As a patient, you must be patient

Something I have tried to master during my stints in hospital is being a ‘patient patient’, vital for surviving 5-6 weeks in one room.

Whether you are taking a few deep breaths to hold back the irritation from the multitude of staff entering your room throughout the day (striping you of any real privacy), or eagerly counting down the days of your current treatment, or my personal favourite…biting your tongue after being asked for the 30th day in a row “if you’ve had your bowels open today?”, I feel it is important to (try) remain calm and patient.

I am currently waiting for my blood counts (haemoglobin, platelets and neutrophils) to recover before they let me have another break at home. I finished this round of treatment (phase 2 of Induction) last Thursday, and so it has been just over a week so far. The doctors suggest it usually takes around two weeks for counts to rise, and so I may still be in for at least another week. I feel very well in myself and so it is quite frustrating when you have to remain in your hospital room, even if it is for good reason (i.e. not having a working immune system). Without chemotherapy to break up the days, I have found the past week to drag a bit more than usual. Unfortunately, there is nothing I can do to make my blood counts rise any quicker, another thing out of my control, and so I have to suck it up!

A few things that have helped me pass the time in hospital, particularly in the last week, have been;

1. A good book – this is of the upmost importance when in hospital. This past week I read ‘The Emperor of All Maladies, a biography of cancer’ written by Siddhartha Mukherjee (an Oncologist himself). This is one of the most insightful books I have read. I received an in depth education of the history of Cancer and the progressions in treatment and prevention. I also read ‘The girl on the train’ in less than a day. Written by Paula Hawkins, a very good page turner. I also finished Stephen King’s ‘Misery’, a gripping horror story involving imprisonment of a writer by his ‘number one fan’, it is pretty gruesome, but I loved it.
2. Netflix – a good series or film. Though these can both past the time easily, and like everyone in the world, I was hooked on ‘Making a Murderer’ (I watched them pretty much back to back), I have found myself getting a little bored watching TV. There are only so many hours you can watch a screen for!
3. A stress/throwing ball – handy for when you want to get up and move around your pokey hospital room, but mine can also morph into a stress ball!
4. Light exercise – my hospital room allows for approximately 4/5 meters of walking distance, and so I have found it difficult to work up any real distance from walking, and as you can imagine this gets very dull after 20 turns about the room. I have resorted to body weight squats, lunges, and tricep dips, not much but better than nothing.
5. Visitors – you just can’t beat a visit from friends/family. Hours fly by when I have people here!

A short but not so sweet blog this week. Keep your fingers crossed for my blood count recovery to get started!