My first chemo in Amman – and of course the wonderful Dr ISIS visit a couple of days ago…

This time I went in with The Man, so slightly less surreal than a vague colleague I knew. And Shiv, sorry, but nothing major to report – it went really well, he was slightly horrified by some of the procedures I have in the UK…

Dr ISIS – so, how often do you see the medical team in the Marsden

Me: Every 3 weeks

Dr ISIS (barely hiding a look of horror): OK. I see my patients every 5 days while they are doing chemo. We do bloods most weeks..we prescribe as needed.

All of this slightly less blunt on his part and cut short for the sake of recounting.

Me: Oh – that would be great. By the way, can you help with the shingles attacks I keep getting? And the insomnia? (and a couple of other things which are in the realm of TMI for you all)

Dr ISIS: Shingles??? What did the UK docs say?

Me: Well, I’ve had it chronically for years, but huge flare ups after the last two rounds of chemo. Umm, I tried to tell the docs (my horrendous visit last week which I wrote about on here) but it didn’t go so well

Dr ISIS: Shingles??? (He then checks it out, is more horrified) And you haven’t had it treated…

We love Dr ISIS. So I left his place armed with a whole new range of medicines…and him firm in his conviction that working in Jordan is definitely a better option. And even more convinced I am nuts.

Chemo treatment was very matter of fact then yesterday – I am glad I had the two rounds in the UK so I knew what to expect and what was going on. Because yesterday it was the lovely nurse, brought me to the ER, pretty empty fortunately, and started the drips. No buckets of water, no menu, no packed chemo ward, no day trip – was in and out in around 3 hours. It was good – much simpler. The side effects were pretty horrible last night though – full on nausea which I haven’t had before – but then The Man got me a new med (because the 24 things I am taking every day clearly aren’t enough) which worked and also helped me sleep as has an anti histamine as well as anti emetic. And I slept. And then slept all morning on and off – wonderful.

Feeling good this afternoon – getting tired now – lets see how this round goes.

And thank you for your love and support – all of you. Its beyond wonderful.

I have lost track of me a bit recently – more on that tomorrow – wondering am I actually chemically depressed with the chemo.  It happened when I took Interferon for the Hep C. Anyway, brain shutting down now. xx