Of blood counts, cats and a thought of writing a cookbook

Well Friday turned into a day of running about.

It was blood count day so my lovely daughter and I set off for London on Thursday evening ahead of a morning appointment at the hospital for blood count and review.

All fairly uneventful in the beginning. Being able to use a hospital flat is fab – they’re comfortable and well appointed and free of charge to patients. Without the flat we’d be running up some hefty hotel bills by now.

We appeared at the day unit bright and early to be told I was listed for 2:30pm! Things were hastily rearranged and blood was duly drawn. We were sent away to wait for results so grabbed coffee & a bacon sarnie in the hospital cafeteria, checked in with Himself to find him in the middle of his own comedy of errors. He had one job to do…… Two of the cats Charlie and Edward were due to the vet for jabs, I had offered to change the appointment but Himself did declare himself a man of mature years and judgement and perfectly capable of getting two cats to the vet. I left instructions – Charlie and Edward to the vet at 9:30 – that’s Charlie and Edward. (James and Murphy did not need the vet)

When I spoke to him at the vet I enquired as to who he’d bundled into cat carriers? “Charlie and Edward” he said (in that "I know what I'm doing tone" whilst clearly checking) then “oh sh*t, I’ve got James!”. It had apparently taken some effort to bundle James into the carrier involving chasing behind sofas, under beds etc. All this time Edward was watching on, sat right by the carrier as if to say “um it’s me you should be taking……”

As I go through this process Himself is going to have to step up to cat responsibilities – it hasn’t started well.

So, I digress – back to our running around Friday…….

Blood results showed my neutrophils at 0.1. Neutrophils are a type of white blood cells that fight infection – think of them as a first responder in an emergency services kind of a way. My level is extremely low so chance of infection is very high – not so good. My Haematology co-ordinator (Sara) was in theatre so the nursing staff were doing their best to get in touch with the Registrar to see if it was safe to send me on my way. We’d handed the keys to the flat so these were duly returned to us and just as we were settling back into the flat I got a call from Sara who said she’d best see me even though I felt quite well - so back to the hospital……

Swabs were taken & numbers reviewed. My lymphocytes are okay (these are the virus fighting ones), red cells (in charge of oxygen) and platelets (in charge of clotting) were okay. (I’m learning quite a lot about blood…)

I was deemed to be safe to come home, instructed to double the injections of G-CSF (the stuff that makes stem cells multiply) and as was now “neutropenic” to stay away from people and be very careful of what I eat.

A neutropenic diet means basically making sure I don’t eat anything that may have bacteria that could be harmful to a compromised immune system. So it’s no to salad, soft fruit, soft cheese etc. In short anything that can’t be scrubbed with anti-bac and peeled, or cooked to death is off limits. There is an upside – no one ever caught e-coli from chocolate – individually wrapped of course.

This is going to be very dull – may have to get in touch with inner Nigella and write a cookbook. (and I'm only on day 2 of this - is it possible there is a life without brie?)

So it’s back to the hospital tomorrow ahead of harvesting up all the brand new stem cells I’m growing. I know they’re growing, they grow in the bone marrow so bone pain is to be expected and has arrived, as instructed right on schedule – just as well my relationship with codeine is intact.

This will be my space for the remainder of the day.