Hi everyone and happy second lockdown!! I think, isn’t it? Technically when I’m writing this it’s day 399 for me but by the time I finish, upload, post and you read it, it’ll probably be closer to day 400 hence the name. It’s been a week and a week it has been, Monday I was due to have an appointment with oncology but was cancelled, not only did I have to isolate after the covid test but the reason for the appointment was to go over the results of the biopsy but I haven’t had that. It has now been changed to the week after, or this coming Thursday more precisely.
At the covid test center I was told I wouldn’t hear anything unless I tested positive and on Monday morning I received a call from an unknown number, my precise words when I saw this… “Ah crap”, I answered and “blah blah blah .... you’ve come back negative and your procedure on Wednesday can go ahead”. A bit of a relief though, I was a bit “hmm would having covid been better than lymphoma?”, better the enemy you know, strange feeling though that you might actually think you would prefer to have covid.
Then later on Monday I got another call from an unknown number.... Did they give me the wrong results!? Turned out it was ENT phoning me up to move my appointment forward from 11.30 to 7.30, this was better as I’m not allowed to eat or drink for 12 hours before. Easier waking up and going straight there than being tempted with a breakfast and having to wait around beforehand.
Wednesday came around and woke up, took my tablets and got a lift over to the hospital, had a bit of fun trying to find the place as I didn’t know how to use the lift. it seemed more like a service lift rather than one for people. I asked someone going past and it turned out to be someone I used to work with, I wasn’t quite sure they cottoned on to who I was initially but it was good to see them, it’s been a few years and always had good craic. I ended up taking the stairs up.. To the 3rd floor… this was a mistake, I had to stop a few times to try and get my breath back and stop coughing, it wrecked me. I finally got there and took a seat before anything else and had a look around, then a nurse went past and asked who I was etc and brought me through.
I got my bed, booked in and all sorted by about 8 and waited… I had been 2nd in the queue but was told that I may be moved up to first as the other guy needed to get a Covid test and mine was a quick procedure compared to his. He had been there overnight, but turned out he got his result back and was taken through first. After waiting and more waiting and 11.30 coming, going and still no further on than what I was at 8 and the ones coming in at the time I was supposed to initially, then one of them was sent home….
Finally a nurse came and said that I would definitely be getting sorted today, just no idea when, I dunno what the hold up was, I very much doubt they were doing it just to annoy me and if an emergency I think I’d prefer they got that sorted than something that just didn’t want to sit and wait in hospital rather than at home, priorities and all. I just sat and read, the room was roasting though and very unpleasant lying down on the plastic mattress. Ended up sitting on the side of the bed but as I was in the dodgy nightgown I had to have the blinds closed as I didn’t really want everyone seeing me sitting there half naked.
Eventually about 2 I was up in theater, they used a local anesthetic and it spread down to the top of my throat which made it so that I couldn’t swallow properly and kept choking and coughing. They kept giving me funny looks with the coughing though but what can you do? It wasn’t too bad, I felt most of what was going on, especially at the start, a few sharp jags and poking, it gradually eased and finally a sharp pain when they took the sample they were after, and I’m quite sure there were stitches too. More intrusive than I had been told, had worse experiences. Back to the ward and was told not to eat or drink for an hour by the surgery staff but the ward staff kept on asking if I wanted anything, they were quite insistent but I still felt the numbness and after about 50 mins it had worn off so said about food then and was able to eat it ok.
At this stage I was allowed to leave, got changed and phoned for a lift and was glad to get out of the room and get some fresh air. I had a quiet night and didn’t do too much. My nose was tingly but not sore or anything and was able to get my steps in on the treadmill. I didn’t want to go to bed too early as I’d pretty much been sleeping all day and had been warned about bleeding and building up pressure in my head. With ITP I’ve always got that caution of bleeding, so again after midnight I went on the treadmill and I think there was MLS on and watched that while getting my early steps rather than lying down and with the way things have been lately I think it would build up pressure and give more of a chance of bleeding.
Thursday was another quiet one, nose was still tingly but apart from that and the now usual early roughness all pretty much as expected and similarly on Friday, although kept going downhill and by the end of the day was ROUGH, I couldn’t sleep and ended up listening to music. Saturday morning I was horrible, my nose was constantly streaming and I was completely bunged up in my chest throat neck armpits, you name it, I felt rotten. The tablets didn’t help much or if they did it took ages for them to. It wasn’t till after 2 that I started to feel a bit normal again. Didn’t do too much and just read and tv, plenty of sport though.
The main thing I wanted to watch was the New Zealand - Australia rugby, but it was to be at 3am so a bit of a wait, nothing unusual there. I had the MLS on and then some rugby and 3am came and the rugby hadn’t started, I was getting a bit confused as I’d seen on facebook about the clocks going forward, same memes over and over, I had thought it was too early in the month for that but then the rugby started at 4 and even after checking it said it was to start at 3, but none of my devices had changed time so I was just confused.
Went on the treadmill waiting and was reading too, it was a Chinese based sci-fi, nice to not have America as the center of the universe and quite an interesting take. Next is a Japanese/North Korean story. Finally the rugby came on and I went up to bed to watch it and once done dreamland. Woke up briefly on Sunday morning and was almost relocating downstairs but decided to just lay on and fell asleep again. When I finally got up I felt surprisingly well, tablets were taken and all pretty good. Although my tummy is playing up again so not really sure what is up with that. I’m like 90% convinced it was a combination of fruit and tablets I’m on but I haven't had any fruit, unless it was the marmalade I had so I guess I’m off that too. Thankfully it wasn’t as bad as it had been before.
Sunday I stuck on the cricket on one screen and watched my recordings on the other and then the football. Both the cricket games went to super overs and the MI KXIP game went to a 2nd super over, enthralling stuff. So the rest of the night I will have NFL on and watch recordings. Although I am tempted to go out for a bit of a walk, I dunno if I'm completely up for that or not so I may just go on the treadmill and read or just go up to bed and watch the NFL, be lazy.
Well whatever I choose I choose, maybe a walk in the morning? Or a cycle, I sort of want to make the most of my time before I properly get diagnosed again on Thursday, at least pretend things are “normal” for a few days, not that I really can with the cough which is what's really stopping me from leaving the house. It’s not pleasant, I feel sorry for my neighbors, between coughing and the half deaf listening to tv at 2 in the morning and later.