Bernadette

Happy Mothers Day to all of the mums!! Tiernan and Cam are meeting me for lunch today and we will get to go out for a little bit. I have not seen Tiernan for a week so I cannot wait!!

On Friday night I had a blood transfusion and felt much better yesterday. I got to go home for a few hours and spend some time with Cam (Tiernan was with mum and dad). It looks like I am over all of the infections now and chemo is going to go ahead tomorrow. The only issue I have now is that my veins are not holding up to all of the drips and they might have to put a permanent line called a PICC line in. They are going to assess it tomorrow. It is a drip line that goes in the top of your arm and stays there permanently. Apparently when the drugs go in a PICC line they are not painful which would be much better.

Yesterday my OB visited me (it was her day off but she knew I was feeling a little down and thought I might want to hear Arielle’s heartbeat - isn’t she sweet). So I got to listen to Arielle’s heartbeat and it made my day.  

Mum visited last night and we had a lovely time together. We got to eat our pizza and just catch up and I just loved it.

I woke this morning feeling quite worn out and it turns out my neutrophils (immune system) is up but my heamoglobin is down so I am having a blood transfusion tonight. The bummer is the drip that I have in is not big enough for blood so I need a new (bigger) one - ouch!! The good news is the blood will make me feel great and I am allowed out for a few hours tomorrow and then allowed to see Tiernan and get out for a few hours on Sunday. That news made my day!!

Well after some fantastic drugs life is on the improve. I am up and about out of bed (finally) and feeling like I can join the land of the living (nice feeling after 2 days of feeling so off). They have delayed the chemo until Monday so I am stuck in here until then but it is all in the name of progress so it is not too bad. Hopefully Tiernan will be well enough to see me on Mothers Day - I will keep my fingers doubly crossed!!! I have lost 1 kg since coming in here which is not great - after being home for a few days the hospital food really is not appealing. Mum is coming to visit tonight and we are going to order pizza - yum yum - that should help the weight gain! Not much else to report - just plodding along now resting and getting better.

Well I got out of hospital last Wednesday and had a lovely day at home with Tiernan. He was so excited to have me home and he was so excited to show me all of his toys again. It was lovely to wake up on Thursday morning in my own bed, cuddled up to my wonderful Cam and then to have Tiernan run in and say good morning mama. Thursday and Friday were spent resting and catching up on bits and pieces whilst Tiernan was at childcare.

Saturday was our big shave day. Dad had coloured his hair red on Thursday and Ben had shaved his hair at work on Friday. On Saturday, dad, Tim and I all had our hair shaved at the hairdresser. Tiernan also had his hair cut. Friends and family turned up to support us and we had a great time - it was really fun.

Unfortunately the weekend ended up being a little more than my body could cope with and on Monday I got a cold. I ended up getting a fever (anything above 37 and I have to call the hospital). So Monday night Cam and I ended up at the Emergency department at the Mater. Unfortunately blood tests showed I had gone into a neutropenic phase which basically means I have no immune system. So I was admitted to hospital. The neutropenic phase is not good for two reasons - firstly I will catch any bug /disease that I am exposed to and secondly my body has no fighting power against it. So at the moment my simple cold has developed into a chest and sinus infection with my lungs operating at 47% capacity and I am on 4 different drugs to fight that. Then I get another drug to try to build an immune system up again. I am stuck in here now and not allowed visitors until I get back my immune system. As I am not well they may have to delay tomorrow’s chemo. Being pregnant the most I can have for the pain (one of the drugs causes bad back and leg pain) is panadol. So I am feeling a little sore and sorry for myself at the moment. I am in better spirits tonight though and haven’t had a crying, feel like my world is coming to an end episode for about 6 hours now. At least this episode has taught me that my body is a little more fragile than I realised and that when I do get home I really do need to take it easy. The only way to learn is the hard way sometimes!!