Thursday 18 March 2010 - Treatment Day 78

I can finally go home today. My fever is all better now. But Dr Lin said I'll have to see him again if the fever comes back. I may get a fever again later because my White Blood Cells (WBC) will be very low 7 days after the Cyclo chemo. They only start rebuilding about 14 days after. This is because the Cyclo is very very strong and kills off all the cells. WBC help to fight infections so I will be very prone to infections when my WBC is low.

Dr Lin gave me Fluconazole capsules to take home. They prevent and treat fungal infections in my body. He also gave me Potassium Chloride tablets to increase my potassium levels which are a bit low at the moment, due to the Ampho-B antifungal.

I didn't really want to go home, despite being really fed up of staying in hospital all the time, because I knew the nurses would need to take the needle out of the chemoport. I hate that because it really stings when they rub the alcohol swab over it after they take it out. So I cried when Dr Lin said I could go home. Everyone was puzzled at first but then mum told them why. Dr Lin tried to iron out the frown lines on my forehead.

Mum thought we could go home in the morning after Dr Lin had seen us but my haemoglobin levels were low so I needed a blood transfusion. It took several hours for the blood lab to get the right match for me, so it only started at 4.30pm.

It normally takes 4 hours for all the blood to get into my body but it took a lot longer today because the machine I got today was not working properly and kept jamming up every two minutes. One of the nurses said this was because it hadn't been sent for servicing. The transfusion machines need to be serviced every once in a while. Kind of like a car.

Everytime it jammed up it made loud beeping noises so I had to call the nurses every time for them to reset the machine and make sure the blood was going into my body. So there was a steady stream of nurses marching in and out every two minutes throughout the whole day. This lasted til after 9pm. Mum got a headache.

I was rather hungry today. I had fish, rice and watermelon for lunch, a sausage for tea, fish and rice again for dinner, and lots of hot chocolate in between.

We only got discharged after 10pm, so we got home after 11pm. I wasn't very happy when they took my needle out. I wanted to keep the needle but mum said there would be germs if it's left in for too long.


Blood count:
Haemoglobin 10.00
Platelets 164
Neutrophils 48
WBC 2.0 (4.0-11.0)
Potassium 3.1 (3.5-5.1)



Today's bill: RM6,196.16



QOTD: "I'm pretending I'm camping. Campfire check, sausages check, marshmallows check, the stick to hold sausages and marshmallows check, cold water check. Now I need mustard and chilli sauce."