Latest Addenbrokes meeting - generally good news (trigger warning for squeamish readers)

 Yesterday I was driven by the kind offices of my friend Dave up to my next meeting with the transplant team at Addenbrokes. As usual, they took the bloods and then when the results came back I had a meeting with the transplant team Specialist Nurse to check how it was all going. 

I told her about the ongoing fatigue, which seems to be slowly improving, and that I was cramming loads of food in but only just maintaining my weight. Overall she was very happy with how it was going, and said other of the blood components are now starting to rise back towards a normal level (platelets, white cells and red cells in particular). It all seems to be heading on a good trajectory and when I see the consultant in about a month I'll hear her interpretation of the 'engraftment', as they refer to the process of stem cells repopulating your blood. 

The other nice thing was that the nurse said I could have my PICC line removed as the platelets were rising. The line itself is a slight infection risk so if you don't need it, it is best to have it taken out. However, there was a bit of a delay as a couple of different nurses came in and said "No, I'm not qualified to remove that one". It is called a 2-lumen PICC, as it has two separate tubes that go down your vein to your heart, so that they can feed two separate things into you if they need to. 

Eventually there was a tag team of two nurses who between them had enough experience to remove the line. The issue is that this type of PICC has two small metal 'fishhook-like' things that lock the line in position in your arm vein, so they have to be snapped carefully and removed separately. My team eventually got through that point and then 'ta da', slipped a thin tube a foot and a half long out of my vein and showed me it. No pain at all, but a lot of respect for the science and skill that can put it in as well as take it out. 

And so home, in an optimistic glow, only to be sandbagged in the middle of the night when I got up and vomited violently for a couple of minutes. I thought maybe I had eaten something bad, but it stopped after a couple of minutes and I realised then that one of the most common side-effects of this chemo, nausea and vomiting, doesn't have to come right at the beginning, and can mug you at any time. But I have anti-emetics and am now feeling fine and ready for my afternoon constitutional. Onwards!