“Rain, Rain, Go Away, Come Back Another Day”, or more like “Don’t Come Back Another day”. I hate this damp, cold, miserable weather as it always ends up in making my chest and breathing a whole lot worse. They do say that the moistness in the air should make things a little better in the breathing department but for me it is completely the opposite. The first sign of rain drops and I’m running for the nebuliser and any other puffers I can get my hands on to try and allow me to breathe. Its at times like this that I can really do with just jetting off somewhere nice and sunny till the good weather, that’s a laugh, returns. Just the slightest movement leaves me gasping for oxygen, even silly little things like standing up for more than about 5 seconds can turn me into this quivering mess struggling to breathe. In thinking though I have been out of Heath Towers for well over 2 months now, which at this time of year is good going for me. In previous years I would not have been able to stay away for this length of time, as I would have got one infection or another that needed to be treated there, so maybe something is working, such as the Heamaglobulins??

Not a lot has happened since the last posting, pretty much as a result of what I’ve been saying, the weather and I’ve not had to go to the hospital much either. Next week it’s more like back to normal with a couple of visits to Heath Towers firstly to see Merlin on Tuesday. I am hoping he will have some more information for me about starting this Extracorporeal Photochemotherapy treatment. I’m not quite due for my next dose of heamaglobulins, I think they are due in a couple of weeks, but I will also have the usual blood letting session and the endless wait for drugs. I am also going to ask if the Pic line can be taken out as it has blocked up completely now and wont take a flush either. On top of this it has been a little sore occasionally as my skin is quite sensitive there and when I sweat it just seems to make the whole area a bit of a mess too. I don’t really need one in right at the moment however I will need to have either a Pic line or a Hickman line in when I start this treatment I would think. Well if they take this one out now at least my arm will have a chance to recover before they have to put the next one in. It’s also one less chance of getting an infection which is a bonus I suppose. It looks also likely that this next week will be the last time I have the Physio at home. The scheme is only designed to be given for 6 weeks in all, well I have actually had 8 weeks which is more than they usually do. It is a shame as I really did benefit from their attention and sadly there is no alternative service available to carry on their good work. It’s down to me now I guess to try and continue to do the exercises that we have been doing and then also trying to get out for a walk more often, with Judith obviously chasing me with the wheelchair, as this is where I was making good steps, so to speak, towards getting a little fitter. Again though the weather has a key role to play in all this too as if it’s cold and damp or wet then there is no chance of me doing any walking outside.

The concentration is still a bit of a problem too at the moment. I guess this has been an on going issue all through this. Sometimes it’s better than others. I think it is a lot down to various medications or combination of medications. It can be really annoying as well as frustrating.. I find at times I can sit here watching the same old programme say 3 or 4 times in a day and still think that it is the first time I have watched it. Also at the end of it I couldn’t tell you what it was about, which is quite scary. It can be like one long day dream sometimes lasting days or weeks even. There is no real pattern to it either which is the frustrating part as when I do have times that my concentration levels are more normal I haven’t done anything different at all.

All this and I haven’t even got on to my skin yet. Well there’s no blinking change there too sadly. Hopefully this treatment will start sooner rather than later and at least then I can start to gain some benefit from it because at this rate it just seems to be getting worse and worse each year and I guess you can only become so tight before things start to rip and tear which doesn’t bear thinking about.

So its fingers crossed and anything else I guess, for some progress soon.

Also as a lot of you will know and have already visited his blog, Peter, a fellow Blogger and patient or should I say fighter, like myself, is having to go through another course of the nasty Chemo again at the moment to try and kick the lymphoma into submission. I’m sure he would appreciate your thoughts and prayers, if that’s your thing, and maybe a comment or two of encouragement to see him through this testing time. You can either get to it via the link to Peters Hospital Diary on the right hand side of here or click HERE to be magically transport through the galaxy, or is it the dairy milk straight to his blog.

See Ya!!