Evie arrived and much to Evie's delight was able to receive her chemo because her bloods were good. After a good strong coffee from the cafe upstairs, the rest of the morning was then spent doing a little bit of craft, then playing a new game that Lisa and Jay generously bought for Meg called Bananagrams. (Lisa - it's really good!) Ali beat us all but she's a bit of a scrabble queen so we didn't really stand a chance, and Meggie really wasn't in the mood to do anything but still had a go.

Next came the dreaded mouthcare..........(insert a dastardly tune here...). What a nightmare. Poor Meg just cannot stand to do her mouthcare when she's on chemo. As well as feeling nauseous, the drugs change her sense of taste and smell and she just retches at the thought of it. The nurse had to get quite firm because it's vital that she does it to avoid mucositis which can put a cancer patient in hospital for days/weeks. Poor thing, she was damned if she did, and damned if she didn't. After 25 minutes of standing at the sink holding her toothbrush, retching and weeping, she began to gently brush her teeth. It was awful. But I've seen mucositis and I want to avoid Meggie getting that. It's horrible. We then did the mouthwash which took another 10 minutes to work up to and she was immediately very sick. I WISH that she didn't have to do this and it would be very easy for me to "let it go" but if we did, the alternative would be worse. We finished off with a smearing of protective gel on her gums and a shower, and then got her tucked back into bed where she's stayed since, watching TV and dozing. I'm going to try and persuade her to have a little walk in a while, just to get her body moving, and then Daddy, Ellie and Nana will arrive - Daddy and Nana to provide cuddles and TLC and Ellie to provide the entertainment.......she's a goon!