Phase Two: Time for the fun part...!

It's been a while since I last posted. This is mainly because there hasn't been much to report! It's been 16 days of rest; the things I did included: the occasional blood test (just making sure my white blood cell count was back to normal, after all the injections (which raised them)); for 24 hours I had to pee in a bottle to check my kidney function (which seemed to me to be a fundamentally sexist enterprise--not easy for a woman to do!!); I handed in my assignment for uni (not much to interject about there!); tried to stay away from people's germs (the correct face mask for this is the N95 type--looks like what spraypainters wear); and we also shaved my head further, after the short cut I posted about (this is because the hair was still dropping, and it was getting everywhere, including my eyes and up my nose. Easier to just get rid of it!).

Tomorrow I will go into hospital, and will be in there for about three weeks. Tomorrow, Friday, and Saturday I will have the MS-banishing chemotherapy. Two chemo drugs, Cyclophosphamide and Fludarabine. Sunday is a rest day, then on Monday I get my stem cells back!

I will be in an isolation room for my whole stay, because the point of this lark is to get rid of my naughty immune system, with the hopes that when I grow a new one, it will have no memory of MS. Fun fact though: I assumed that my immunity would be low throughout the whole time, from starting chemo, when in fact I'm okay for the first few days. This is because the chemo works to kill the source of the immune system, the bone marrow. This means that for a while the bone marrow won't be producing the blood cells it normally would. While I'm having chemo, the blood cells that are already present in my blood are still kicking around in my body; it's not for a few days, once they naturally die, that I'll enter a phase of neutropenia (this is the riskiest part of the whole thing, when my white blood cells are so low that I'm susceptible to infections). And that is what the stem cells are for, they make their way back to my poor old bone marrow, and start to produce new blood cells. This whole thing could be done without the stem cell component, it would just be more dangerous because it would mean longer in neutropenia, and would take much longer to recover.

But, as I think I said, isolation isn't a bubble, Peter and Mum (when she gets here) can visit me (and in fact, despite what I said in an earlier post, I've requested to Peter that he stays in hospital with me for the first few days, just while I'm trapped in bed, and probably feeling quite rubbish with the chemo. I need my helper to fetch things!).

That first day (and overnight stay) of chemo last month was good to find out what I'm going to need this time 'round: ear plugs (I thought Singapore frowned upon raucous party antics, but let me tell you, Friday night town (outside Raffles Hospital) would give Courtenay Place a run for its money!), eye mask (the machines have very bright flickering lights, and there's a clock on the wall that's so bright it could probably be seen from a neighbouring building), and a soft pillow (no one wants to sleep on (what feels like) a pile of bricks). It was also good to learn that the hospital wifi is basically non-existent in the isolation rooms. We have purchased a SIM that comes with 15GB of data, so hopefully that enables internet (Messenger, WhatsApp, Skygo (Super Rugby finals these next two weekends!!), and, crucially, Netflix) access. Fingers crossed, I'll let people know when I know. 😊

So I'm feeling fine about it all. It was probably good to have such a long break, because now I just want to get on with it! Wish me luck, see you on the other side!

(ZJ thinks he can roar the MS out of me. We'll let him believe that my success here was due to his ferociousness):

Rach xx