What are you waiting for?

Allow me some pop music, I'm not well! And even though she divides opinion, I think Ellie Goulding is fit.

The good news is I've had the transplant and all went well. It was no different to getting anything through an IV drip. They defrosted the bags of my stem cells and put them back in me. The only unpleasant part of it is that the preservative the stem cells are frozen in stinks of sweetcorn. As a result, I and my room now stink of sweetcorn for a couple of days. Good job I'm not a puff and I know BBQs are for meat and not corn on the cob because I'll be avoiding sweetcorn for a while!

The chemo is starting to take its effects. I've been lucky so far and I just feel tired. Very tired. My biggest problem is feeding myself. In my last blog I said what makes you bad makes you better. Actually, what makes you bad makes you worse then makes you better! My tremors are horrendous, I feel like I've sparred with Mike Tyson just brushing my teeth. Getting food from a plate into my mouth therefore is difficult. I've  already lost some weight and anyone who's seen me knows there's not that much to lose! (Only in comparison to you John and the ever shrinking skinny Quegan!)

Reinforcements have therefore been called. My mam (the angel that she is) is coming down today so she can help to feed me! I've insisted on my independency for the last two years to the point of spilling, throwing, smashing and falling but I'm now past the point of embarrassment. The more I eat, the stronger I will get and the quicker I will get out of here. I've also been given more menus. I eat a healthy and varied diet so the standard menu of pie and chips didn't really suit me. (Strange, I used to eat plain food only. I also used to be about two stone overweight!) I've now got the kosher, Indian and North African menus. So really I'm going to be hand fed curry for the next fortnight, it's not all bad!

Two years ago I wouldn't take a paracetamol if I had a migraine. Now, they're giving me about 20 tablets a day and I'm on an IV drip of antibiotics three times a day. I don't like it but I know I need it. From the chemo I'm currently Neutropenic. That means my white blood cell count is dangerously low so I'm wide open to infection. I have to wear a mask over my mouth and nose to wade off airborne bacteria. I look a bit like a Japanese tourist walking around London with a SARS mask! I like to think I'm a duck with a beak. Quack.

So now it's a case of waiting. I've had the treatment, had the transplant and now need to sit here until my blood counts return to a normal level. About two weeks. The nurses have told me having a transplant is a bit like planting a seed. It takes time for the effects to become recognisable so I will see no improvement quickly. I'm quite impatient and have never been a horticulturalist so we'll see how this goes!

I'm bored so this has been a bit of a ramble. As a thank you for reading, I will leave you all (especially the blokes) with some life advice. Do whatever you can to avoid having a catheter put in you. On Sunday when I had the temperature and fell over they told me I couldn't leave my bed. Man's got to wee so I needed a catheter. (If you're eating you probably want to stop reading now!) A thin plastic tube is inserted into the penis, up to the bladder and then inflated. You then dribble piss what feels like constantly into a plastic container at the side of you! It was the single most uncomfortable experience of my life and it lasted less than two hours before I told them to take it out. I've fallen plenty of times now and none have hurt like that so if the choice was to fall going to the toilet or sit with that in all day i'd take the fall every time! Between this, the oral tablets, the daily temperature check and thermometer in my ear, the nose swabs to check for MRSA and not forgetting The Bullet experience at the sperm bank, I've had something put into every orifice of my body now. I didn't like hospitals beforehand and I sure as hell don't like them now!

A massive thank you for all the messages of support. I haven't replied because I'm too sleepy but everyone is a morale boost and is helping me through this. Much love!