Thursday, this is it, the day my stitches come out of my hand, so I am out of early and dressed in no time. There is a speed breakfast of toast, hot water and morning meds then its off across town to the hospital. I gave myself and hour and quarter to do a three quarter hour journey and still arrived almost a quarter of an hour late, the traffic into central Leicester and our again was horrendous. There were no accidents or road works just the sheer volume of traffic and traffic light systems that appear to make no sense at all. I at least managed to ring the hospital and tell them I was delayed.
Once I arrived it was all very efficient. The nurse meet me and took me to the clinical room and got me to sit of the couch while she gathered together her stitch removal kit. Padded sheet, tweezers, dressings and the most wicked looking hooked scalpel blade I had ever seen. She then cut my old dressing off and started to play hunt the stitch. She was very good at spotting the ends of them and more importantly the way the stitch ran. Once she has had determined which way the stitch ran she was able to cut them and then pull them out along the line they were put in. We were at it for sometime as some of the stitches were across the grain and others took some odd directions, not to mention there was quite a lot of them. Eventually we were done and the nurse redressed my scar and told me that it could come off in forty eight hours. She also gave me a spare dressing and a pair of sterile “use once” scissors for the hand therapist to use tomorrow when she examines the scar and adjusts my night splint. My fingers are all “wriggly” and I can now get my palm flat on the table but I cannot form a fist properly yet as my ring finger is still swollen. I suspect that the hand therapist will give me more exercises to continue stretching the finger and the scar tissue until I am able to form a fist and the ridge of scar tissue has levelled off. All in all it was a good experience that I look back on now that am home sipping a red bull and eating a Chrunchie to up my energy level. I also had the foresight to top up the car with petrol on the home.
So by noon had started to draft the blog and turn my attention to other things like light bulb replacement and trying to decide which poem, if any to take to this Saturdays poetry stanza meeting. My evening is going to be a treat as I am taking my eldest daughter to see Stewart Lee. We are fans of his brand of humour and I am looking forward to seeing his latest show: Stewart Lee vs The Wulf Man.
I spend some time checking the history of the blog and making sure I have the number right for its duration and the length of the phases its been through, so here are the up to date numbers as of today:
WELCOME ALL: 01 SEP 2019 TO 01 SEP 2019 1 DAY
INDUCTION DAY: 02 SEP 2019 TO 02 SEP 2019 1 DAY
CHEMO DAY: 04 SEPT 2019 TO 05 JAN 2020 124 DAYS
FINGERS CROSSED PHASE: 07 JAN 2020 TO 23 MAR 2020 77 DAYS
AS GOOD AS IT GETS PHASE 1: 24 MAR 2020 TO 08 FEB 2021 322 DAYS
AS GOOD AS IT GETS PHASE 2: 10 FEB 2021 TO 21 DEC 2021 315 DAYS
ANTIANDROGEN: 22 DEC 2021 TO. 22 FEB 2022 63 DAYS
AS GOOD AS IT GET AGAIN: 23 FEB 2022 TO 31 OCT 2022 251 DAYS
ROCKET: 01 NOV 2022 TO 21 DEC 2022 51 DAYS
ROCKET BOOSTER: 22 DEC 2022 TO 06 MAR 2023 75 DAYS
RUN UP TO RADIO THERAPY: 07 MAR 2023 TO 17 MAY 2023 72 DAYS
NO MANS LAND: 18 MAY 2023 TO 29 MAY 2023 12 DAYS
REARMAMENT: 30 MAY 2023 TO 07 JUNE 2023 12 DAYS
REARMED: 08 JUN 2023 TO 09 JUN 2023 2 DAYS
CHEMO II: 10 JUN 2023 TO 18 AUG 2024 435 DAYS
ANGINA ADVENTURE: 19 AUG 2024 TO 25 SEP 2024 38 DAYS
CHEMO II THE REBOOT. 26 SEP 2024 TO 13TH FEB 2025 141 DAYS
TOTAL 1992 BLOG DAYS TO DATE
13TH FEBRUARY 2025
Given that the total days from the first date of the blog to todays date is 1993 days I think I’ve done quite well to be only 1 day adrift. The bottom line is the expectation was that I had 26 months from my diagnosis in June 2019 and here I am five years eight months and five days later. Go me!
I return home from seeing Stewart Lee full of his performance, which was unexpectedly physical as well as his usual clever verbal stuff. So where are the Liberal hero’s of comedy and politics. Not a Gandhi in sight.
