So I knew the drill of the drugs, but now was the day of the PICC line. Yes the thing that is inserted into my arm, thread through the vein, while I’m awake and will rest just above my heart in order that further drugs will enter straight to the heart and get pumped around. Eek!
Normal tests done, I had lost 4lbs due to the loss of my hair! All platelets up to scratch, haemoglobin levels good, so I got the go ahead for chemo that day. Then I get called for the PICC appointment. Yes I am nervous. I don’t know whats going to happen. The ladies are nice, talking everything through, then I lay down with my arm stretched out. She put ample amount of disinfectant on herself, mask, gown etc and then on me too. The gel for the UV camera is applied and now I can see that ‘lovely squeedchy vein’ there on the screen. The prick of the needle comes along with the sting of the venom, I mean freeze, and she taps to see if it has worked. Yes that’s fine and off to work she goes, I look across and see the metal rod sticking out of my arm. Like the matrix when Trinity gets a few rods in her body only teeny tiny. Its uncomfortable for about 20 mins and then it gets clipped into place, a sleeve is placed over it and Im free to go back to the waiting room. It feels really weird. It feels weak, I’m being cautious with it, I try lifting something but I just want to be left alone.
The chemo nurses clean it and insert all my chemo drugs that day. I fall asleep for a while and Ryan heads off for a walk around Belfast. So much for packing a Chemo kit, sleeping is the only thing I want to do when Im here – maybe when I wake it it’ll all be over.
I leave around 6pm and I’m not as sleepy as last time. I have a mad craving for a McChicken sandwich meal. Strange as I haven’t had that food since Nov 2013 and I’m not giving into that any time soon! I head off home and I am buzzing with energy. I got online and facebooked my friends and they commented on how hyper I was. My aunt called and couldn’t believe how much energy I was talking with. I was bouncing. Perhaps it’s like this, different each time. I had some different take home medication too since that previous week’s irregular heartbeat.
The next day I am still full of energy. My heart feels like its racing. I got a few sharp chest pains that were quick then as I sat in my bed some heavier chest pains gripped my right side for a while. I called the 24hr Oncology team and reported it. They sent me straight to A&E and within an hour I had bloods taken, cultures done, an ECG carried out and was lying in a bed quite light headed. The nurses at this hospital aren’t trained on using PICC lines so welcome back to needles. I got a call from the Cancer Centre in the City Hospital where I will be spending the night to monitor me.
So one night turns to over the weekend. My chest pains have stopped but I got X-rays, heart tracing, CT scans and lots and lots of bloods taken. Every time I got a temperature spike, which happened about twice a day, they got worried. Blood cultures are taken every 48hrs to see if and what infection is going on. Couldn’t find anything. So another three days goes by in the hospital and muscle pain in the pain is wearing in due most likely to being in bed most of the day so out to the smokers garden I go for fresh air and a look at some flowers. The walk is pretty hard by this point in the pain threshold.
As they had taken the PICC line out incase it was causing the infection with chest pains they had arranged for another one to go in a few days later while I was in hospital. They tried the same arm but the vein wouldn’t allow it in so they switched arms and although they got a vein the vein grasped around the PICC and wouldn’t let it go further. They brought this down to the amount of antibiotics I had had but I guess my body did not want that foreign thing in the system. Cannula all the way now, I think I prefer that actually.
So during that first week in hospital I missed a chemo session – there was talk about pulling me out of the trial if I had to miss another one but thankfully it didn’t come to that and I was still ok to receive the chemo and also ok for that to be part of the trial with its various aims in place. Phew. I’ve grown more and more positive to clinical trials the more I research and experience it for myself.
The complementary therapy that was available from Macmillan was amazing. A gentle reflexology helped me sleep much better and another lady administered a massage to my back and from that day my back pain really subsided along with he extra physio exercises I had been doing.
The chemo I got the second week in hospital was on schedule and the Ward Sister got a vein!!! Gosh I was so pleased, first time! I got my chemo, I was back on track, I am sticking with the programme. Such a good feeling but also reminds you that you still have cancer and chemo is going into your body…..its curative!!! I need to remind myself, yes it’s poison but its curative.
Eventually it took two weeks of being in hospital before my inflammatory makers had went down to normal. No infection was found but a lot of antibiotics were put through my system. I was let out two days after and free for the weekend. Just in time for a visit with from little brother and his girlfriend and a much needed visit to my new favourite coffee bar in Belfast, Established. Their weekend only brunches are amazing! And here I am with my wig for the first time. How cool is this!
The Uninvited Guest - Cervical Cancer 