Well ...
It is now 4 weeks since I had my liver resection operation and I am so pleased and surprised with how things have been going. The first couple of days I was out of hospital were tough and my poor sis had to put up with my winging. Warning, blunt fact ... I wasn't sure whether I was constipated or whether I just had bad diarrhoea, so I was on all sorts of things trying to get more comfortable - prune juice is not very nice!! I was also having hot sweats and shivering. Luckily, my core temperature remained stable and so doctor sister decided to take up a watch and wait practice. Thankfully I was feeling much better on day three of being at home and was able to eat proper meals and I didn't have to have any more Fortisip (a high nutritional milkshake type drink that is good for you, but as a result tastes absolutely awful and just leaves a sticky coating around my mouth and down my throat!!) There are still three bottles of banana flavour Fortisip in the fridge if anyone wants any!!!!
My aim before the operation was to try and keep walking at least a little each day and to get down to Tooting Bec to watch the Olympic torch relay go past on Monday 23rd July. This is about half a mile from where I live. I was really pleased to find that I was able to walk a lot more easily than after my bowel operation, which I think is certainly helped by the fact that it is not my lower abdominal muscles that were cut through - this time the incision runs from my breast bone around the bottom of my right ribcage to my waist, so the two scars won't actually meet up! Because of where the staples started, I wasn't able to wear a bra whilst the staples in. I was also walking scrunched over to stop pulling on my wound. It meant that I was getting a bad back. I was going for a walk every day though, with Sarah taking me around the block. I got more and more confident that I was going to be able to walk to Tooting Bec and back. We had the folding stool at the ready for me to sit on whilst waiting for the relay to go past. Before the trek up the road though I had to have my staples out at the GPs. The nurse seemed to think that the wound was healing well (sister doctor had said that already, but reassuring none-the-less). Having staples out feels probably much as you'd imagine! Thankfully there were only a couple of more stubborn ones! After leaving the GPs, we walked down to Tooting Bec and picked out spot in the shade next to the chip shop to wait the hour until the relay was due. I was thankful for the stool, and for the iced lolly that Sarah bought me - thanks sis! It was pretty busy and getting more so! A friendly policeman from the Borders and Lothians force told us that they were only going to stop traffic on the other side of the road, so we were best off crossing to get a better view. Thankfully we followed his advice and moved to the shade of the bus stop. We had a good view when the torch relay came through and even saw the flame being 'kissed' to the next torch bearer a few metres away! Here's Sarah's photo of it (I somehow missed the key moment with my camera!):
I was so pleased to have seen the torch, but more so, that I had been able to meet my challenge of walking there and back!!
Next challenge was to be able to walk the mile (approx) each way to be able to visit my pregnant friend Nikki by the end of the week. I was therefore taken out for a walk each day by Sarah to make sure I was going to be able to do this! My slow shuffle was getting better all the time and thankfully the hot weather lead to pleasant evenings to be able to do this! It was really nice to be able to catch up with Nikki before her baby turned up!
Now, as an armchair sports fan, the London Olympics being whilst I am off work has been a godsend! And as it turned out it was probably a good thing that I hadn't won tickets for anything! I had managed to get Sarah almost as addicted as me to cycling watching the Tour de France in that first week of me being out of hospital so we decided to go to Putney on the Saturday morning to see the men's road race speed by on the way down to Surrey. First though we tuned in for the opening ceremony - wow!! I thought it was brilliant and was so enthralled by it. I think my favourite bit was the NHS / Great Ormand Street Hospital bit with all the kids bouncing on their beds - looked loads of fun! From the top floor of the building I live in you can get great views across London, so Sarah and I decided to go up there to watch the fireworks at the end of the ceremony. We couldn't make it out totally, but still we managed to see some of the lights. Stupidly, we only took our iPhones with us and not our cameras, but here's some fuzzy fireworks pics:
Anyway, back to our road race viewing plans. We decided that to make sure we could get a good spot we needed to be in Putney an hour before the cyclists were due through, so it was an early alarm, well relatively considering we had been up watching the opening ceremony until the early hours!! ;-) Along came the trusty stool again and my Olympic scarf had arrived so I could wear that around my shoulders! I took my camera with me this time and set it on sport mode for continuous shooting! This meant that I got quite a few photos as the cyclists speed through in one big bunch!. Luckily from our spot on the Upper Richmond Road we had a great view as they came around the corner from Putney High Street. Here are some of the pics:
OK, so they zoomed passed at around 1000mph but looking back at the photos, I think I have identified three of the Team GB squad (please let me know if I have got this wrong).
1. Sir Bradley Wiggins
2. Ian Stannard
3. Chris Froome
It's just a shame I didn't get Cav and David Millar - they shouldn't have been peddling so fast!! Now the theory for the rest of the day was to go home and shout at the TV whilst Cav sprinted across the line for the gold medal. Alas the rest of the world didn't cooperate and the medal went to someone else! Oh well, it was the start of what has turned into nearly two weeks (so far) of getting increasingly square eyes!! I have loved shouting at the TV and watching so many different sports. I'm not sure what I think of boxing and taekwondo, where the aim is to hit / kick the opponent in the head to get points but I do respect the athletes for their commitment to their sport. And as for dressage .... horses dancing to music is just bizarre, but we won a gold so I can't complain too much! The cycling though has remained my favourite and I was jumping up and down at the TV when Wiggo won the road time trial and all the golds in the velodrome were fantastic!! Here's a photo of my sis celebrating Wiggo's victory (complete with Sainbury's carrier bag sideburns!):
I think that the BBC have done a brilliant job of showing everything and generally the presenters / commentators have been fab, with Clare Balding and Mark Foster in the Aquatic Centre and Jake Humphrey and Mark Cavendish in the velodrome my faves, but Gary Lineker is getting on my nerves a bit!! I just can't believe there are only three more days to go and I wish I could have got to more events, but I am really looking forward to going to the Paralympics in September - I have wheelchair basketball, swimming and athletics tickets!! Go Team GB!!
Now just to prove that I have not been just slouched on the sofa, I have been carrying on with my walking most days and over the weekend I walked 5.5km each day around the park. The showers did get me, but it was great to be out amongst the trees and wildlife again:
I also met up with an old friend for lunch last Monday. She is in London working as a games maker and so it was a great opportunity to get together after too long! I loved hearing about what she was up to at the Olympics and we had a lovely walk around Victoria and Green Park. I even saw the back of the Beach Volleyball Arena:
Thanks for meeting with me Vicky, and I hope that you enjoy the rest of your summer!
Now, back to the cancer stuff ... I am still progressing well after surgery. I came off painkillers (ibuprofen and paracetamol) totally about a week ago, having been on maximum daily dosage for about 10 days after coming home and then easing off. I was also given a box of Tramadol when I left hospital, but this has left me fuzzy headed in the past and so I only took one each of the first couple of nights I was home. I have also had to inject myself each night with an anti-clotting drug to prevent me getting a deep vein thrombosis or pulmonary embolism! Now the thought of having to inject myself really didn't appeal, especially as a recovering needle phobic! I had to show the nurses I could do it before I left hospital, which I did, but I must admit that for the first 10 days at home I chickened out and Sarah did it for me. I did buck up my courage after that though and have been giving myself the injections the last week. I was very glad last night that this was my sight when tipping out the box though:
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| The last one!!! |
I am now done with adding a new bruise to my thighs each night and having to put up with the f**king painfully stinging of the drug (Fragmin) going in, which tended to last a minute or so afterwards - brought a tear to my eyes often!! I'm not sure if there are any ways to stop this but I found that going quick with the injection certainly got it over and done with quicker. I can now start smothering on the arnica cream to hopefully help the bruises! I have just got to remember to take my sharps bin back to the hospital on Monday for them to get rid of!! Thank you so much to Yogi Clare for all the work you did with me on my needle phobia - I certainly couldn't have got through the last 4 weeks without it!!
I am now back at my parents for a few days of mum fussing!! It also means that Dad and I can shout at the tv together!! :-) On Monday I had my routine 6 month check with my original (bowel) surgeon. He hadn't realised that I had had my liver surgery and so was pleased with how well I looked. He had a look at the wound and said it all looked good. All in all he was happy and I next see him in 6 months! Next Monday I head back to Guildford to have a check-up with my liver surgeon (or one of his minions) and hopefully that'll then be me discharged from his service and solely back in the hands of the oncology team at St George's for my 12 weeks of post-op chemo. I see my oncologist on Friday next week to hopefully start making plans for this. I am not sure yet when it will all kick off again, but hopefully around the end of this month or the start of September so I can have it all done and dusted nicely before Christmas.
Right, I guess I had better sign off there and let you all get on with your lives!! Thanks for reading! I'm off for my shot of aloe vera juice and my wheatgrass juice!
Enjoy the rest of the Olympics - go Team GB!!!
xxxxxx
P.S. Just wanted to show you the yummy tart that Sarah made me as a surprise for the start of the Olympics:
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