Well its rolled round yet again – my Dara chemo day at Parkside. I thought those of you who haven't had the very deniable pleasure of coming here might like to see where I am incarcerated once every 4 fast-moving weeks – and this is it.
Arguably not looking its finest in the drizzle, but it just about sums up my mood, so the grey day and general sogginess seems oddly fitting.
And here's the inside of the 'chemo suite' – what a great title for a place you' never want to be upgraded to. Looks empty at this angle but there are about 10-12 luck-luck-lucky punters in here, and 4 or so in the overflow room. Seems to be a busy day in Happyland today.
Got my cannula after 40 minutes and saw Prof 2 hours into the day's wait. My Myeloma 'numbers' are – thankfully – still looking good, but it never gets easier having to come here, once a month, to have treatment. Have now – 3 hours in – had 2 Paracetamol (with the Coke I have to bring with me, as I still can't do tablets with just water), a liquid dose of steroids, sone Piriton, to counteract the possible adverse effects of the chemo and I should soon be plugged into the actual chemo drug, Daratumumab. For several hours, so I would anticipate escaping from here around 4ish pm. Another joyous day.
In the meantime, it's just a case of trying to stay awake now (lunch usually trails in here on a rickety trolley around 1.15/1.30pm) so its a case of battling the Piriton now, as the main job it seems to do is to send everyone to sleep. There's a certain lull in here around noon each day as those people on the same Myeloma trip as me all go through the enforced snoozing thing at the same time. So, either I give in to the need to kip and run the risk of waking up to a vaguely lukewarm, over-cooked jacket potato, soaking wet in its cling film wrapper, or I hang on and stay awake. Oh look, the black bag of death has just arrived – always reminds me of the Grim Reaper that it comes in this 'no sun' thick outer wrapper. Yet another reminder of the shit we are all in…
Right – need a distraction to keep me awake till lunch ships in.. Bring on that wet potato, the highlight of my day x