"Strong" bloods

Just a short update to say that my pre-chemo clinic went well today. My bloods have come back as "strong" (which I guess means I have a high white cell blood count), which seeing as I feel fine isn't too surprising.

Finally met the proper oncologist instead of his locum and registrar. I don't think he had fully read up on me before I arrived, as he looked surprised by my bloods, and even more so by my pathology report (when he saw how many lymph nodes were involved, he asked about the family history... any sisters, aunts, female cousins? Nope, none on mum's side). He said that next time we would go through my treatment in more detail. I think he wants to check that what has been prescribed is what he would recommend. He was on a trip (not sure if holiday or conference or what) on the previous times I've been there. He asked about side effects from the last FEC and I mentioned the constipation and mouth ulcers, and even though they weren't too bad, he has prescribed lactulose and Difflam oral rinse, as well as antibiotics which I think is to ensure the tickly cough I have doesn't turn into anything more serious. He was a bit distracted by computer problems, so it was a little bit chaotic. The online system they use to order the chemo, which they usually do at the time they see each patient, was offline, so there was a bit of a backlog of online prescriptions to do and he was getting very frustrated!!

He also prescribed my latest dose of the ovary suppression drugs. I had mentioned this last time I was there, but probably didn't make it clear that it was due today... oops. My fault - I had meant to phone ahead of today and remind them so they could get prepared, and time ran away from me... Anyway, he wondered why I was on gonapeptyl depot instead of the more well known Zoladex and phoned the fertility clinic in Cardiff to ask. Not sure what they said, but he did try and get the gonapeptyl but the Nevill Hall pharmacy doesn't stock it, so he gave me Zoladex instead. I hope changing doesn't cause a problem. They are different drugs, but do the same job from what I have read, so fingers crossed.... He did say that the FEC-T treatment isn't the harshest from a fertility point of view, so that is also good news. Still, would rather try the ovary suppression just in case!

So all set for Friday. Got an all day planning meeting at a hotel tomorrow, then a normal day at work (plus getting my filling fixed again!!) so plenty to keep me busy!!

P.S. hair still coming out. I can pull it out without pain, but it isn't leaving clumps on my pillow in the morning and I don't have any bald patches yet, so I am keeping it for now!!!

P.P.S. not on steroids now, but keep staying up late. Nearly the same hours as G now! Weird. I'm normally asleep by 11pm...