Back Home and pleased to be itchy.

Wow, I never dreamed I'd be back home so soon after surgery.
The surgical team came and visited me yesterday and said they would like to give me another unit of platelets just to make sure I didn't have any problems with the wound bleeding, Then I could go home.
Then one of them said that Dr D'Souza (my haematologist) had said I could have another unit of packed red cells if I wanted it. But I'd then have to stay the night. The choice was easy, I need all the blood I can get! Plus the energy that it gives me is amazing, it leaves me feeling completely well.

So once the platelets and red cells had been administered and the two cannula's removed from my arms..
..Oh nearly forgot.. My skin is so thin from the prednisone that when the nurse pulled the sticky tape off my right wrist a small area of the top layer of skin pulled off instead!!  She was so apologetic, it bleed a bit but really I do worse just banging into things myself.
I digress.. So once all was removed I settled in for the night, watched a movie on my laptop then took 1/2 a sleeping pill before falling soundly asleep.

Then at around midnight I was woken by a nurse and told I had to pack up all my stuff as I was being moved to another ward because they wanted my bed. To say I was unimpressed would be an understatement. I said something along the lines of "you have to be @#*&i$G joking!!" or words to that effect. But she wasn't of course and I had to pack up all my gear and wait for an orderly to wheel me down into the bowels of the hospital where a temporary ward had been set up to take on the overflow of patients.

I have to admit, once settled into a fresh bed it wasn't all that bad. One thing that did surprise me was that the nurse that was looking after the five or so patients in the open ward, couldn't actually tell me where I was. I had asked her for instructions on getting there to pass onto Sarah so I could be picked up in the morning. I've said before that the new hospital is a maze of corridors with thousands of rooms, offices and theatres etc. This was was reinforced even more this morning as Sarah and I blindly wandered around looking for doors we could open and hopefully reach the outside world.

Before I left I was once more visited by the team that had performed my biopsy surgery. They were all beaming smiles and very happy, so that's good. I've been in the situation of being given really bad news before by doctors and you can tell by their body language as soon as they enter the room that things aren't good. Today was not like that. They told me I could shower with the dressing on and that after around 5-7 days to just peel it off. I'll wait as long as I can because I heal very slowly.

I got a bit worried this morning.. I didn't feel itchy. I've had an insane itch for the last year and my biggest concern was that it was caused by Hodgkins Lymphoma as it's a known B-symptom.
I have had no other symptoms of lymphoma so that has always been reassuring and I've gone along with the idea/hope that the itch is diabetes or prednisone induced. Of course if I were to stop itching after the enlarged lymph node was removed that would mean lymphoma. So as you can imagine, when I started to itch like mad just a few hours ago I was very pleased.!

I have an appointment with the haematologist on thursday this week whereby I shall ask if we can either reduce or change the antibiotic I am on for the nocardia infection. The antibiotic (Co-Trimoxazole) is playing havoc with my blood counts, which is the primary cause of my fatigue which ultimately slows my recovery. If I felt the way I do today every day I'd be running in the hills in no time! With low blood counts I can barely get off the couch.

I'll update after the haematology appointment.  ....