Neutropenic

My blood counts have been dropping gradually day by day. My red blood counts keep dropping below 8.0 so they keep giving me blood. My platelets keep dropping below 50 so they have to give me platelets and the Neutrophils within the White blood cells have dropped below 0.5 so I am now Neutropenic. I have to wear a mask if I leave the room and not because I might scare people :) and I am on a 'clean' diet so no take aways, no soft cheese, no raw vegetables or salad etc etc.


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Location:Du Cane Rd,,United Kingdom

Infection

The doctors think I have an infection as my temperature which is taken about every 2 hours has so far reached 37.9. To combat this I am now hooked up to the hated IV pump machine thingy and getting some penicillin.
The chemotherapy drugs are still taking a toll on me. Haven't eaten anything since Tuesday afternoon so they are considering feeding me intravenously throughout the night.
Other than the Mrs who has been great, nobody has bothered to visit me from my family, friends or colleagues so feeling pretty unloved and unwanted.


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Location:Du Cane Rd,,United Kingdom

Blood

They had to give me a couple of units of A- last night as my haemaglobin level had dropped below 8.0. So thanks to my anonymous donor of blood especially as A- is quite rare. Apparently only 7% of people in the UK are of this blood type.

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Location:Du Cane Rd,London,United Kingdom

Adverse Side effects

One of the chemo drugs that I am on this time round is called Cytarabine. I receive this for four consecutive days and then three days off and then it starts again. Unfortunately, this drug really takes a toll on me. I haven't eaten for two days, been vomiting and feeling really weak and lethargic.

To help combat the nausea they are also giving me four different ant-emetic drugs, one of which makes you feel very very dizzy, unbalanced and sleepy, so at least I had a decent nights sleep.

Saline drip

Half-way through the first of two saline drips. Each one takes 6 hours so I will have to spend 12 hours connected to the IV pump.


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Location:Du Cane Rd,,United Kingdom

Noisy night

The patient in an opposite bed for some strange reason has had an alarm clock going off every 15 minutes for the past hour. The nurse has had to come in each time, rouse the patient and tell him to turn it off. Unfortunately it keeps going off so the nurse has now confiscated the alarm and told him he will return it in the morning as it is disturbing everyone else. The same patient was also told off for having his TV on too loud and not using headphones. It's like being back at school.


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Location:Du Cane Rd,London,United Kingdom

Stage 2

After been released from the hospital ward for the past 10 days I have been re-admitted yesterday for the second induction phase of the chemotherapy treatment. I am in a different ward to last time and so far this ward (D7) seems to be more organised and regimental but less friendly. I had to sign a waver upon arrival with regards to my personal belongings which I didn't have to do in the Weston Ward. There are numerous signs up in this ward saying that one is not allowed to enter this room or that room at certain times etc, again something that wasn't present in the Weston Ward.

The Weston Ward also had laundry facilities so I was able to wash and dry my own clothes, whereas on D7 they don't have that option so the Mrs will have to take my dirty clothes home and wash them for me.

The first chemotherapy for stage 2 induction I have been told will be administered later on today as well as my second intra-thecal dose of chemo. After my first IT chemotherapy I had really bad headaches for a week so hopefully that won't happen this time. Also suffering from what they call Peripheral Neuropathy which is basically numbness and pins and needles in my fingertips. Makes it a bit awkward to type, hold a pen, do up buttons etc, but this is a common side effect from the chemotherapy drugs.

I am still in a bay room so have to listen to my neighbours snore etc. Although they have said I should be transferred to a side room soon.

Plasma

Couple of units if plasma as my coagulation is a bit low.


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Back again

Another long hiatus again.

Very little has happened at work since last time or at least nothing interesting enough to bore you with.

Outside of work though things have changed, I was diagnosed last month with Adult Lymphoblastic Leukaemia (ALL) and I am about 3 weeks into the first stage of chemotherapy treatment. My work are leaving me alone at the moment and haven't demanded that I leave the hospital to attend an interview or anything yet, so hopefully they will leave me to concentrate on getting better and in the long term getting back to work.

Assaulted

Managed to get assaulted last Thursday. A very inebriated man decided to go for a walk down the track so I ended up wrestling with him trying to drag him back onto the platform. So after potentially saving his life he again assaults me and racially abused me before legging it prior to BTP arrival. Ending up finishing work 2 hours later than usual driving around in the back of a police car looking for the man and giving a statement to the police.


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Change of scenery

After nearly 10 years as a reserve supervisor I have finally been offered a rostered position on another group. Will be transferring in a couple of weeks. Hope the staff morale is higher as it is really low on my current group.


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Strike 2

Decided to come to work for this strike. Don't particularly agree with the strike anyway. Not too many staff booked on and a very limited train service operating from my station. Sone staff will continue to make themselves very unpopular by working overtime on strike days though.
Had to get a DSM to cover my meal break or the station would have had to close for 30 minutes.


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Dyed notes

We got a memo a few days ago to warn us about some stained £20 notes being tendered, presumably from a bank job or something similar. Well at least three of our group stations were targeted tonight with the alleged perpetrators buying a ticket from the ticket machine and then getting a refund. Thankfully a fellow eagle eyed supervisor got suspicious and called BTP. I think at least one of whom was caught. Aged about 12-13 as well so nothing will probably happen.


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Serves them right

Cycling home after work this afternoon. A woman in a Volvo estate was so engrossed in her mobile phone conversation she failed to notice the police motorbike rider behind her, nor did she appear to notice the traffic light was red as she sailed through it. The police rider hit his sirens and pulled her over. She was so shocked at this she tried hiding her mobile by throwing it on the floor of her car.

Tell the time on ones iPhone or Mac

http://www.bijint.com/en/

Racism

Had to deal with a very angry young Somali man last week. He initially jumped over the gates to enter the station, and when approached by staff started shouting and using very very abusive language with many utterances of the F-word. I was called on the radio to assist. When I approached the young man, he was still swearing, so I tried to calm him down as he was causing quite a disturbance. We managed to get him to leave the platform when he mumbled something in Somali. I asked him in his own language 'Excuse me, what did you say?' When he heard that he became even more angry and started shouting that it wasn't allowed for me as a white man to speak his language and this just proved that I was a racist as it was illegal for me to speak his language. In the end we had to get police assistance and he was carted off in handcuffs.

Stupid drivers

On my ride into work tonight I had 5 near misses in a 50 minute ride. All caused by drivers having hand held mobile phones glued to their bloody ears. Is the law on this ever enforced?


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Wet ride

Took a ride to St Albans yesterday, lovely ride on the way there. Nice weather, courteous passes by car drivers, a few nods and hello's from other roadies. Not so on the way back. 5 minutes after I set off for the return journey, the rain started, and started and started. For the whole ride back it rained non-stop, really heavy rain with a bit of thunder and lightening for good measure. I was completely soaked when I got back. Still enjoyed it though. :)

Busy day

Was expecting a quiet day today as I was supposed to be on a spare duty. Got into work and was told about an earlier derailment of an engineering train so the Piccadilly line was suspended. Spent the first 4 hours of my duty on the platform assisting my staff in detraining trains and explaining to hundreds of customers alternate routes to their destinations. This would have been easier if people took of their headphones. I was then about to commence my meal break when we were informed about a one under at a neighbouring station so I went down to the next station to assist. Unfortunately the person was pronounced extinct and it took a while for the ERU and the police to hand the track back to us.


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CDP

It's that time of year again where we have to renew our operational licences. So for the next 3 days I will be doing classroom based training. On a side note I was visited by the puncture fairy thus morning so had to take the tube.


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Location:Cranbourn St,London,United Kingdom