2017: My Singapore M.S. Odyssey

This is a photo from 15 years ago, taken the last time I was about to leave Singapore. Nowadays, I don't know if I'm quite up to dancing my way through the airport, but I assure you, I'm mentally doing the same thing! (Photo: circa 2002, when members of Bel Canto (award-winning senior girls' choir at Burnside High School) were on their way back from a festival in Vienna (look at those shoes Pens! Do you remember?? Converse for life!).) Blood results from Monday: White blood cell: 4.59 (normal now) Platelets: 198 (were normal last week; normal still) CMV: still negative (long may that last!) Blood results are pretty boring now; there are some results that are not normal, of course - polymorphs, monocytes, red blood cell (only just, give me a break! 3.6, when 3.9 is normal), haemoglobin (also only just, 11.0, 11.5 considered normal), haematocrit (PCV) (what?), RDW (red cell distribution width, oh of course!), and the presence of atypical mononuclear cells (which ...

Kind of a boring post today, sorry (nothing akin to neck needle photos, (un?)fortunately) (way to sell your blog, Rachel). Blood test results from the hospital visit today: White blood cells: 3.97 (this is an expected decline, and I did say to Mum when we were waiting for the results that I wanted it to be lower than last week, because higher would be out of the range of normal. This result is just slightly lower than normal, and that's okay, and I'm told that they'll likely stay low for a while yet). Platelets: 174 (really good, and normal) CMV: negative (also really good!) Today was the last time I will see Dr Loh, sadly, as she won't be at the hospital next Monday. So next week's Monday hospital visit will only involve taking blood, and a haematologist will contact me if anything's unusual. So today's visit was a wind up for me with her, which I wasn't prepared for! She's the best 😊 Other than hospital once a week, the only other thing...

Hi Team! Great news from the hospital visit, here are today's blood results (the ones I understand / find relevant at least): White blood cell: 10.00 (Whaaaaat!! 😃😃😃) Platelets: 102 (much improved from 22, which is what they were on Thursday) CMV (a virus that 85% of people carry (including me), and can cause some pretty nasty complications if it gets its knickers in a twist): zero (no activity present) This blood test good news spawned additional excellent news: I got my central line out (it was in my chest, just below my collarbone): And I will be allowed to come home HEAPS earlier than planned, we're going to look at changing flights to very early September! I'll actually be able to see my husband on our anniversary, and get in an early special vote for the election (so I don't have to join the hordes on 23 September) (those two September highlights are listed in order of precedence). And I'm feeling good, kind of normal really! A little tired,...

Raffles Hospital, looking ethereal today (only a tiny bit of filtering...). I am freeeeeee! Here I am, at the apartment (I am aware that I've been wearing this top in a lot of the photos so far, I promise I brought others, but this one is the most comfortable, especially when I have various taps protruding from my body (I still have the central line, you can sort of see it under my top. They'll probably take it out when I go back to the hospital for blood tests on Monday)): Mum and Peter have just gone out to the supermarket, so I've taken the mask off. We're all just being super careful: Mum and Peter are also wearing masks when they're around me, and I'm wearing the heavy-duty type, for now, because Mum is unsure whether she's harbouring some kind of mild cold. Better safe than sorry. Also, Mum, in conjunction with the housekeepers, did a massive cleaning effort this morning before I came back; the smell of Dettol is pervasive! But it is really...

EXCELLENT news this morning: my white blood count is 1.1!! I'm out of neutropenia, an I can go home to the apartment tomorrow! (As a point of reference, when I had baseline blood tests done back in NZ at the start of June, my white blood count was 6.7 - that's normal for a woman my age; the reference range (according to the report) is between 4.0 and 11.0.) That is all; probably didn't warrant a whole blog post (I suppose a general Facebook update would have been fine), but I think it's good to have it on the blog for posterity. 😊 So thrilled! Rach xx

In case my sixth form maths teacher was somehow still wondering how I managed to fail math, he can rest assured things haven't changed much in the past 15 years; remember the zeros, Rachel! Although mildly hesitant about what I said in my last blog, no records were broken here. The lowest white blood cell count my doctor has seen is 0.01 (not 0.1, as was incorrectly reported). I'm aware that I could've just amended the post, but I didn't think that was appropriate given the song and dance I made about 0.05 being 'record-breaking'! Sorry for misleading, team. xx The lowest that my white blood cell count has been recorded at is 0.04. Dr Loh says that there is little difference between 0.05 - 0.01 (in terms of an effective depletion for this treatment). There were two 0.04 readings, on consecutive days (Sunday and Monday), which means that there was probably a time within the 24 hours between these two readings where I may have been as low as 0.03 or .02. Th...

Here is the full account of what's been going down over the past 10 days: Thursday 27 July we turned up at the hospital for admission, and the first day of chemo. Before we could start, I needed to have a central line inserted in my chest (this is how they administered the chemo, gave me antibiotics, and other fluids. It'll stay there until I'm discharged, and every morning when I have a shower they put the dangly bits (two lines - kind of like the neck tap) into a plastic bag and tape this to my chest, to prevent it from getting wet). Getting the line inserted was just like the procedure for getting the tap, same doctor, surgery room etc., however the sedation wasn't as awesome as the first time; I was aware of things, like I knew when they put a sheet over my head, and I knew when they inserted the line. But it didn't hurt, and I was still pretty much out to it. 3.5 stars this time. Anyway, the first day of chemo proceeded in much the same manner as the day...

Hi all, just a very quick note to say that I'm okay, things are (in the words of the doctor yesterday) 'so far so good'. Had all the chemo, then got my stem cells back on Monday, and am now just whiling away the days. Dr Loh told me this morning that my (white blood?) count is 0.4, and will continue to drop. Anything below 1 is neutropenic. That means that there's fewer and fewer insubordinate cells that are inclined to attack my CNS (central nervous system). That fact alone makes the hard times worth it. Because it isn't all cute cats and humorous puns about taps (or blood cells (although thinking of it, I haven't heard a pun about blood cells from Mr Fernando yet...), or whatever), this last week in hospital has been hard. I haven't constantly been puking or anything, but I have been feeling persistently nauseous, have had innumerable tubes going into my body, and generally haven't felt up to much of anything. But things have been improving day...