How is Sean?

Hey everyone, i've been a bit absent of late because to be fair I've been fairly poorly. I'm still in hospital, and I probably will be here for another week or two before I can go home.

Since I've been in hospital with my second cycle of chemotherapy, The illnesses that I've encountered have actually been a whole lot more stressful on my body this time round.

But then, they did tell me it was more intense and can take longer to recover from. However, for about two weeks after I finished my chemotherapy, I felt absolutely fine and had no problems.

Sadly, this came to an end when I was found to be carrying a tummy bug which meant I had to be isolated. Once isolated, I found myself at the receiving end of some pretty shoddy care. One nurse, who was supposed to be taking care of me was coughing and spluttering all over me one evening and within two days I had tested positive to paraflu.

I had also been tested positive to certain bacterial infections, which had also infected the Hickman line (The surgical line placed deep within my veins to deliver fluids), which meant it needed to come out.

Since then, I have been on a high dose of drugs from antibiotics and antivirals to counter any infections that I had caught.

And whilst my body has been fighting these infections, i've not been able to see improvements in my white blood cell count. Which means for now, I'm still in hospital waiting for my white blood cell counts to rise before I can go home.

I now watch the staff here like a hawk, there was one young lady who had to collect blood from me and she didn't have any anti septic wipes to clean the skin before she inserted the needle. She was literally going to go ahead and pierce my skin with potentially dirty skin, introducing germs and bacteria into my bloodstream before I asked her what the hell are you doing?

So I don't know how I got these infections, I don't know if I got them from staff just doing what they shouldn't have been doing. So now, I am more vigilance, and nobody puts and needle near me unless I'm fully conscious and fully aware and they'd better clean everything.

My room is also isolated with a rule that anybody entering has to wear a mask, I will hold this rule with everybody I don't care if it's a cleaner or somebody just coming to the door with a questionnaire.

Although this has caused a delay in my going home, I do feel that I'm getting better on a daily basis. Albeit rather slowly, as I still have a very weakened immune system.

The one thing I am sadly lacking is sleep. Although I have a room to myself, I have to go through so many cycles of different drugs on the IV, I have three hours, maybe four hours a day to myself. Plus many things happen early in the morning, such as people coming round to take blood samples, breakfast, cleaners and what have you.

This time round, I have suffered pretty badly at the hands of mucositis. Mucositis, is a very common reaction to chemotherapy and can be as mild as a few sores to the mouth, to sores or things going wrong with the mucous membrane from the mouth right to the very bottom - yes the bottom..

And sadly, my mucositis has meant that I require morphine for the pain, which is probably why I don't get much sleep. I had the same symptoms last time, just not the same level of intensity and so they didn't bother me so much last time..

Plus, I am very difficult to get blood from. I have literally had six different people within one day trying to take blood, with the final person being successful. Pretty sure my nickname round here is the stone! The main problem is that because they have taken so much blood and inserted so many needles there are bruises all over my arms, these bruises cause small bumps aimed at protecting the vein but they also make it difficult to get blood from those same veins The second time.

I had a pretty bad last time, but this is far more intense shall we say. And so I do what I can, I try and drink at least 3 L of fluids a day, which is usually pretty easy for me as I can get thirsty almost all the time. I have not eaten as much as I should do, the mucositis makes it difficult sometimes.

So, quite a bit of an update for you there and sorry if it goes on a bit. I've not really typed it. I've dictated my iPhone to write this down and then I pasted it into the forum.

And I'm sorry if any of this comes across as negative, The last two weeks haven't been good and I've barely been able to find any fun in these last couple of weeks. But that said, I'm not fighting a flu, I'm fighting cancer. And so even in my darkest moments, I'm always hoping for a better tomorrow and looking forward to later this month. Looking forward to my birthday, looking forward to my stem cell transplant which should come soon.

And then, getting on with my life!

What you describe Sean really is pretty shocking, hard to believe that nurses make such basic mistakes in this day and age.

Take care mate we are all thinking of you.