July 2017 Shingles

It is not unusual for shingles to come blundering in when myeloma patients have a stem cell transplant. In fact, it would probably be easier to count the number of myeloma patients who have not had shingles than to count those who have. Shingles is a one-word description for "agonising shite". I've never had them but those who have been through it, tell me that the pain is something that they would not wish on even their worst enemy.

Denise is going through the shingles experience...again. The pain is debilitating and from what I can tell, barely bearable. At this point she is through the worst of the pain, thanks to Lyrica, some pretty heavy-duty dope. The lyrica side effects, which incidentally, we saw last night and this morning, remind me of some weirdness I experienced back in the early 70s.

D as expected, is on a downer. That said, she is sleeping easily today and her condition is improving slowly. I have seen enough of this bloody thing called shingles to never want to experience them first- hand.

Transplant Update

All good news here. At almost 12 monts post transplant everything is looking great. There is no evidence of myeloma bad guys in D's blood and the infection that put her back into the RPA is a memory. I suspect that the infection, whatever it was,  is still there but is being held at bay by the bactrim. It's not my miniscule knowledge of bacterial infections that leads me to this conclusion but the fact that the infection reappeared in November last year when Denise came off the bactrim and got progressively worse.

Anyway, as they say in the classics "Onward and upward". Denise is in very good health mentally and physically and is going to Cairns with me next week for 5 days. That should be a hoot!

January 27th 2017

Denise is breaking out of the RPA today and will be running wild and free back to Carlingford with the Lesos. Her BP is above 100 and holding so all is well. The down side is that the infection was never isolated. She has laid down her edict on visitors again because she is not up to playing nice with anyone after she gets home. This means you! Denise will take calls at home and she will let you know when she is ready to be sociable again. Break this edict and you will have me to contend with, and you know what that means - You Have Been Warned

January 24th 2017

A picture is worth a thousand words....

But Denise's edict stands: No visitors please.

January 23rd 2017

I was a bit slack last night and didn't get an update in. Sorry Lorraine 😧. All is well. The tests on Denise's spinal fluid did not reveal any problems so meningitis and other disorders of that type have been ruled out. Denise was all set to be moved out of ICU and on to a ward yesterday when her BP started to misbehave again so she is still in The Dungeon. She is in good spirits and plans to escape from ICU today. Most of the IV lines that were in place have been removed. The fluid and BP monitoring lines are still in place.

Monday Arvo.
I just spoke to Denise. She has slipped The Dungeon's chains and is out of ICU. But, and this is a big BUT, no visitors please. She is not up to visits from anyone but family at the moment. Please, no flowers  either. She is back on 7 West 1 and that ward is flower-free because flowers carry spores.

January 21st. 2017

Today was spinal tap day. No, not this spinal tap - this spinal tap. Why? Well the  source of the infection and the type of infection have not been nailed  down yet so they're going to mine the spine and see what they can discover. To my mind, this is turning into a replay of the events that occurred during the transplant aftermath, viz: unknown infection followed by ICU followed by infection went away.

I spoke to Blake this afternoon and the lumbar puncture had been performed. Denise was feeling OK but, as expected, she was totally over being in hospital, particularly the bit that entails being down in The Dungeon. She is a bit teary, a bit depressed and a whole lot pissed off but nothing as grim as what she was during her last stay in ICU.

I will talk to her again tomorrow and update this later that day. All is well.

January 20th - Again

Denise was having a line put into her leg when I called this evening. This is to monitor her BP at 10 minute intervals. There has been no progress on nailing down the infection. All of her organs have been checked and ultrasounds have been run against them. Kidneys, heart, liver et al are all working to plan. The good news is that because Denise's renal functions are good there is no need to recall her old mate, Marvin. That's Mr Dialysis for those of you not in the know. The medical consensus (a better one than the bloody global warming consensus)  is that the BP fluctuations are being caused by the infection, whatever it is.

Our girl is not doing handstands or brimming with optimism at the moment but she is positive about the whole thing and seeing it as just something else that she has to do. She is confident that they will isolate the infection. The outcome could be that it is the same infection that she had during the transplant and she will have to stay on antibiotics to keep it locked down. Thinking back, it seems to me that the whole coughing thing began after she was taken off the bactrim.

Onward and upward as they say in the classics - more tomorrow.