Those blood counts..

The haemoglobin counts on Friday and again today (Monday) showed a big reduction in the rate of decline.
I'm hoping that over a period of time the slow deficit will change to an increase at each blood count and eventually I won't need any more red blood transfusions. Certainly today we didn't need one as I had a somewhat healthy count of 119 after a single bag of blood on top of Friday's count of 109. Usually after a three day break I'd be needing 1-2 units.

My platelet counts are not so inspiring however. There may be a very slight slowing in their rate of drop but it's not enough to be sure. If they spark up like the haemoglobin I'll be a very happy man.

Friday I had my CT scan. What a drama that was! These things never go well for me :(
As usual the nurse failed to get a line into my arm. I asked her to be careful not to "tissue" the needle (put the needle right through the vein) and sure enough she managed to do it straight away. I said to her "OK well give up on that one" but she ignored me and decided to test the line with a saline push. Presto! instant haematoma. GRrrrrr!!!

She then called for a doctor to have a go and she got a line in without too much trouble.
(However there is now massive bruising and around the area of the line.)
The bad news for me was that she put the line into the same vein as the one that was damaged. (To be fair it's very hard to tell when it was so far away from the first sight)
Once on the scanning table the line is connected to a "power injector" that injects a contrast media into the vein in order to gain a more defined CT scan.

The male nurse who over-saw the injection did a test on the line with saline first and I said that it stung a little. He said that was normal. Then the contrast was injected by the machine and my arm started to sting some distance from where the line was inserted. It was hurting at the point of the failed line some six inches away. Next thing the nurse is saying "oh that's not right, that's not good" and I look at my arm and it's blown out at the failed "tissued" attempt. The vein of course leaking like a sieve.

He left the room and came back with an ice pack which he got me to hold against the large blue bump of a haematoma on my forearm. I'm then told that It was lucky that it didn't happen with the old contrast media as that was quite toxic. Oh that makes me feel heaps better I think to myself.

I returned to the day ward via a wheel chair as I was completely worn out by this stage.
The first thing the nurses there say is "oh you should have come here and got the line put in" I never thought to do that. Given my near 100% trauma rate with the CT nurses/doctors I shall remember that for next time.

Sarah and I had planned to drive up to the cottage at Foxton Beach on Friday afternoon but I was just not up to the drive so we put it off till Saturday.
I've given up trying to ween myself off prednisone, there's bigger battles to fight. So on Friday I decided to go back to my old baseline dose of 15mg but split it 10mg in the morning and 5mg at night. The result is brilliant. I sleep better and I don't cough all night long.
This made the stay at Foxton one of our best and we both enjoyed the stay. I felt well enough to get out for a short walk along the estuary walkway (and I do mean short, 100 metres).

My next goal is to try and build some muscle. I guess it's a case of "use it or loose it" because as soon as I stop regularly going on the treadmill I become unsteady on my feet again and lack stamina for walking.

I won't even go into what my weight's doing! Let's just say that a two week course of antibiotics and the resulting side effects have not helped in the slightest :(

I get my Evo back from the engine tuners this week. He's had it longer than I have so I'm looking forward to going for a drive with it's 35% power increase!. One of life's small pleasures  :)

Up until this weekend it was looking like driving was going to off the menu as my oxygen saturation rate was getting quite low. I was down to 84% without oxygen support and to keep my mind sharp enough I've found I really need to be a bit closer to 90%.
With the change in prednisone dose I'm now managing to stay above 90% without oxygen, so I feel a lot happier about driving.

Later ...Ron