Hi Pamela, (As I typed your name I found myself pronouncing it a la 'Smithy', from the BBC's 'Gavin and Stacey', – 'Pam – El – Ah). 🙂
I haven't really looked into it yet (I either like surprises or I'm a fatalist… 'I'll deal with it when it arises') but I too have been told that I will need 'pins' – one in my upper left arm and one in each of my upper and lower right arm; plus one (apparently the 'important' one) in my left femur.
So while I can't help you with your inquiry I will follow the responses here and any future development with regard to your 'nail' with great interest. :-/
That's one small comfort with this blooming disease – you can be guaranteed the answer of 'No, it is not!' to the question, 'I thought it might only be me'. :-S
Good luck with your inquiries, your procedure and your recovery – I would be grateful for any reports of your progress.:-)
Regards
Dai.
Can you slip your consultant a Christmas Cracker and get him to say that Stephen's clogs will be popped by next year? If he is still with us this time next year (and for several after that) you can tell the *&%$£^@!!!ing Bank Manager that is a miracle… its happened before. 😀 🙂 😎 >:-)
Dai.
Hi Shirley,
I hope the Christmas spirit and the festive season helps ease you through your SCT and that when you come out it really will be both a HAPPY and brand NEW year. 🙂 😎
Wishing you a Happy SCT and a Merry Xmas.:-D
Dai. xxx
Hi Roz,
If what Andrea has told you turns out to be the case then I hope that someone (perhaps Andrea?) can put you in touch with a local hospice. Even if the Doctor does decide on no more treatment for Myeloma there will still have to be a positive and structured plan for palliative care… and a regime of medication etc. because Michael might still be around for quite a while.
I know that you would like him home but IF that proves to be really impracticable then a good hospice might be an acceptable compromise.
If you don't mind I am still going to keep wishing and praying that the Doctors disagree with Andrea's assessment, that there was some sort of misunderstanding and that they find something quickly that sorts out this terrible situation with the infections… and make him well enough for a last shot at an acceptable and pain free recovery.
Monday will tell all and I hope that your daughter AND Andrea will be there to make sure that everything is properly explained and understood and that the next steps, [b]whatever[/b] they are. are carried out with your full participation and with your full blessing and that they suit you and Michael if nobody else.
Dai. xxx
I can remember sleeping with an extra-large Greatcoat over my blankets in the winter and I was told it was my Granddad's from WW1, so I sort of 'wore it with pride'. It was only about twenty years ago that my mother admitted that she had got it (and several other very large coats) from a jumble sale because it was much cheaper than buying blankets. I felt cheated and my mother tried to get out of it by saying that it was me who had invented the story about the coat being my Granddad's because I was 'funny' about being poor. I pooh poohed that as scurrilous but she reminded me that by the age of ten I had read every 'Jennings' book, every 'Bunter' book and most of the stories by Angela Brazil because I was infatuated about boarding schools and tried to escape the idea of poverty by living a middle class, want-not existence, 'inside my head'. 🙁
I wanted to refute her argument but to tell the truth I was quite impressed by it and the reading material part of it was true – so who knows, perhaps I did invent my 'Granddad's' coat?:-/
As for the chilblains, that's exactly how I describe my PN to people so forget Gabapentin; next time it gets bad I'm going out into the garden and I'm going to pee on my feet.>:-)
Dai.
Hi David,
Well this is not cricket my friend – great neutrophils and still not home.:'-(
Why oh why did the have to take out your central line so soon? Were you having trouble with it? It seems daft to me to rush a procedure that has infection risks attached to it when you could have had a couple of weeks recovery at home first. (I had mine out about a fortnight or so later, primarily for the reasons above.):-/
Still, the 'big bit' is over now and once they nail the little critter you get get home and into training for Xmas.
Take it easy but take it (Woody Guthrie, a wise bloke and a good piece of advice which I always try to follow).8-)
Dai.
Well, I am in the money and I've invested in a lucky dip on the Euromillions – with a promise of 20% to you if I win.
All joking and lightness aside I am made up that you have made it through. Call me selfish but I needed you to pull through, to have a fair crack of the whip at making an excellent recovery and a long remission, to up my happiness level to match yours.
Well done my friend.
Much love:-)
Dai.
Hi Gill,
You and Stephen have been my guides and mentors ever since I discovered this forum (unwittingly if not unwillingly) and I follow Stephen's progress as a possible guide to mine.
I am so sorry that you have had to face up to this at any time but before Christmas is a bit of an extra bummer. As for his pp's its a matter of onwards and downwards; as for the two of you I hope that you can treat this knockback with the contempt it deserves. Stephen is still feeling good, so bring on the treatment and try to keep it that way for as long as humanly possible… bite the bullet and repeat; ad nauseum.
And in the meantime hope like crazy that something else comes along to add to the arsenal of treatments that keeps mm at bay… or better. We know the first happens and with the way that medicine is advancing? Who knows for the second.
My thoughts are with you and if its any comfort I feel angry more than sad.
Dai.
I happened to pass a branch of William Hill today and they had you down at Evens for 0.1 on Friday 10th and 4/6 Fav for Saturday 11th – I asked for the odds for Wednesday 8th and Thursday 9th and after they phoned the Taunton branch they offered me 11/4 for Wednesday and 2/1 for Thursday.
Now listen up David – I've lumped £2.50 on the nose for Thursday, giving me a return of £7.50 (including my original stake) and I intend to invest my winnings on the Euro Millions! So if you fancy 20% of £10,000,000 then get cracking!
Dai.
(If you feel a bit perky on Tuesday night try and hold it back a bit and do us both a favour).
Yes, mine's like treacle too but I'm fine with that as long as its not just me 😉 😎 🙂
Hope its sorted soon.
Dai.
Thanks Stuart, to you and to all the team that have made this site and this forum possible.
All your hard work and efforts in building the site and managing the change over are truly appreciated.:-)
Dai.
Congratulations Nettie, wonderful news. Erin is one of my favourite names (I once had a band called East Of Erin… well we never formally disbanded, so I suppose I still have a band called 'East Of Erin' but I digress).
Hope you get a flight soon.
Dai.
I liked this and Janet loved this; thank you Gaye, a cheering note for a winter's day. 🙂
Dai… and Janet xxx
Hi David,
You might not feel up to or inclined for much blogging at the moment but we are still here, still rooting, still waiting while the clock slowly moves forward, ticking off the seconds and minutes, hours and days – tick, tock, tick, tock… then root will turn to toot 😎 and tick, tock will turn to tickety boo! >:-)
Soon, sooner, soonest.
Chin up. 😀
Dai.
Roz,
Last week the medics said that Michael's myeloma was improving but the infection in his arm was still holding him back. I haven't read anything since then that says that has changed dramatically.
I appreciate your fears, I really, really do but for Michael's well being and your sanity it seems to me that you have got to get some definitive answers from the consultant at your next meeting. You are caught up in so many emotions at the moment that it might be a good idea to take a family member or friend with you – someone to make sure you ask all the questions you need clarified, take notes and/or listen from a different perspective.
If the consultant says that palliative care is the only option for Michael from now on then you can look at your options for home care, hospice or hospital etc. If he says that there is still hope for further chemotherapy regimes (Velcade etc.), once they control/eradicate the infections problems then you can seek assistance from the doctors and specialist nurses to provide a clear and concise plan of actions and treatments.
This continuing decreasing circles of different opinions and conjectures blankets both you and Michael in half truths, confusion and ultra negativity.
Either you are reading between the lines and preparing yourself for the worst or I am reading between the lines and seeing hope and positivity diluted by appalling bedside manners and misinformation by those you rely on.
Michael needs as much positivity as he can take right now – on which ever path he has to follow so please, please take a family member or friend and/or a specialist nurse with you to the consultancy. It is your right to do so and if ever there was a time to insist on those rights it is right now.
Dai.
