I’m moving onto the next stage of treatment on Monday…it all starts with a quick trip to Guy’s on Monday to pick up my Venetoclax from one of the lovely specialist cancer nurses. I’ve then got a relatively intensive schedule for the next 5 weeks, of going into hospital for pill taking and blood monitoring. Back in this Thursday for Obinutzumab infusion number 1 of cycle 2. For those that have read my previous posts, you will know that I’m renaming the Chemotherapy Village at Guy’s to ‘The Kitchen’. Why would I do this?…Note to Guy’s Cancer Centre…signage and lift buttons need changing from C to K.
I’ll try and paint a picture here…Guy’s chemotherapy village is split into suites, I’ve been in suite A and suite B….Out of the two I really like suite B, there are 6 chairs and all of us cancer folk park ourselves and get down to business. Now, why am I calling it the kitchen…it’s quite simple really. As we all sit there in ‘the chair’ periodically we all start to ding (or beep)….as I’m there for such a long time I experience a lot of dinging within our suite.
On one occasion, I felt like we were all somewhat like microwave meals….here I sit with the timer set….’ping’ I’m done now. I now need tending to, maybe peel back the film, give me a stir and set me going again until I ping again. Or maybe we just need to do a flush. So, I’ve pinged and as per packet instructions, leave to sit for a while…..
However, obviously the suite I’m in isn’t just CLL folk, it’s people with all different types of cancers and of course their treatment differs. So, on any given day we have a mix of ready meals that ping really quickly and then we have chair occupants like me who sits there for a good five to six hours all in. I view myself as a slow cook dish….it’s a long time until I ping and I see a lot of comings and goings during my time in ‘The Kitchen’…so whereas some are ready meals, I’m more of a slam it in the oven and forget about it whilst you get on with something else. The nurses know that I’m all good and don’t need frequent checking….call me a nice slow cooked tagine…
Love to you all.
Emma xx