Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Rounding the corner to Cycle 6

Cycle 5 has proven to be as eventful and dramatic as all the others. We started off the chemo for cycle 5 of VIDE on the 1st of this month. Reid's weight was excellent and we were looking to having a quiet 21 days. Chemo finished day three as per the other cycles and we got out of hospital Day 4. Over these days Reid handled the chemo well and only vomited a couple of times. He didnt eat for the entire hospital stay but seemed to tolerate his Nasal Gastric tube feeds on a lower rate. However we were to find out in a weeks time that he had lost 2 kgs.
On Friday the 5th October a very special girlfriend of mine organised a lunch for me to see some of my wonderful friends, not wanting to harness me into something Rach made sure everything was ok on Friday Morning before confirming the booking with the girls. I had a great time and returned to the unit around 8pm! (Now thats a LUNCH!) Mum stayed with Reid and some of the girls went round to have dinner with Mum...so she didn't miss out either!! I woke on Saturday with a cold, so Mum kicked me out! I went back to Toowoomba for three days. Dave stayed with Mum and Reid and Alex came back from Taroom on Sunday so it was great to see her. She had a wonderful time with her cousins and all the flies!!!
Reid's bloods bottomed out over the next 10 days and he had to have several transfusions to get the counts up. By day 11 his platelets were pretty low and at 5.30pm he got a terrible nose bleed. We had to go up to emergency and a platelets transfusion was given and we were admitted into the new Oncology Ward "Turner". Reid was the very first patient in Bed 4! We spent the next three days fighting Mucositis, but this time (without the Morphine) and waiting for his blood counts to come up. We had two more blood transfusions before we were allowed out on Sunday.
Monday we went up to Banksia Outpatients for anti-Biotics. On Thursday when Reid spiked a temp with his bleeding nose cultures were taken, and by Sunday a bacteria had grown. So to cover all bases we had to have anti-biotics daily. We saw Dr Tim and he said we could go home. YAY!!!!! Reid had not been home since August! He was so excited. I got back to the unit , packed and we arrived back in Toowoomba at 7:30pm! Not only was alex and David there but Malcom (David's dad) too. So good to see Pa!!
We had to go up daily to St Vincents to have the Anti biotics. So at 8:30am Reid and I made what was to become a regular pilgramage to St Vincents. Because they were not prepares for our visit, it took some time and we got back to home at 11.30am. I changed into home clothes and generally got to doing the all the things I wanted to. Silly things like gardening, tidying the tupperware cupboard, reading my emails, and writing this blog. Reid played with his toys, in the sandpit on the swings, watched TV and played playstation....Alex came home from school and then I got a phonecall from RCH .......
The infection in Reids Blood cultures had come back as a Gram Negative which meant it was bad. Reid was SO WELL!!! However they needed us to return to Brisbane tonight and have his central Line removed and a new PICC line was to be inserterted into his arm for his anti biotics this was to be done 10:30am Wed under General anaesethtic. After lots of tears, swearing and more packing, Reid and I got in the car and drove back to RCH. We hadnt even been home 24 hours. Alex David and Malcolm were devastated. Not to mention Reid...he spent most of the trip trying to work out how to run away in his wheelchair!!
The op went well and Reid recovered very quickly. We were allowed out of Banksia at 4pm and we drove straight back to Toowoomba.
So thats where we are now. We have to go up to St Vincents three times a day for Anti-biotics but at least we are at home. The girls (nurses) up there have been amazing. The senior ones even working for us on their days off so we dont have to be inpatients! Absolute Saints!
We head back to Bris on Saturday and Chemo starts on Tuesday. I will keep you posted. xxx

1 comment:

Melluke said...

I have finally signed in again. I have missed you for a few days. Good luck with Round 6 Chemo.
Big cuddles from Sam Sophie Luke and I. Love Lissa