Midway through day one

As per my previous post I was meant to go back into hospital on Tuesday.... I actually did end up going to hospital on Tuesday but by the time I had been 'processed' it was too late to receive my chemo so I went back home and came in properly yesterday.

This time I am, at least for the moment, in a shared ward. I was a bit apprehensive about this having been spoiled with a dedicated private room for the last two courses, however, it is better than I expected. The other 3 guys in the room are also young with various types of leukemia and are at various stages of treatment. They all seem amicable kind of guys!

There was a single computer to share between the ward, but a quick installation of a wireless router sorted out my internet connectivity ;-) We also each get a LCD TV hanging from our beds. That, plus being largely bed bound due to my effectively constant drip, makes the experience feel quite a lot like a very long flight in an airplane!

Started my chemos yesterday late afternoon after the treatment coordinator reemphasized all the various risks of this round; always a cheerful conversation! I started with a two hour infusion of Mylotarg, the much anticipated experimental drug then this followed with a one hour infusions of Amsacrine and Etoposide. Then I was put on a 20 hour drip of Cytarabine which ran over night and is just over half way through this morning. This will repeat (except for the Mylotarg) every day for 5 days by which point my counts will be dropping until I am neutropenic again. This should last for a week or so and then my counts will rise again and I should get leave again.

So far am feeling fine so hope I have avoided any infusion reactions - bit of a headache this morning but I suspect that's because I didn't sleep too well last night so am a bit tired. Still drinking a lot of water meaning frequent trips to the toilet which are a bit of a drama having to walk my permanently attached drip around with me.

Still feeling very positive about things; getting a negative MRD (minimal residue disease) result on round 2 has really allowed me to be optimistic that these two final rounds are more for 'safety' and just to hit anything that is left with a multitude of hardcore killing chemicals that each work in different ways to target leukemia with a full range of weapons.

Finally, a quick shout out to everybody to say thanks for your emails, texts and blog comments - sorry I haven't replied to too many emails whilst i was out on hospital, hope to get back to you over the next couple of days....

Also to all those doing the Richmond walk - thank you so much again for agreeing to do it and to everybody who has raised money for the Mylotarg I got yesterday - it is really appreciated! As I'm in hospital, I unfortunately won't be able to come to Richmond Park but will be thinking of you all and hope to see lots of photos!

Take care!