Day 15: Monday morning.

Monday is here, I've just had breakfast and am now relaxing in my room before hopefully getting on a bus to Badd Tolz after lunch. I'll tag along behind Pam and Angela.

It seems weird, like I've already done Monday.. you see last night I stayed up quite late and checked in on Sarah and Kurt via MSN. By the time I went to bed it was already nearly midday Monday in NZ. Sarah managed to lock herself out of the flat (again) and despite me going to great lengths in the past to make sure that both Murray and Sarah had a secret spare key to both their flats, (Murray is also always locking himself out) The system failed when Murray lost that key also. Sigh.. ;) It all worked out OK in the end as I have extra spare keys at work. Sometimes it pays to be totally anal about these things! :-) Anyway Sarah is now well on her way, so no harm done. (She texted me as she boarded her flight to San Francisco)

After breakfast I got a call to go to the nurses station to have my blood taken. The blood testing machine here is out of order today and so they needed to take a sample and courier it off urgently to another lab. My veins have almost totally disappeared! It took the nurse several failed attempts before Dr Glonti found a vein in my wrist that had failed to completely hide itself.
I had turned completely grey by this stage. I can handle one needle but by the time you have had someone jab you four times it gets all a bit much!

Next up I will go and choose a new room to stay in. This one is a single, so there's no room for Sarah. Hopefully I can find a nice one.
I'll know my platelet count by lunchtime, I'll post the result before days end. It will greatly affect the treatment time if it keeps dropping. Bone marrow result is still not in. Dr Kopic told me this morning that it is being reviewed by the German Hodgkin's Study Group and they will advise him of their findings shortly. Sounds like a very good excuse to me, I don't mind waiting if it's because the best in the world are studying it. Dr K said this morning that if both the platelets recover soon and the bone marrow is good he will look at the second cycle of chemo being in three weeks time. I will have forgotten what home looks like by then.

I do feel very positive about the treatment, In my mind the lymphoma in my chest is already dissolved away. I have asked that I be given no more Ibuprofen for now so I can test to see what happens with my back-ache. I certainly don't have any more night sweats, that in itself is a huge psychological boost.

OK.. Shall post later on the trip to Badd Tolz.. (that's assuming I make it as far as the bus stop!)

..Ron