Tag Archives: blood count

Monday 2nd January 2017 – THE FIRST SNOWS OF WINTER …

leuven first snow belgium january janvier 2017… has covered our land during the night.

It might not be much by Canadian standards, or by German standards or even by Auvergnat standards, but it’s the first snows all the came and at least it made me smile. I was wondering whether I might miss out this year, but here we are.

I thought that it was cold last night.

And I had another bit of a bad night too. It took me ages to drop off to sleep and then we had party-time again for an hour or so round about 01:00.

During the night I’d been on my travels too. I’d been fixing a van (but not Calibuen – a big white Iveco-type) and I’d gone out for a test drive in it, even though it only had three wheels and the fourth corner was propped up on a trolley jack. When the van came back to the garage the trolley jack was still there under the van but in a different place. There was a girl featuring in this dream too but I’ve no idea who she was. But she was quite familiar.

The alarm went off at 07:00 and I was quickly upstairs for breakfast. And I wasn’t alone either – there was a middle-aged couple breakfasting there and I didn’t recognise them at all.

But there will not be too much of any of this tonight though, because unless I’m very much mistaken I’m here on my own tonight. It’s 22:20 and there’s not one other person in the building. The noisy neighbours have definitely gone (the cleaner was doing heir room this afternoon), but they don’t seem to have informed the boy who comes to see them because he was knocking on their door just now.

belgium january janvier 2017After breakfast I had a shower and then walked up to the hospital. And I felt sorry for the wildlife as their lake is all frozen over and the poor birds don’t know what to do. Yes, it was that cold.

I was early-ish in the reception, and quickly dealt with. They soon packed me off downstairs to the waiting room.

And wait I did, because they forgot me, and it was not until 11:15 – 45 minutes after my appointment time – that I was seen.

And the long and the short of it is that I don’t have to come back for, would you believe, four weeks. My protein count is up slightly to 2.04 but my blood count has rocketed up to 11.7, all on its own and after the low figures for the last couple of visits, that figure can’t be right. But they think it is, and hence the attempt to try me for four weeks without a visit.

I’m not going to go home though, even though I would like too. It costs me €400-odd at least to make a trip home and back, and then there’s the fatigue and the inconvenience in the middle of winter. I’ve paid to stay here until the end of February and it’s warm-ish in here, there’s breakfast provided and it’s convenient. I don’t need to go very far from here.

All in all, it’s a good idea to stay and so here I’ll sit. It’s a shame but there we are. No sense in throwing good money after bad.

For tea tonight I had the leftover vegetables with a tin of couscous vegetables and a bit of tomato sauce. Followed by Christmas pudding and custard. Now I’m ready for an early night.

if I do end up on my own tonight, i’ll hope to have a good night’s sleep. And then I need to think of a cunning plan for the next few weeks.

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Monday 19th December 2016 – AND SO …

… I went to the hospital this morning.

But if you think that this was exciting, you should have been here last night, for what a night that was!

I had crashed out well-and-truly by 22:00 and apart from two brief awakenings I remember nothing whatever until about 06:30 when I awoke bolt-upright.

Saying that I remember nothing is perhaps an understatement. I was on my travels again – and how!

We (a little group of us) were in a hotel at the seaside – a large expensive kind of hotel too but our room was dreadful – just a couple of big double beds and no other facilities. All of our stuff was lying around on the floor, on the beds, and we were planning to leave, chucking-out time was 11:00 and all of our stuff was still lying all over the place wit no urgency whatsoever.
From here I was in a car with Alison (her debut appearance on my nocturnal voyages, I believe) and we were driving along Thanet Way talking about my mother’s two Aunts – Auntie Dolly an Auntie Gertie – who lived there (we actually did have a discussion like this on Saturday). Auntie Dolly lived in Birchington and Auntie Gertie lived somwhere just off Thanet Way and I couldn’t remember the Aunt who lived in Ham Street who had the cats called Katapus and Redpus (it really was Greypus and it was Aunt Mabel by the way). But we stopped at a row of terraced houses on an embankment at the side of the road and eventually found our way to the one that we needed. A couple of hippie-types lived there and they showed me to a room, which was a very poorly furnished ground-floor room with an unused front door. I waited there for quite some time but nothing was happening so I forced the door open and went outside. There was a very early Austin A30 (or was it a A35?) saloon there with no number plates, and at the end of the front garden was the drop to the road but I couldn’t work my way down the bank so I went back. By now, some other male person had occupied my bed and had a baby with him so I went back to the main room, said how much I liked the car. We then discussed fetching my stuff. I had some modern up-market computer stuff and I didn’t want to bring it in but they were encouraging me to do so, telling me what equipment they had which would work with it. But their stuff was all out-of-date and wouldn’t be compatible with mine, and so I declined the offer.

I was thoroughly exhausted when I awoke, and that was a bad sign. In fact I had taken my medication up to the kitchen and forgot to take them – shows you just how confused I was.

But anyway the wal, up to the hospital did me some good and I wasn’t the least bit worn out when I arrived.

The place was crowded with people today and we even had bread rolls with the soup, that made a change. And as for the results, my blood count has improved to 9.7 and the protein loss has “decreased” to 1.96 (it should of course be less than O.15).

The doctor who saw me – well, she can come and inspect my kidneys any time she likes – tells me that I have to stop taking my protein supplements. She’s wondering if my body can’t absorb the proteins and that’s why it’s being excreted. It’s noted that the amount has gone up since I’ve been taking the bulghour and gone down when I’ve been at home or elsewhere where I’ve not been taking it.

The psychologist came to see me too and we had a chat,but she doesn’t seem to be adding to what I already know about my condition or my general state of health.

The upshot of all of this is that I have to come back in 2 weeks – 2nd January 2017. I’ve been asked if I’m going back home for Christmas but I’ve decided to stay here instead.

Liz was on line later and we had a video chat. I took her on a guided tour of the building so that she now knows where I live and how I’m living. And then I crashed out for a bit.

For tea, I threw something together quickly, for I have plans for the next few days as far as food goes. And quite right too!

So now it’s another early night. And I hope that my travels are as exciting as last night’s.

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Wednesday 14th December 2016 – IT’S NOT LOOKING …

… so good.

Blood count collapsed to 8.7 and protein loss dramatically risen to 2.4. And not only that, there might be a thrombosis in my lower right leg. All of this means that I have to go back – not in a fortnight, not in a week, but on Monday.

And I’ve had the stimulation injection too. That’s usually the last resort before the transfusions.

I am so fed up.

My sleep last night was disturbed. There wasn’t much of it and I had to go down the corridor too. but I’d been on my travels. Back in a relationship and back to Labrador. Clearly my subconscious is trying to tell me something.

My eye appointment was at 10:00 and my hospital appointment was at 11:10. but at 13:30 I was still having my eyes seen to. The bad news here is that my eyesight has deteriorated considerably with my illness – deteriorated to such an extent that they can’t give me a full prescription for the eyesight as my eyes wouldn’t take the dramatic change.

All in all, it’s not going to well.

Then up to the hospital and all of the shenanigans, including an echograph.

I have had my medicaments all changed and quantities adjusted, and that should see me through. And then back on Monday as I said.

I used my little wok tonight and it really was good. My tea worked out just fine.

Now I’m exhausted and I’m going to have an early night. i’m completely fed up with all of this

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Wednesday 30th November 2016 – I’VE BEEN BACK …

… to the hospital as you might expect today.

I saw the doctor and he told me the news. Blood count is down to 10.0 from 10.6, although not as low as 9.7 as it was the other week.

We had a chat about the protein loss too. It’s supposed to be 0:15 and mine is 0:51. But that’s somewhat better than 1:11 that it was last week and nothing like what it was a while ago at 2:98. It seems to be that the higher the blood count, the higher the protein loss. The protein loss is as bad, apparently, as the blood count and a low blood count with low protein loss is as good as a high blood count with a high protein loss.

This is why they don’t seem to be too worried about my blood count right now because the protein loss thing seems to be working for now. They want to see how it goes for another couple of weeks.

One thing that they did say is that I don’t need to continue with a high-protein diet. But that’s not something that I’m going to abandon for now. It has its benefits, apart from keeping up the proteins in my body in the face of this excessive loss.

But anyway, they threw me out at about 14:00 and I have to go back in two weeks time – but I forgot to go to the reception to check on the time. I shall have to telephone them some time.

And so it took ages to go to sleep last night and to be honest, I didn’t think that I’d dropped off at all. But whatever I did or thought that I might have done, I didn’t move from my bed.

At least, so the story goes. I did leave the bed but only in a virtual fashion. I was off to Labrador last night among the Inuit,carrying out a few projects. But then I moved back to the west and I was trying to track down an Asian girl – one very much like the Vietnamese girl with whom I shared a house a few months ago. We’d managed to track her to a student house not so far away and I knew that one of her former house mates lived there. Off we went to this house – it was a modern, expensive type of place and when we arrived there was a big party going on in there; Loads of students about and I remember saying to whoever I was with that I wouldn’t like my house treated like this at all; Anyway we found the girl and she told us where the Asian girl could be found. We had a file of hers that needed to be given to her and so I was all for taking this file around to her new place but the others seemed to think that we should just put a white name tag in it and put it in a pouch that we could stick to the side window of the house where we were. A silly idea, if you ask me, but that was what we did.

I wasn’t alone at breakfast – there were the usual crowds – and then after I did a little work, I set off for the hospital. It was freezing outside – minus 3°C apparently – and it’s only going to become worse apparently.

After the hospital I came back here for a relax and a crash out for a while and then round about 16:00 I went off down to Caliburn to fetch some more stuff back. I remember the hair cutter but I forgot the nail scissors though – I’ll have to find them next time I’m down there.

There’s a good book that I discovered on the internet this afternoon.It’s called “Outlines of the Geography, Life and Customs of Newfoundland and Labrador” and it’s about 800 pages of observations of a Finnish expedition to Labrador and Newfoundland back in 1937 and 1939.

It’s full of observations from a most unusual group of people and contains a lot that is glossed over by more-mainstream historians. And I enjoy reading books like these because I can add the stuff into what I write and recirculate them, to make sure that they aren’t forgotten.

For tea, I finished off the lentil curry from last night and now it’s almost bed time.

I deserve a good sleep. It was quiet last night and the more of this that I can get, the better.

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Wednesday 23rd November 2016 – PHEW! I’M WHACKED!

Yes, today was the day that I had to go to the hospital at Leuven.

And how difficult was it to haul myself out of bed at 07:00 to hit the road? You have no idea.

No breakfast of course, but what with having to wash and make myself pretty, it was 07:30 when I finally hit the road. Through the fog, the hanging cloud, the darkness and the drizzle to the motorway and then an uneventful drive all the way to Leuven. uneventful, of course, except for the tractor-trap in the suburbs of the city that slowed everyone up. It took me less than 2 hours all told.

Caliburn went into his hidey-hole and I walked up to the hospital to organise some breakfast. All done and dusted, checked in and in the waiting room long before the due time of 10:50.

I was out by 14:30 too. The highlight, or actually the lowlight of the day was the fact that they have stopped serving bread with the soup. That’s no good.

But apart from that, my blood has gone back up to 10.6 all on its own (although it doesn’t feel like it) and while my water retention has eased, my protein loss has accelerated. So – back in a week.

And as the professor is only there in the morning next week, it means that I have to postpone my eye test too.It’s a good job that I’m going back to stay in the hostel.

The drive back was even more uneventful.

There’s a Carrefour in Leuven as you know so I called there for bread and stuff but I was having a “fruit” moment so I bought a “reduced” fresh fruit salad thingy and a litre of 100% pineapple juice, and scoffed the lot on the car park. And there are grapes for tomorrow.

My route brought me back to Bouillon, which is a soup-er … "ohh, well-done" – ed … place and stopped to take a pile of photos in the dark, falling over the edge of the pavement and badly cutting my right knee.

There’s a falafel place in Bouillon so I had a decent tea as well.

And now I’m back here and seeing how tired I am, you’ll have to wait until tomorrow to see the photos of Bouillon.

I’m doing nothing more!

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Wednesday 16th November 2016 – HOW STUPID …

… can you be?

I need to leave Belgium for a while for various reasons, and so I checked all around the area of Sedan, which is not too far away from here but across the border, and I found a place that looked absolutely perfect from my point of view. Isolated in the countryside miles from anywhere up a mountain and probably swathed in fog. And bed-and-breakfast at the same price as my hostel.

And here I am gazing across a river and over the river is in France, and here I am, stuck on the Belgian side of it all in the Hostellerie La Sapiniere at Vresse sur Semois.

Unbelievable, isn’t it?

So why aren’t I heading back to my house then? The answer is that while my blood count has gone up slightly to 10:0, the protein loss in my body is accelerating slightly and that’s causing them some concern. As a result, they’ve changed my medication and they want me back IN A WEEK to see how I’m doing.

And not only that, they have some more appointments for me in the haematology department in two weeks time, and so I’m stuck here yet again. But I don’t want to be stuck in Leuven – I need a change of scenery;

But returning to our moutons as the French say, the trouble with going to bed early is that everyone else comes in later. And so even if you do drop off to sleep by 22:30, then at 23:30 you are wide awake as people come back into the building. and that’s rather annoying, so say the least.

So having had a disturbed night (for many reasons) I was awake quite early as the alarm went off.

And I’d been on my travels too. I had to visit a town that was “just across the border” in some kind of Spanish-speaking area. I’d found a bus that would take me there and so I climbed on board. It wasn’t a journey of 10 minutes either as I was expecting, but one of hours and interminable hours. A woman on board the bus, small and dark-haired, tried to help me out – every ten minutes or so coming to reassure me (although I couldn’t understand what she was saying) and then as we reached the border I suddenly realised that I didn’t know where I was supposed to be going or at what stop I needed to alight, and I had no way of asking either.

There were the usual hordes at breakfast this morning, and we had a major problem with the kitchen area being flooded again. The skylight had been left open and we were in the middle of a torrential downpour.

Still, I’d breakfasted and even showered and back in my room again long before 07:55. THat’s something of a record, isn’t it? And once I’d tidied up and packed my rucksack I set off to the hospital, braving the driving rain.

I wasn’t feeling so good this morning either. All of the joints in my legs were aching and I didn’t have the puff to climb the hill. I had to stop on four or five occasions to get back my breath. This is the worst trip to the hospital that I have ever had.

I was there and registered by 08:30 and sitting in the waiting room. I was seen a little later than my 08:50 appointment , and given all of the tests and the like. My weight was stable which was bad news – I want to lose it all and I can’t do this as it’s all to do with the water retention issues that I’m having and that’s one of the issues that I need to resolve – hence the new medication.

By 11:30 they released me from the hospital and that was that. I went down to Caliburn and we all, Caliburn, Strawberry Moose and I set off for the wilderness.

The weather was pretty miserable – with rainstorms and the like all the way down to the Ardennes. And once I started to climb up into the mountains I was encased in hanging clouds just like home. In fact it made me feel quite at home.

The Lady Who Lives In The SatNav couldn’t find the hotel, which was hardly a surprise seeing as I was looking in the wrong country. I had a beautiful drive through the Ardennes and ended up in Sedan in the driving rain. I took the opportunity to do a huge pile of shopping at the Leclerc – what with food prices in France being much less than in Belgium – and then tracked down the hotel where I’m staying.

It’s a very impressive hotel from the outside but it’s all very 1960s from the inside. And there’s no internet in the bedroom which is very depressing to say the least. I’ll have to sort this out somehow but I’m quite tired after my drive. I made a butty (because I wasn’t able to check on what the surroundings had to offer) and had an early night instead.

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Wednesday 9th November 2016- AT LEAST THE WEATHER …

… didn’t let me down today.

I was expecting the sun to be out and that we would have brilliant weather today seeing as I was leaving Oostende today. But instead, it was pouring down and windy just like the rest of the time that I had spent here.

As soon as the alarm went off I was up and about, even before the reminder. And I’d had a really good night’s sleep too, with nothing to disturb me whatever. A long time since I’d had such a deep and satisfying sleep, even though there was only six and a half hours of it.

after a quick shower and a change of clothes, I was downstairs for breakfast. First yet again although I was soon joined by others. And once I’d finished, I was back upstairs, packed and out of the door by 08:40.

I had plenty of time to wait for my train at the station, although it was cold there in the temporary waiting room. I wasn’t half pleased to be on the train. It was bang on time too and really comfortable, so much so that I cracked on with the work that I’ve been doing on my website.

It was still pouring down when I arrived in Leuven, and after gathering my wits I went off to Caliburn to drop off the stuff that I don’t need, and that was a long walk in the rain. And one thing that I did was to find the fleece lining for my rain jacket. I’d been freezing in Oostende.

Bang on time at the hospital, and I was quickly organised. They plugged a catheter in and took a blood sample. And my blood count is stable, as is my protein loss. That’s a surprise. I only wish that the blood was stable at 12.2, not 9.7.

And then – they forgot me yet again. And after reminding them, they finally got back to me at 17:45. It seems, in what can only be really bad news, they need to take two-weekly controls of my urine and kidneys for the next … errr … three months at least. And that’s before we start talking about the blood situation – for which I have an appointment next week.

You’ve no idea just how dismayed I am by all of this.

At least there’s a room free at the hostel and so I’m now back there for a week. And who knows? I might even be able to go home again after my appointment next week if there’s a fortnightly pause. But I want a place of my own. I can’t go on like this living out of a suitcase in a hostel room.

Alison came round later and we went out for a meal and a coffee. And a guided tour of Leuven as a new one-way system that’s been installed led us everywhere except where we wanted to go.

Now I’m off to bed. Thoroughly depressed, thoroughly fed up.

and if my next blog is from Mars or Uranus or somewhere like that, don’t be surprised. What is happening in the western world has filled me full of dismay for the last twenty years and the news this morning has made me want to emigrate to another planet somewhere.

Whatever is the world coming to?

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Thursday 3rd November 2016 – GRRRR!

Yes, you’ve guessed it. It’s not good news.

Last night was quite a disturbed night and I even sweated a great deal. Dunno whether it was concern about what today might bring me, but there we are. It was quite a struggle to leave the bed after the alarm went off and head off to breakfast, but there I was all the same. And by 07:30 I was out and on the road to the hospital.

The morning was a misty, foggy cold morning and so I walked briskly up to the hospital. By 07:50 I was at the registration desk and by 08:00 I was in the waiting room.

The wait was longer than it ought to have been but eventually I was seen and the blood pressure and blood samples were taken. and then I had another long wait until about 11:00 until the doctor saw me. He asked me all of the usual questions and I had the usual thorough examination, and then I had to wait again.

Lunch was the usual soup and bread, which didn’t take me too long to wolf down; And then I had to wait again.

The nephrologist saw me at 14:30. She said that the protein loss was slowly increasing, and they needed to make yet further tests. I had to go for another set of x-rays. And then I had to wait again.

By 17:30 I was fed up of waiting and so I asked what was going on. It appears that some nurse had told the nephrologist that I’d gone home. And so nothing had happened. The nephrologist told me eventually that she wanted me to come back in on … errr … Wednesday next week. So not even a week before my next appointment. How I’m fed up with all of this.

And my blood count? It’s down to 9.7. I’m pretty fed up of that as well.

I was fed up of all of the waiting too, but at least I was able to do tons of stuff on the web pages that I’m writing.

But it was far too late to do anything else so I booked a room at the Ibis Budget and went there via Caliburn to pick up some spare clothes. I had a good deal too at the Ibis.

After a shower, a shave and a change of clothes, Alison turned up and we went to the fritkot, for a meal and a good chin-wag.

Now I’m having an early night. For I have a cunning plan in the morning. Whatever it might be, you’ll have to wait and see.

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Thursday 27th October 2016 – THIS WAS NOT WHAT I WANTED

I went to hospital this afternoon for my tests. I had the usual catheter fitted and blood sample taken. And then I had to wait.

My blood pressure is up again and my legs are starting to swell up. That’s a couple of things to worry about, but the lymph nodes that have bedevilled me – the doctor can’t find them. If they really have gone, that will be the best news that I’ve had for ages.

I had an echograph this afternoon and my kidneys appear to be quite normal as far as their make-up goes, but there is still a problem in that according to the urine sample that I gave, the protein loss from my body is accelerating.

But the worst news is about my blood count. That’s now down to 10.0, a loss of 9% over the last two weeks. Considering that while I was away in Canada for – weeks, then over that period of time I lost 10% of my count – that’s about a third of the current rate of loss.

That is causing them a considerable amount of concern and so the upshot is that I have to come back … next Thursday!

Yes, just one week, and that’s not even enough time for me to go home and come back again. How I hate all of this. But at least my little room in the hostel hasn’t been taken so I’ve moved back in and I’ll stay here. But what I’m going to do next if i’m on weekly visits I have no idea.

I had a difficult night last night – it took me hours to drop off. And then I had a very disturbed sleep. I was off on my travels too but as usual I forgot absolutely everything as soon as I awoke.

After breakfast I tidied up my room and then had a good shower and a change of clothes. And once I’d organised myself I went off to fetch Caliburn to load him up with the stuff from here. And I nearly squidged a cyclist who rode straight out of a side street without even a pretence at a glance at oncoming traffic.

I sat in the lounge here until it was appointment time and then walked up to the hospital for my appointment with destiny. 14:15 was the time of my appointment, and I was seen at … errr … 14:10. A far cry from the situation in the UK
“I needed an urgent appointment, and the hospital has made a special effort to fit me in. They are going to see me at 20:20”
“You mean at twenty past eight in the evening?”
“No – I mean in four years time”
Such is life with the British Health Service.

And I made all of 20 yards down the corridor on the way home with my catheter today. I’m improving.

And now I’m having an early night. I’m exhausted.

And fed up too.

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Thursday 13th October 2016 – WELL, YOU MIGHT HAVE GUESSED.

Blood count is down. And protein loss is up. The result of all of that is that I have to go back in just two weeks.

This is a bitter blow to me of course. I need to move on and do things, and I was hoping for six months – or even three months would have done me. But not two weeks.

But I’m not surprised, because I had a horrible night.

I wasn’t in bed all that early, and even so I just couldn’t drop off at all. I gave up trying to sleep at 05:45 and started to read a book – and that had the desired effect, albeit 6 hours too late. It really was a struggle to crawl out of bed at 07:15.

And despite the small amount of sleep, I’m managed to go a-wandering. I was in a car driving down a lane and ended up crossing two railway lines, about 40 yards apart. I’d always believed that they were simply each track of a double-track line built by someone with a sense of humour, but the book that I bought on Sunday in Montreal convinced me that these were just another set of “parallel lines” laid by the Canadian Pacific Railway and the Canadian Northern Railway during the Canadian Great Railway Wars.

It’s funny how, even when I was asleep, I was able to think along logical lines like this, because it’s perfectly true. If you think that the Railway Wars between companies in the UK was savage, vicious and extremely wasteful, you haven’t seen anything until you read about what took place between the Canadian Pacific, the Canadian Nothern and the Grand Trunk Railroad. The useless infighting and unnecessary duplication of routes cost Canada millions of dollars and bankrupted a couple of the companies for no good purpose.

And so at 07:15 I crawled out of bed, at 07:30 I crawled out of the shower (so much for thinking that it would do me some good) and by 07:45 I was crammed like a sardine along with about 500 other people into an articulated bus, having grabbed a coffee on the way. I was decanted out at St Rafael so that I could go down to Caliburn to drop off the stuff that I had bought yesterday.

Having left all of my vegan cheese behind (that’s bad planning if they had decided to keep me in) I then boarded the wrong bus that led off in a completely different direction. I ended up having rather a long walk.

At the hospital, I had my blood test and a chat with the doctor. 2 hours later, the doctor came to see me. “It’s about yuor blood test …” she began. That sounded ominous, and no mistake. But she carried on to say that the blood testing machine had broken down and I would have to hang around for the results. Clogged up with root beer and maple syrup, I reckon.

Kaatje the Social Services girl came for a chat and I had to fill in a form. And having spent most of the morning reading Lord of the Rings I promptly wrote out “13th Orcober”. Yes, it’s getting to me, isn’t it, all of this?

Anyway, I managed just about to keep awake during the afternoon and about 16:30 they came back with the bad news.

With that ringing around in my ears, I went downstairs for a coffee and to make a phone call. And so here I am – back in the hostel where I stayed during the summer. There was a room available – not at the same good price that I was offered last time unfortunately – and so I took it. It’s cheaper that going back home and coming straight back and far less stressful. Stress – or the elimination of it – is quite important.

I set off for the hostel but within 20 minutes I was back in the Day Centre. Bane of Britain has, once again, gone off with his catheter still plugged in. You couldn’t make this up, could you?

And it’s good to be back on familiar territory with no pain at all. And I can have my old room back on Monday too. In the meantime, this one will do. I settled down for a while and then a bit later nipped down the road for a falafel butty for tea. I’ll rescue all of my supplies from Caliburn tomorrow.

Having organised that, I’m off to bed. Nice and early. Remember that I had a bad night last night.

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Wednesday 31st August 2016 – FATE HAS A VERY STRANGE HABIT …

… of dealing with its own issues without very much input from oneself, no matter how hard one might try to interfere with things. And in the end, one quickly discovers that one didn’t even need to interfere at all.

And so it is with my accommodation, because the situation has resolved itself without any input from me, no matter how hard I tried.

I was told this morning that I can leave the hospital today. My blood count is back up (and over) to 12.2 – the highest that it has ever been, and there was no infection in my blood. And when do I come back? The answer is – 13th October – in 6 weeks time in fact. And then I’ll be required to check in every 6 months or so. Consequently there is no need at all for me to stay in Leuven and I can go back home.

Except that I am not going home at all. I have a cunning plan, and it certainly does not involve Belgium.

I had a bad night at the hospital, but then, that’s only to be expected. I always have bad nights at the hospital. I didn’t get off to sleep until about 01:30 and I was wide awake again by 05:30, tucking into a nectarine and a banana, followed by a coffee.

A blood sample followed (I didn’t mention the fruit), and then breakfast, and then we had the endless stream of visitors. And this was when the news was given to me about leaving.

Having had my lunch (I’m not going to miss out on this) I set off for home, remembering half-way down the hill that I had forgotten my vegan cheese in the hospital fridge. And when I arrived here, I had a phone call – could I go back to the hospital and allow them to take out my catheter? Yes, who forgot to have it taken out then?

So back up the hill to the hospital, remembering on the way that I had to collect my vegan cheese from the fridge. Sophie, my third-favourite nurse was there and she took it out without even a wince. The best one that I’ve ever had. Then downstairs and bumped into Evie who was going home, and we had a long chat.

From there, I walked back home, remembering half-way down the hill that I had forgotten my vegan cheese in the hospital fridge YET AGAIN.

Back here, I put things in motion and as a result I’m leaving here on Saturday afternoon, and leaving for goog too, 12 days before my time is up. And where I’m going on the train, you’ll all find out in due course. But it’s not back home to Virlet.

I’ve had my tea – mushroom curry – and now I’m having an early night. I have so much to do now for the next few days.

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Tuesday 30th August 2016 – WELL HERE I AM AGAIN!

That’s right, all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed … "well, yes" – ed … here in the hospital, ready for my final session of mapthera.

And bright-eyed and bushy-tailed I ought to have been too, because I was asleep relatively early too. Not that it did me much good of course, because round about 01:00 we had a party of fellow-residents returning from a night out in the town and they certainly let everyone know that they were back.

Not only that, I had a nightmare too! How long is it since I had one of those? Things are definitely being rather depressing around here right now if that’s the level to which I seem to have sunk.

An early start and a reasonable breakfast in the bright morning sum did much to restore my morale and then after a little relax to gather up my wits, not that it takes too long these days … "you said that the other day" – ed … I set off for the long trudge up the hill to the hospital.

I was here early too, and soon installed in a nice room by a couple of my favourite nurses (but not the cute and sweet Tara as yet). It’s nice to be on my usual ward with everyone so friendly and helpful. And I had a new doctor too. It looks as if Hermione is now a thing of the past. No more Ericus Reparo.

And we’ve had some very bad news too. They took my blood count and it is DOWN – from 12.0 to 11.0. It’s true to say that 3 months ago I would have happily settled for 11.0 and gone home smiling and whistling, but not after I’ve been up as high as 12.0. Here I was, thinking that I was out of the woods. It seems however that I have merely moved into different woods.

On the other hand, they have now made a formal announcement of the illness that I have. It seems that I have Waldenströhm’s disease (I should have kept well-clear of Waldenströhm, I suppose). It’s quite rare, which is probably why they were having issues with dealing with it at Montlucon, but then again it’s not as if I’m likely to have anything plebeian, is it?

They talk about vision loss, which as regular readers of this rubbish will recall is something that I have mentioned frequently over the last year or so, and a change in mental state. Well, you can all make up your own minds about that one.

They also say that it’s incurable, and that there’s a life expectancy of between 5 and 11 years (now, of course, 4 and 10 years) and I don’t like the sound of any of that at all. But as far as you lot are concerned, at least it gives you all some kind of idea of how long you have to suffer theremaider of this rubbish that I churn out.

I had all of the antidotes and calmants and stuff like that, and then I had the mapthera. That didn’t take too long and by 17:00 I was all done and dusted, having had an hour or so away with the fairies meantime. Now I have to wait the 18 hours to check for the side-effects, and I do hope that my room-mate doesn’t snore. And I suppose that he’s hoping that I don’t cough.

Now here’s a thing. In the absence of the cute and sweet Tara, I’m being attended to by the just-as-cute and just-as-sweet Evie. And she wants to know why it is that whenever she takes my blood pressure, it’s always higher than when the other nurses take it.

Ordinarily, I would tell her – but not when my room-mate is listening and the door to my room is open.

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Wednesday 17th August 2016 – I HAD ASKED FOR …

… a good night’s sleep last night. And did I have one? Did I heck as like.

It wasn’t the fault of my room-mate either. He was one of the better ones that I have had. And there was someone down the corridor talking in his sleep which might have been quite interesting had my Flemish been any better. But despite all of that, I was still awake at 02:00. But why my room-mate would want to have a good wash at 04:20 is totally beyond me.

I did manage to doze off at some point but the usual morning clatter put paid to everything.

It must me this Mapthera though that is giving me this insatiable appetite that I mentioned the other week. I had a full breakfast and even sent for more bread. That was what started me off.

The doctor came and gave me the news. No side effects, no untoward problems, and so I can leave as soon as the nurses take my drain out. I asked about my blood test results. The red blood count has soared up to 12.0 – and that’s before the Mapthera too. Isn’t that a far cry from when I staggered into the doctor’s last November with a blood count of just 3.8.

The doctor is quite happy with that, but as for me, I’m delighted. I wasn’t expecting anything like this. I have to come back (to be hospitalised like this time) on 30th August and then that will, if everything goes according to plan, be the final treatment. And it’s bang-on schedule too, if you remember the initial programme. All I will need then are some regular check-ups after that.

But how regular will the check-ups be? That’s the big question isn’t it? It’s upon this that my future depends. Do I stay or do I go?

They took out the drain at about 11:30 but seeing as how it was nearly lunchtime I stayed on until I’d eaten it and then I set off in the delightful sunlight to walk back home.

On the way back I organised some bread and made myself a cheese butty. And then an hour or so later I made myself another one. See what I mean about this appetite.

Unsurprisingly, I crashed out for a while this afternoon. That did me some good. And with there still being no internet here, I went off to the launderette again where I was the recipient of a catty remark from a customer. But the advantage of being a foreigner is that you can pretend not to understand it.

I made a really good tea tonight – lentils, veg and boulghour with garlic fried in butter. All of this with rice too. And now, I’m going to watch another film and have an early night.

I hope that I’ll have a good sleep tonight!

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Thursday 11th August 2016 – NOW HERE’S A THING!

Yes, having had blood counts recently of 9.4, 10.0 and 10.5, today’s blood count is … 11.9. And that’s without any medication whatever. It compares with the “normal” figure of between 13.0 and 15.0, and the count that I had when I was first diagnosed with lymphoma – namely 3.8.

In fact, the hospital was so impressed that the doctor refused to give me the blood stimulator that I have every visit, and I was thrown out without having even a pretence whatsoever of medication.

This is astonishing, as far as I’m concerned. And so is the hospital. The doctor has said that I’ll have just two more sessions of Mapthera and that will be that. The next session will be next Thursday – and they will keep me in hospital overnight to check for side-effects – and again three weeks after that, and then I’ll be done. If things go according to plan, I’ll just need a regular follow-up to check my immunity situation and that my blood count is holding up.

And this is causing me no amount of issues. Had I still had my spleen and my immune system, I’d be half-way home by now so you’ve no idea just how depressed I am by that. I’ve said before that it’s not going to be the lymphoma that will kill me but something that I will pick up that I can’t fight off. I can’t even vent my spleen about that.

And not only that, the time scale is all wrong. They don’t know how often I will need following up and the second helping of Mapthera coincides with the date that I leave here. So do I risk renting a studio for 10 months and waste the money by being allowed to go back to France? Or do I bank on going home and then have to come back every week or fortnight at whatever the expense of the journey might be?

But nevertheless, it’s a major step forward and you’ve no idea just how pleased I am by my news today.

Last night I had another miserable night – still awake at 02:00. I was up though at 07:30 for breakfast (and still no muesli) and even had time to go for a shower before setting off for the hospital – on foot af course because I’m feeling better. I picked up my injection, but didn’t need it so the hospital nurse took it back to the apothecary.

But as for the nurse who saw me, she was quite brutal with my catheter and I can still feel the pain even now. Ohh for Tara – the pretty little nurse on the ward where I stayed who was so gentle with me.

Back here in time for lunch (and yet another brisk walk in the rain) and then after a good chat with Liz I crashed out for an hour or two – properly too. I was well away.

Tonight, I finished off the pastries and potatoes and veg and it tasted just as nice as last night. I shall have to look into the idea of making my own vegan pies some time.

So tonight I’ll try – yet again – to have an early night. And hope that I’ll be on my travels again. I was off during the night and I was in the company of the girl who has been described on many occasions as “The One That Got Away”. She didn’t get away last night either – we were planning on visiting the north coast of Norway or Russia, but ended up on a snowy island like Svalbard where we spent most of the night encountering polar bears. And it was another night where I awoke in the middle of it all to go off down the corridor and then went back to bed, and to sleep, right at the very position where I had left off my ramble. That’s been happening a few times just recently.

But Ironically, just as last time she featured in a nocturnal ramble, there she was on the internet having sent me a message just about the time that all of this was going on. This clearly signified something, but I’ve no idea what it might be.

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Monday 1st August 2016 – AHH WELL!

Yes, here I am, still here in the hospital.

I had a blood test this morning and while the doctor couldn’t remember the red blood cells count, there’s too much infection in my blood to give me the Mapthera. So here I have to stay while the infection goes down and, according to the doctor, it could be any length of time.

I have a new doctor too, apparently. I don’t know what happened to Hermione – maybe I’ve frightened her away – but this one doesn’t seem quite as friendly. I could be wrong, of course, but time will tell.

There’s been plenty of other bad news too. Firstly, I have a new room-mate. I thought that being on my own was too good to last for any length of time. He seems to be quite quiet, which is good news. I hope that he doesn’t snore.

And I’ve also had the Police here too. Someone has reported Caliburn as being abandoned (which is of course far from the truth, but there you go). The Police made all sorts of enquiries and actually asking the hospital if there was a patient of my name in residence didn’t occur to them until their enquiries were almost complete(ly failed). Anyway, they turned up this afternoon, asked me a couple of questions, and then cleared off, rather red-faced.

But it seems that I will have to do something about finding a new home for Caliburn. That will have to be top of my priorities when I’m thrown out of here. Last thing that I wanted was any interaction with the Belgian farces of law and order. Regular readers of this rubbish will recall a few occasions over the years …

I had the usual messed-up night and I did go off for a nocturnal ramble, but don’t ask me where to now. It’s gone completely out of my head.

07:40 was when I saw the light of day, thoroughly exhausted but brought to life, such as it is these days, by the clatter in the corridor now that everyone has started work after the weekend. The blood test was before breakfast nad, apart from lunch, that was the highlight of the day. I’ve not done anything else – hardly in the mood.

Having to stay here is depressing me, though. I want to go home, or, at least, back to my little room. The people here are very nice and very friendly, but it’s not a patch on being chez soi. I hope that I don’t have to stay here too long.

But there is some good news. The nurse has just this minute come by for a chat, and it seems that my blood count is now a record 10.5. It’s never been this high before since I’ve been ill, and certainly not under its own steam, and that’s something to celebrate.

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