Day 5 of BEAM chemo done and dusted. Etopiside IV drip over with. One more dose of Cytarabine tonight via my CADD pump then that’s finished with as well. Tomorrow is the Melphalan day. This is the one that can damage your mouth and stomach lining and have been told by a few people to suck ice/ice lollies to help prevent as much of the damage as possible. So lollies were purchased today by the rock that is my other half Emily, and are sitting in the freezer downstairs waiting to gobble.
This experience is going by quite quickly so far thankfully. Am hoping it continues, although I know there will be some tough days ahead with nausea, sore mouth and the joys of an isolation ward. Em is bringing the kids over to see me shortly. It will be the last time I see them in about 2 weeks as Tuesday I will be having my stem cells re-introduced and will then be sent up to the isolation ward until blood counts recover (no children allowed!). Will miss them like mad. On Friday when I saw them after only 2 days I could already see that they had grown a bit. Tempus fugit.
I’ve been having a lot of nausea, but nothing an anti-sickness tab can’t help. Food seems to help. Last night Em and I went to a Toby Carvery and had a huge roast dinner (seriously good value!). The only problem was my stomach is not digesting food too efficiently after all the meds and so felt very full most of the evening. I have also been feeling very tired for the past 2 days (not surprising I guess). I did I manage a 10 hour sleep last night …which was nice.
Oh, and waiting for the hair to fall out. It’s not really an ‘if’ so much as a ‘when’. No big deal, it’ll be fallout number 3.
That’s all for today folks. Hope this post hasn’t depressed you, sorry if it’s a bit of a moan and a whinge. I’m doing okay and feeling like I can do this, so onwards and upwards!
Sounds like things are going to plan. Hang in there. Next week is going to get rocky but you can do it. Glad it’s been a reasonably journey so far. Good luck and suck ice! ?
Very pleased treatment is going to plan. I’m just trying to guess which ice lollies Emily picked out for you!
Calipo???????
Fruit pastille ? x
Hi Clive, I saw Emily at Menston Fair yesterday and she told me how you were getting on. What a really positive blog. Sounds like you’re tackling it with all you’ve got – with a fab family. Good luck for the next step. Becky Bond.
[…] is a day by day account of my autologous stem cell transplant, picking up from my last post during the conditioning chemotherapy which you can read here. It’s not exactly pleasant reading, so continue at your […]