Sorry I didn’t update on my new little pumpy friend yesterday but basically we got to the Royal at 11 and a bit and left at 14:00, went to a fabric shop, had lunch, got home about 16:30 and I then slept for most of the rest of the day. Had a shower at 11:30 apparently after saying, ‘Just give me 10 minutes’ repeatedly from about 10:00 and went straight to bed.
When we arrived at the Royal one of the nurses we regularly see automatically assumed we were getting Zometa and when she discovered we weren’t and we got evicted to the relevant room she said ‘I was going to ask where you were going from lunch this time but…’
Me: ‘Oh we’re still going for lunch but the walk down to the city centre may be a bit much so we’re going to the nearby fabric shop and then the chippy.’ (I have been eating really healthy the rest of the week and there was no-where else to go! Well no other chippy.)
It wasn’t so much the walk down that was the problem as the walk back up.
Now Velcade takes all of what, 10 seconds to receive, and yet we waited and we waited and we waited. There were four of us getting Velcade, the other three were men strangely enough and were born (because I got nosey) in 1936 and 1958 x two.
So yet another bag arrived from Pharmacy and I could see one of the nurses suspiciously eyeing up a largish package with a ball of something reddish and a blue something in the bag too. My Doxorubicin! Apparently it isn’t something they use often. So needless to say I got left until last as it wasn’t just a straightforward shot of Velcade. I made sure B, who had been nodding off in the corner, was awake for the 10 second shot that he had so been looking forward to, thinking we would be in and out in about 20 minutes!
I had made a logistical dressing error and worn a dress! The nurse suggested that the easiest way to go would be under the dress and through the armhole rather than leave tubing hanging about on the outside meaning that the bum bag containing the little ball would be under my dress. Having flashbacks to my SCT and the IV stand and bra I agreed this was the best option. However once I tried to position said bum bag in an unobstrustive manner tubing sticking out didn’t seem like such a bad idea. Finally deciding that there was no way to make it unobtrusive I left it slightly front right. I had my ‘big’ coat on and could just fasten the top button!
I therefore left the hospital looking like nobody owned me and according to B my sense of humour slipped briefly when he said… well we can’t actually remember exactly what he said – it was something like ‘Are you aware of it?’ or ‘Is it in the way?’ and I responded with ‘What the £$*% do you think?’
We walked down to the fabric shop and then back to the Greek chippy where I ordered fishcake, chips and curry…

I wanted a little breaded fishcake not whatever that was – it was however very nice – although I couldn’t manage it all.
So side effect wise I guess nothing really – I mean my temp has spiked but nothing new there, I’m quite tired but again that’s not new, I did have one rush to the toilet yesterday evening (just what you wanted to read after looking at a picture of curry on chips) and then made a request for a bowl – for which B brought me two cereal bowls! Now bearing in mind that any clearing up would be left to me I requested, well more demanded a bigger bowl which caused all sorts of noises in the kitchen before I was presented with the bain marie and two small plastic bags. After all that it was a false alarm!
The only thing I’m not so sure about is that I thought I would be going back Tuesday as 96 hours for the Doxorubicin from 13:45 Friday is 13:45 Tuesday, but the pharmacist had booked me back in for Monday. The receptionist said he would check this and give us a call. As he couldn’t get an answer at home he ended up ringing my Auntie Ann on her mobile, fortunately she was on the other phone to me at the time otherwise I think panic levels may have been really high. So I need to go back Monday as this is four days – well yes if you say Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday but it’s not 96 hours! We shall see.