My Long Weekend Away…in Hospital.

Well…what a weekend!! Instead of spending my weekend in Salcombe like planned, I visited the Worcester Royal Hospital instead. This weeks blog post was meant to be about my first cycle with ABVD chemotherapy, but it seems my body had other ideas. This post will probably be quite a long one but I had a rather busy weekend…

 On Thursday, I started to feel like I had tonsillitis on its way (great.) I made an appointment at my local GP surgery as some antibiotics would soon make me feel better. The doctor took my temperature - 37.4  and she didn’t believe I had an infection, I just had tonsillitis…. Before you start your chemo you are told all about the side effects and what to look out for when you think you have an infection, the biggest thing they tell you to look for is your temperature, anything over 37.5 and you must ring the helpline where they will probably tell you to go to hospital.

By the time I got home, I was feeling awful. I re-took my temperature…it was 38.3. This was not good, it looks like I didn’t just have tonsillitis after all, but an infection too. My mum rang the helpline and was told to wait half an hour, before retaking my temperature to see if it had gone down. We waited half an hour and mum took it again, the thermometer beeped…38.3, bloody brilliant. Mum rang back and told the lady, and I could hear her say “you need to bring her in to a&e ” at that moment I actually wanted to say ‘do you know what I’m feeling so much better..I think the thermometer might just be a bit temperamental’ but before I could I was out of bed, in the car and on my way to hospital. 

A&E..what a horrible place you are. I arrived at the hospital and it was awful. When I first found out I had cancer I got told that if I ever did get an infection, I would get rushed through a&e as any cancer patient becomes a priority due to the risk of picking up any other infections. I was given an antibiotic by the nurse and taken to a bed on the a&e ward with everybody else (something that again, as previously stated is not great for somebody that is struggling to fight infections.) I was waiting to see a doctor who informed me I would be staying over and that they were waiting for a bed to become available in the haematology ward…the one thing I was scared about was staying over and something I wanted to avoid at all costs, looks like that won’t be happening! 

I was finally taken to the haematology ward after spending most of the night awake listening to the soundtrack of a&e (I don’t recommend it.) I was given my own room to which I then discovered was because I was neutropenic, so I essentially was in isolation. Neutropenia is when someone has an abnormally low level of neutrophils. Neutrophils are a common type of white blood cell important for fighting off infections. A healthy person has anywhere between 2,000 - 7,000 neutrophils…I had 0.2. I was then told by the doctor I would be spending the weekend in hospital until my neutrophils were up…just what I wanted to hear. The next few days consisted of antibiotics, injections and hospital food (another thing I don’t recommend.) By Sunday I was ready to come home, I’d had enough and I was feeling so much better, just one more sleep until they would hopefully let me go home. 

Monday came and I knew all I was waiting for was to see my main man, my consultant. He eventually saw me in the afternoon and told me it was good news, I would be going home that day and they didn’t want to push my chemo back either as I was due to have this the following day. This was music to my ears, it sounds funny because anyone would think the doctors pushing my chemo back would be good and I could relax but really, this would mean it would be one step further away from me reaching my remission date, something I definitely did not want to push back! 

So what have I taken away from my long weekend in hospital…well, I’m no longer scared of hospitals or staying over in them..tick that one off the list! I also learnt that hospitals aren’t that bad, they make you better quickly and the NHS staff really are one in a million. Everyone who I met on the haematology ward over the weekend, I owe the biggest thank you to you all, for not only making me better, but for caring for me and for even being there for me when it all got a bit too much. I also owe a big thank you to my parents for never leaving my side, I couldn’t be as positive and strong as I am being if it wasn’t for them, so thank you.

Lots of Love…Grace xo