Back to Hospital

There's been a long gap since my last update. I wouldn't say that it's because its all good news, but generally things were going fine. I continued to receive the campath every 6 weeks or so until the last one at the beginning of December. I did manage to put on a few kgs of weight and muscle.

From the middle of January, I began to feel a bit lethargic. I wondered if this was the due to losing the campath 'effect'. Then I started having flu like fevers. Things would improve and when I think that I'm getting better I seem to feel a bit worse. Then I may have a day or two when I think I'm fine and then I feel very run down and fluey once again.

On my visit to the respiratory clinic, my consultant noticed a faint marking on the upper right lung in the latest x-ray. He had his suspicions but said there was nothing to be worried about just yet. However he'd want to keep a close eye on this. He actually mentioned TB……

Things hadn't improved a week later when I saw the haematologist, but I noticed that the walk from the tube station to the hospital was a real effort. I know my body well after all that I've been through, and I realised that something wasn't right. I handed some spewtem samples (phlegm from the lungs) to be checked.

The following week brings us to Feb 22. The previous day I met with colleagues from work (arranged in January when I was feeling good) to discuss a schedule for returning back to work. That morning I vomited a little and felt pretty lousy. I somehow managed to get to work as I didn't want to postpone this meeting, but I had a feeling that all the subsequent discussions on returning back to work were a bit pointless.

After arriving back home I continued packing for a trip to a friend's wedding in South Africa. I felt absolutely shattered once the adrenaline of being back at work subsided. I realised then that there was no way I could take the trip. I had to call my fiancée in the UAE to tell her to cancel everything we'd planned since June last year. It wasn't the best thing to hear but that was the reality of the situation.

I called the haematologists at Hammersmith Hospital and told them that I had to come in because I'd been feeling as bad as I'd ever felt.

So in the morning of the 22nd I went straight to day care when I was started on IV antibiotics. They were preparing a bed on one of the haematology wards, and that's how I came to end up on Weston Ward.

The next few days I had temperatures and fevers and felt really lousy. I was anxious that I see the respiratory team, but they wanted x-rays and a CT scan before seeing me.