14/05/22 ...and Hello again

Back from hospital last Thursday 12th, and everything seems to have gone very well. Arrived at London Bridge at 11:00 Monday for the operation at 13:00. There was a small delay because some machine had to be re-booted, but that's all. No long wait for pre-meds these days, just arrive, quick chat with the surgeon and the anaesthetist, and off you go. One injection in the arm, and it's like switching a light off. Just gone,in an instant.

The procedure itself - four titanium screws, two rods, and a plate plus some "synthetic bone" - was done with me face-down with my head over the edge of the table to open up the cervical vertebrae as far as possible. The robot works with the map of my spine built up by CT scan and also from live 3-D X-rays, The result is - so they say, far more precision with cutting tools etc. than a human urgeon can achieve, and the ability to work fro "impossible" angles. The robot in question was, I think, one of these: <https://www.stgeorgesurgical.com/naviokneereplacement/> or a more advanced version of the same thing. 

So, after four hours of general anaesthesia, it was done. But I had a build-up of fluid around and/or in my brain, leading to me lashing out at random and being, in the anaesthetist's words, "all over the place". I don't remember a thing about that - when I came round it was all over and just like switching that light back on again. They sent me off to High Dependency, apparently not unusual for recovery from prolonged GA. And then, fearing another burst of whatever it was, they moved me into Intensive Care and inserted a drain to remove that excess fluid. And that's where I woke up. I could tell it was a different room because the TV was on the other side of the bed, and there seemed to be rather too many nurses around. But nobody told me it was an Intensive Care Room.

One of the theatre nurses had said she would phone Sue as soon as I was out of theatre, but needless to say, she didn't. So I was left assuming Sue knew I was OK but in fact the first she heard was the morning after: "Oh, he's in Intensive Care..."

Not good.

Not good at all.

Anyway, back in my original room, various fun things to deal with. No urination for several hours after getting the catheter out - and lot of stining when I finally did get a flow. And bad constipation from all the painkillers...

Now for some photos in, as they say, no particular order. As for the scars, the left one is the main incision and the one on the right is for the drain. Or so I was told.

And now for the big question. What has all this got to do with myeloma? As it has turned out, nothing at all. But when you have a condition with such a wide range of not very clearly defined symptoms it's natural to look in that direction when something new appears - especially if bones are involved. It isn't anything to do with my myeloma but it easily might have been.

And now for the recovery - right hand is already some distance on the way back to normal, left hand shows slight improvement but still a long way to go. Walking still bad. More in a few months...

08/05/22 'Bye for now...

Early tomorrow morning I'll be on my way to London Bridge Hospital for my neck surgery, so this is likely to be my last blog post for a few days or more, depending on how things go. We're due to arrive just a couple of hours before operation time, so I doubt I'll get a chance before I'm unconscious....

Anyway, keep checking in. I'll be back, and once this is over I hope I'll be able to get back to the proper subject of living with myeloma rather more than recently!

07/05/22 Malevolence

The Day of Judgement is getting closer - just three sleeps away, as some would put it. We've been planning and organising, apart from being interrupted by a dying car battery, our plumber fixing a couple of things, a late PCR test,and the general malevolence of the universe. Today will involve some last-minute shopping, an "On Your Drive" new battery, cutting what little is left of my hair, and Pill Organising for when I get back and (I hope) remembering to take the original pill boxes with me...

05/05/22 Lift

What a day to find out that the firm you bought your stairlift from just a few months ago has gone into administration. So, for the time being and unless somebody moves in to take over everything, we have no guarantee, no service agreement, and a problem. The seat won't stay in the upright position. Call-out charges for local firms run into three figures...

04/05/22 Blood

It should, of course, have been operation day...

The last set of blood test results are in. Far and away the most important, paraproteins are still undetectable.Two of the three free light chain numbers are a little out of normal range but not enough to worry about.They usually come back next time or two. Everything else is good, so all most encouraging.

03/05/22 Sufficient unto the day...

Pleased to report that the scooter-charging problem has been solved, at least until it's time for new ones - which should be a good few years away.

It's a week since the last lot of bloods were taken at Springfield,so should get the results later today.

02/05/22 Sand, batteries

An interesting sort of day...

Went to Great Notley Country Park, where there are plenty of tracks in good enough state for the scooter. Unfortunately there are a couple of sandy play areas that you have to cross. From previous expeditions on foot I thought the sand was no more than an inch or two deep  so I set off full of confidence. But halfway across it hit four inches, which is the scooter's ground clearance. Firmly stuck, couldn't go forwards or backwards. 

Several spectators rushed to my aid and with some difficulty managed to push me out,with maximum power assistance,prompting Sue to observe that there are still good people around. Quite so,and many thanks to them.

By the time we finished at Great Notley the charge level in the batteries was well blow 50%, which meant time for their first charge.And that, according to the place we bought the scooter from, meant taking the batteries out and putting them into the separate docking station. All very well until we found that the crescent-shaped bar clamped around the seat tube (which is the bit the hoist attaches to) didn't give enough room to get the batteries out.And we can't move that bar because the piece clamping it to the seat tube uses some unusual fixings which need a specialist tool that I haven't got. That isn't very clear but some photos and a video might help:

Great frustration! Still, it helps to keep the mind off other things. And then we discovered that there is a very well-hidden charging socket on the tiller.Which would appear to mean that the shop was completely wrong.Anyway that's plugged in and going overnight.Later we should be able to figure out whether it's charged both batteries or just one - the shop assured us that the only way to do both at the same time was in the separate docking station.