11th November- Staying at The Christie
Went in at 10am wearing my comfy, scruffy clothes and was being sent all over the place until I knew for sure that I was in the right place and just asked them to get a nurse who then showed me to my room. I unpacked my things and waited for someone to come and see me to tell me what was going to happen. A nurse came and took some blood to test my calcium and hormone levels, weighed me where I found out I had put a stone on as I was not on my hormone tablets but some of that was apparently water retention... They also took my height and told me to sit and wait for a doctor to come and see me. Someone came to see me 7 hours later! Thank God I had my family with me or I would have been very bored on my own.
When they finally got around to getting my treatment started they told my family to leave. They put up posters on the doors to warn people not to come in and closed this barrier wall thing. Two men came in with a bottle being very careful placing it on my bedside table. They had two plastic cups. One was for the radio iodine tablet and the other was filled with warm water. One man placed the tablet that looked a bit like a flu capsule in the plastic cup and told me to drink it with all of the warm water as it will enter my body a lot quicker as the warm water will break it up so I did as I was told. The men then opened the Led wall to measure how radioactive I was and write it on the chart outside. For a few hours after my chest, throat and stomach felt rather warm and throat was a little bit numb. I got told to wear scrubs that were massive on me as when you sweat the radio iodine exits the body and soaks into the clothes. My first night and every night after that I did not sleep very well as I started having sweats and feeling cold as well as having odd dreams. I was not allowed to see anyone for the first 24 hours, even the nurses had to be very quick when testing my blood pressure and temperature.
Wearing massive scrubs that I had to tie at the front to keep up.
First night my face and throat started to swell after a few hours.
Bath water was yellow with red bits in it.
Ended up a bit better the second time round.
12th- 15th November
The week that I had to stay in The Christie was very boring and the side effects of the treatment did not help. All I did was watch the same programmes over and over again. I did not like the food they served and thought I had better food and Menu's at Preston hospital so barely ate anything in there. The only thing I enjoyed was my visits from people and the baths but the water would turn yellow like urine so I had to let the water run on low to get it to run clear. Some side effects of the treatment that I ended up having were:
- Headaches/ high temperature
- Aches and pains
- Dry mouth
- Nausea
- Loss of appetite
- Sweats/ feeling very cold
- Swollen neck and face
- My scar seemed to pop out on my neck and turned very red and was sore
- I had a stone like feeling in my throat that hurt when I swallowed
- Change in taste
- Could not sleep/ bad dreams
Tired after not sleeping and face swelling up.
Neck, face and scar becoming very sore and swollen.
Swollen face and neck.
On my last day before leaving The Christie I was sent for a full body scan which was a new experience and would not be good if you are claustrophobic as it is very space consuming. It comes very close to your face and body but does not last too long. This scan measures how much radiation is left in your body so that you can be given guidelines on when you can be around people, children, in public places. The more water you drink when you are having your treatment, the better the radiation will be flushed out and the sooner you will be around people. It also show where else in the body the iodine travels to judge on if the cancer could be anywhere else. They have said you get your results on the scan of if the cancer is anywhere else within two weeks.
The little led wall I was not allowed to cross
View from my bed
Taunting me showing me the outdoors when I was not allowed to leave the room.
The main door over the led wall. visiting area. Planning my great escape.
Fifth and last day, swelling went down a bit.
Got given my new tablets. Now on 125 micrograms of Levothroxine whilst still taking my Calcium.
FREEDOM! Or so I thought.
When I left The Christie I was waiting until Tuesday which was the 19th November to go out and socialise with people but I may have pushed myself too far as the weather was super cold and ended up effecting me more than I thought it was going to. I went to Manchester to watch my sister and her friends do some bouldering. It was fun, I met some really nice people but the place was very cold. My sister even pointed out that my lips had turned blue. I suppose that showed just how down my immune system was and how much I could feel the temperature change now. When we left climbing to go to the Christmas markets it was like hitting a wall! The cold literally took my breathe away and I could not feel my body. I was like ice. When I got back home It took me a very long time to get warm. My body stayed cold until the next day despite having thick pyjamas on with a gown and slipper sock. The cold actually damaged my skin on my face and neck. Decided I am not staying outside in this weather for that long again.
My face and neck on the night I got home.
In the morning my skin was still marked from being out in the cold for too long.
My skin was also bad the day after! Causing my skin to completely dry out bringing back my eczema that I have not had in years.
18th-24th November
Within this time I have noticed my throat has gradually become worse instead of better. It still feels swollen, has become more painful than it has felt before. There are permanent clicks when I swallow now and it feels very tight making it uncomfortable to move. My mouth is always dry, I can not taste, my jaw clicks, I also think that I might be getting an infection in a part of my neck where a stitch was left poking out from the inside of my neck but I was told to leave it. On top of this I constantly feel drained and tired but unable to sleep. I can only guess that this must be normal until I ask about it at my next hospital appointment on the 28th November.
On the right is where the stitch is but the skin had healed over it. Looks infected to me.
Unwanted feelings. Could they be a side effect?
Over the past week or so I have not been feeling myself. I am not sure on If it could be the change in my tablets, the fact that I stopped my hormone tablets for weeks or that the new ones might not have kicked in yet or the dosage might not be right. It could be that everything is starting to get to me at once, I don't know. What I do know is that I have been feeling angry lately and losing my temper at a lot of silly things when I am usually a very calm and patient person. I tend to be snapping over things that would never have bothered me before. I have been feeling very lonely even though I know I have people around me. Its as if I have no one to talk to properly that I can relate to but at the same time I don't want to talk to anyone about how I am feeling or what I am thinking. Sometimes I feel as though I am going crazy and just want to scream or get away from everything whilst other times I feel fine being left to my own devices. Sometimes I just feel numb and don't know how to react towards how someone else might be feeling about things but will give them a cuddle anyway. There are days when I don't even wan't to get out of bed as I simply don't even have the energy to move. I don't have an appetite so I am barely eating anything but still piling on the weight. I can only presume that these feelings are normal but I don't feel myself at the moment.
I shall leave you with some links that could help you with more information:
Next blog post will include how my hospital appointment goes and scan results.
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