After finding out about my intestinal inflammation I was started on a course of antibiotics. Unfortunately antibiotics have never been my best friend, as even though they seem to be fixing me, they make me feel awful. This meant that I ended up spending the best part of a week pretty much in hibernation (you have to feel sorry for my parents and Sam who came to see me for a chat and ended up just watching me sleep for hours - the height of entertainment obviously). During this period the doctors decided to take me off my chemotherapy so that my white blood cells could recover and hopefully beat the infection.
Last Monday I was starting to feel a little better, so the doctors were willing to allow me a bit more freedom. This was good news as I had an appointment the next day in Glasgow to meet the consultant in charge of my bone marrow transplant. I hadn't actually been outside Aberdeen since May, so this was probably one of the most exciting road trips of my life.
My appointment was at the new hospital in Glasgow which has some great facilities, but was a bit of a minefield to navigate around for someone who does not know Glasgow at all. All the staff were lovely and they seem to be really accommodating - this was a huge relief. However, there was a lot of information to digest, and not all of it was very nice. The week leading up to my transplant will be pretty horrible as I will be undergoing both chemotherapy and radiotherapy multiple times a day. The transplant itself will actually be relatively easy, but as my new immune system kicks into play this is where the problems could begin. There will be a period of a number of weeks where I will almost certainly develop some infections, some people even end up in intensive care! (but I'm really hoping that won't happen to me). We also discussed the long term effects that this treatment will have on my life, which really brought home how right I was about this diagnosis - it will change my entire life. I know I will get through all of this, but in some ways the effects of the leukemia will always be with me, and there is no escaping that.
Anyway, along with the bad news came some good news - the nurse said that in order to bulk up for the procedure I was allowed to eat as much rubbish as I liked! This meant that after weeks of persuasion, my mum finally agreed to let me have the thing that I had been craving the most... a McDonalds! So, on the way home my dreams were finally realised in the form of a McChicken Legend. (That same day we even got a Chinese take-away for dinner - it was probably the most unhealthy but pleasurable day of my life).
After a fantastic day out, chemotherapy started again on Thursday. This seemed fine for a little while, but at the weekend the problems started to set in again. The doctors informed me that my liver tests are a little odd, and this has been accompanied by a pain in my right side and a horrible feeling of constant nausea. This does indicate that my liver is not very happy at the moment. And sadly it means that my heavenly life of eating McDonalds has been cut short and I am back eating hospital food for the foreseeable future. If anyone is brave enough to try and smuggle in a box of chicken nuggets, it would be much appreciated.
Laura xo
