Blog

I’ll be posting status updates and general bits and pieces in the blog here… check back soon for updates!

It is what it is – the next leg

Clive Swinstey 2016

A final blog for Clive, by Em – Most of you will now know that on Wednesday 21st June 2017 Clive devastatingly passed away following a 13 day spell in ICU at St James Hospital, Leeds. His body was overwhelmed with infection as well as the Hodgkin’s Lymphoma that he had been bravely and stoically… Read more »

The big meltdown

Some of you will have noticed that my site has been down and out for the past 3 days. Basically the server where the site lives had a catastrophic meltdown and all data was lost. I was backing it up but like a numpty some of the data was being backed up to the very… Read more »

Don’t cramp my style – Cycle 1 Gem-P done

Last week Monday’s visit to Jimmy’s was run of the mill. Went in, had my Gemcitabine, had a sleep on the ward then again in the car on way home. No big dramas. But I do believe Gem is no placebo now – I can feel the cumulative effects slowly but surely building up, and… Read more »

Strapped up arms, patched up hopes

PICC Line

Chemo on Monday went fine. The only bother was I was in the midst of a fever (wasn’t allowed my prednisolone beforehand) and when that happens your veins decide to go underground and don’t like to come out to play. So the poor nurse couldn’t get a cannula in. Took 4 attempts (I hate those… Read more »

And here we go again

Reading my last post back before starting this one, so much has happened since then. But I’ll keep this one brief and cut straight to the chase. I have not been quite right these past 2 weeks and as soon as I was weaned off the Prednisolone for the recent PCP incident I started developing… Read more »

Immunuglobul-out and related side-events

antibodies

Following on from my previous post where the docs decided I needed an immunoglobulin boost to sort my flagging immune system out and try to get rid of the niggling coughs and colds, I had a call from one of the specialist nurses @ St James to say I was booked in for my first… Read more »

Don’t do anything rash

Just a quick update on proceedings: I have been feeling really well besides what seems is a permanent cough and runny nose.  However out of the blue 3 weeks ago I woke up with a rash on my arms. I’ve seen a rash like this before: I developed an allergy to a couple of the… Read more »

Contrasting Fortunes

Contrasting Fortunes

On Saturday 14th Jan two of my children celebrated their birthdays: my son Ben who lives with his mum in Germany turned 15 and my youngest daughter Ava turned 4 (the cheek of them to choose the same day to be born!) We arranged a party for Ava at a local soft play centre (her… Read more »

100 day scan results – Nothing else matters

PET scanner

I went in for a PET scan last week Tuesday as I’m at the 100 day mark post my auto stem cell transplant. I spent the next week in nervous apprehension of the results, and what the doctors would have decided to do moving forward. As I saw it there were 3 possible outcomes: “PET… Read more »