Home again

I'm now back home again after being released from hospital late this afternoon. I didn't see a doctor until around 5pm today so I had no idea until then that they were going to let me out. Since I was admitted on Tuesday night the nurses have been busy sticking needles in me as you can see from the fine assortment of dressings I'm modelling in the photo below:

They weren't doing this for fun of course and the various tests I had enabled the doctors to confirm that the latest infection was a reoccurrence of the one from last week, it is likely that my PICC line harboured some of the bacteria allowing the infection to flare up again once I came of the antibiotics. I've now had my PICC line removed to make sure I don't have the same problem this coming week. I'm on antibiotic pills for the next six days and the hospital have also told me that I need to call them immediately if I develop another temperature.

 

Whilst I was in hospital I finally received the result of the CT scan that I had back on the 16th August. I haven't seen the radiologist's report yet but I've been told that the scan shows that my cancer is stable - a positive result. The plan now will be for me to have another three cycles of Trabectedin. I was scheduled to have chemo this week but the doctors don't want to go ahead until they are quite sure there is no infection left, they are now scheduling my next treatment for the week after next.

 

Trabectedin can't be administered through a regular cannula so I'll have to have another PICC line inserted prior to my next treatment. I'm hoping the nurse who does this manages to find some better music this time around, she has very suspect taste if my last three PICC line procedures are anything to go by!

 

During my time in hospital I've had plenty of opportunity to catch up on my reading. I’ve just finished ‘The Norman Conquest’ by Marc Morris, a well written and informative book about a period in history about which I knew little. Well worth a read for anyone who wants to know whether King Harold really got an arrow in the eye at Hastings or the truth behind the story of King Cnut and his attempt to turn back the incoming tide.