2006-04-12

12.04.2006

Recount of previous night

I got told last night at 5, just before dinner, I had to have an injection! In my gut! That was a nasty surprise! But it didn't turn out so bad :-P It did kinda damper down my appetite though, hehe. The injection is suppose to encourage growth of good white cells because it seems my blood chemistry is somewhat recovering and Dr Trotman want my non-infection run to proceed through out my entire time here which would be a God-send.

John called last night too, he is ever so thoughtful trying to keep me in the loop not to be left out of whatever it is happening with our friends. Unfortunately he caught me during my 8-11pm sleep period so he just got a few mutters about me sleeping, hehe.

Also got an email from Nick who wanted to visit, and also from my high school physics teacher Mr Coward, an all round top-bloke. Made me feel all loved and stuff getting messages from my old teachers, all of whom during my formative high school years were there to shape me into the fine young man I am today.. or so they say ;-)

Oh, for the record, please direct all emails to freespace@gmail.com!! I can check that email account much easier, and I also get less spam there :-)

Time 6:08am

Couldn't sleep past 5am, too hungry. Eating some noodles Emma got me. mmmm This hopefully will last me until breakfast when I will be full again. I am always seem to be hungry lately, but that is probably a side effect of the steroids they are giving me.

Going to do some exercises, especially my legs! They will waste away otherwise and I want to be as independent as I can. This means of course raiding the patient fridge myself! It is only like a 10 meter walk, but it gives my calf cramps going that far! Absolute shocking state of affairs!

Time 8:34pm

Normally I would be asleep, but this afternoon proved interesting. Dr Trotman and Allison came to see me today for longish talk about my condition. During this informal session Emma and Mum also arrived, so it turned into bit of an informal family session as well.

After talking to Dr Trotman, I think Mum finally came terms with what leukemia is and what it might mean for me, her only son and off-spring. She felt it was unfair that something so nasty and unlucky can happen to "such a nice boy", a mentality of karma that is rather deeply ingrained in Chinese/Asian culture - be a good person, and bad things don't happen to you.

Saw Mum later though when she came to visit, and she seem to be doing well again after talking to Dad and both of them finding out more about it.

Dr Trotman and Allison are still doing literature review on Gleevec, and have determined that I will start taking it as soon as my body can tolerate the side effects. More than this, like statistics, they can't say because Gleevec really is re-writing all the numbers when it comes to Ph+ leukemia. However they have a 3 prong approach planed:

1. Chemotherapy to get me into remission.
2. Gleevec to keep me in remission while a suitable stem cell donor is found.
3. A stem cell/bone marrow transplant to cure my leukemia.

It is expected step 3 will occur in a few months from now, provided a suitable donor is found. My parents are going to get tissue typed, to see which side of the family is a closer match. Then from there my relatives can get tissue typed at major hospitals in China and if a match is found, they can be flown here to give me stem cells!

Also found out that Concord Hospital is one of the University of Sydney teaching hospitals, and Dr Trotman is a senior lecturer :D It almost seems like I never really left University at all :-)