Lumber punctures

As part of my treatment, I was to have a total of 8 lumber punctures. I would then get vials of chemicals injected into me.

The procedure was thus. On Wednesday or Friday afternoon, I was taken either to a room off the daycase area or in Fletcher ward, which was on the floor above me. I would then be bent double, with my back facing away from bed I would use as a head rest. The registrar/doc would feel my spine seemingly for a gap between the vertebrae. I would then feel a globule of cleaning gel rubbed onto the area around the target. I would then get a measure of local anaesthetic, the get that spread around a bit, followed by another measure of local, deeper into the skin.

Obviously being told the phrase lumber puncture sounds pretty nasty, but I'm told they only injected into the fluids around the spinal cord.

A few samples would be drawn from my spinal cord, apparently to check for infection or evidence of contamination by my cancer. This would be sent off to various labs, I'm told.

After the samples were drawn, It was time for the injection. It's part of the procedure that I visually check the packaging before it being used. Info I had to confirm was that it was the right drug, right date, and it had my name on it. All this is apparently legal requirements. It was another legal requirement that, regardless of however many procedures had to be done that day, the process for the individual had to start before 4pm that day. Legally this process started at the picking up of the vial of gunk from Pharmacy.

After confirming details of the package, the needle was readied, and I resumed the position, if I'd moved much. The injection would be delivered. Two measures of methotrexate, and 6 of I think it was called Cytarabin ended up in the old back. I would then get a small plaster over the hole.

After the dose was delivered, I was told to lie flat on my back in the room, for around an hour. I would then return to my room.

Big Day pt1

Today marks the first anniversary of a Big Day in my recovery. It's one year today since I was taken from Licoln hospital to City Hospital, Nottingham. Almost to the minute, actually.

I was picked up from Lincoln and driven by hospital taxi to Nottingham, and the driver and I had a good chat en route. It wasn't quite as fast as the trip from Grantham to Lincoln by rickety old ambulance, facing backwards, and sitting up on the trolley a week earlier, but normal paced. The guy used to service aircraft in thr RAF, and had stories about his times when they had to rip the insides out of a Vulcan because some bigshot wanted to go fishing in Canada, and had a bed in the nose cone, and the like.

When I got to Nottingham, I was put in a bay with a guy called Brian. He was of retirement age, and was recovering from another form of cancer to me.

The ward was set up as a series of bays, with a few private rooms for those with the more dangerous forms of treatment, or as I found out later, problems like C-Diff, and housing us in own own rooms could contain infection. My bay was Bay 3, Toghill ward. The building was a relatively new building. It wasn't your traditional '20 beds in a ward, all open plan, no privacy at all' setup. There were 6 Bays, if I recall, mostly up one end of the building, with a central spine housing bathrooms and shower rooms, both male and female, then a central reception area, and then extra bathrooms, with staff room, and 'consulting' room, and kitchen. The consulting room was a small room with tv and video/dvd, with a case of books and old videos.

I was welcomed into the ward by my roomie, Brian, who showed me the ropes. In Bay 2, the bay behind me, was Barry and Basil. Barry had had various treatments for a few years, and was itching to get out. He was hoping to go to Germany to visit the Christmas Markets there, and had a family do organised in ye olde Skegness coming up too. He would often wander around, and pop in for a chat. Basil was another long term patient. Many a time over the next few weeks, you could hear him doing circuits of the ward, keeping his leg muscles working, so they didn't go to pot.

I seem to recall, Brian had been in on this stint for 6 weeks, and when the docs told him he could leave on the Friday, 2 days after I arrived, you could see the relief, and joy in his face. It really was a lovely thing to see.

Back to yesterday, and I had my 2-monthly checkup. Going really well, haemoglobin, neutrophils, a type of white blood cell, and everything getting back to normal levels, so the after effects of the chemo on the blood at least, are going.

Next visit in 10 weeks. Just before my birthday.

In memorium

Today it's Remembrance Sunday over here in old Blightey. I believe our tranatlantic cousins celebrate Veterans Day tomorrow.

Calendar wise its the anniversary of my fleeing to Grantham A&E with a temp of 40.6C, and the start of my stays in the local hospitals..

This morning I watched The Queen and family do their thing at the Cenotaph. This afternoon, I did my bit at All Saints, Oakham. Higher up the guest list were Oakham's great, good and members of Parliament.

The service started at 2.30pm. There was a small band of onlookers, as well as various service personnel dotted around. Apparently most were there as detail for the Cottesmore base commander. I did get some group shots, but they've not come out too great.

After the service, they all troop out the Church, and lay their wreaths on the memorial outside. The base commander then goes to a dais down by the market square, and the cadets and regulars march past. If I'm around next year, I should have my better telephoto lens with me. I used my old zoom, which doesn't have stabiliser on it.. Now I see how much it does!

One year after the start of things

Today marks the first anniversary of the day my treatment should have started.

I should have started ABVD Chemotherapy at Grantham a year ago today. Mum and I went for the arranged appointment at Grantham Hospital, with the intention to get my first dose of chemo in outpatients. Plans changed when the specialist informed us that the results from my bone marrow biopsy hadn't come back yet, and as yet, they did not know exactly which version of lymphoma I had. It could have been a rare version of Hodgkins that looked like Non-hodgkins, or vice versa. If I started the treatment for one, and it was finally diagnosed the other, it could have proved disastrous.

It was decided that treatment be delayed for I think 2 weeks. It was also decided that from then on, I be signed off work.

As I was walking out the Outpatients door, I saw a positive sight. A few weeks earlier, I had been in for a blood test, and an old gentleman was brought in on a wheelchair. I instantly recognised it as Richard Todd, of Dam Busters fame. I clammed up instantly, not sure if I should say hello, or let him be.. He didn't look too great, and the use of the wheelchair didn't improve things. This time, as I was walking out of the hospital, he was walking in.

Yesterday was my first proper day back. I'm partly retraining, partly covering holidays. Since I left, the beloved company has introduced a new computer system which automates some things, but throws up more processes elsewhere. I guess in time it will fall into place. Yesterday I messed up the cash-up twice in ways that balanced out later. I had forgotten to include either notes or a bag of coins in the final tally.

Lots of customers came in to pay their paper bills etc, and their compliments and messages of 'missed you' were appreciated.

The Slaughtered Lamb

Have you ever been the sole person in a cinema screening? I've been in a few where it was me a around 4 others (Night at the Museum 2, for instance. Apparently rip-roaring comedy.. Only laughs were the Einstein Bobble-heads).

The Vue cinema in Leicester are doing a week of 10pm screenings of the John Landis horror-comedy An American Werewolf in London. All time Classic, one of my favourite films, and I've managed to get a few different styles of poster for.

I had thought of ringing and booking my ticket in advance, what with it being such a, I thought, well known film, and short run and all. I needn't have bothered. I got there around 9pm, and made sure I got my ticket. The attendent was talking to a couple about the Imaginarium of Dr Parnassus, the Terry Gilliam film starring the late Heathe Ledger. Without knowing which film they were discussing, I didn't recognise the film at all.

Anyway, I got the ticket and returned to the car to read the new US Esquire magazine, featuring ms Kate Beckinsale as the newly enobled Sexiest Women in the World. I'd seen scans and the video they had posted beforehand, and it's a post I have no disagreement over. Earlier incarnations of the post include Jessica Simpson, Halle Berry, Megan Fox.

As the screening time neared, I returned to the desk to get a good seat. Whilst I hadn't noted a flood of folks into the place, couldn't be too careful. It soon became obvious that I would be in a small number of folks watching.

Knowing that if so inclined, the folks outside the screening can watch what the folks in screening are doing, being the sole person in there kind of restricts even more as to what you can get up to. Playing 'Drum Hero' to the opening of the film (one of many versions of Blue Moon in the film) could look a bit silly... LOL!

Even though I've seen the film countless times, this digital transfer made the film really fresh, and I noticed lots of things that I had either not noticed, but forgotten. Still loved the pub scene, especially the 'Remember the Alamo' joke told by Brian Glover. Don't recall Rik Mayall having so many shots. But then until it was pointed out in later years where and what Rik Mayall was in the movie, I just took it as 'extra in shot', which I guess he would have been at the time. Also forgot just how stunning Jenny Agutter was in the film. Sometimes you had Jenny in soft focus on her own, sometimes in normal focus, on her own, or two shot. As a lad growing up just after the film came out, it was a rite of passage watching American Werewolf, especially the Agutter moments, and the first 'change' sequence.

The initial transformation scene was still as great as always. Still amazes me how they shot the stretching of the feet, ears etc. In the past few years they had a 'top 100 scariest movies'on Channel4 in which this was placed. This enabled director John Landis to demystify that scene, telling us how David Naughton (David, the survivor) just had his head and shoulders above the floor when he was seen laying on his back, as his stomach changed shape.

I guess it's one of those films that has a bit of 'Jaws' in it. You don't see much of the werewolf at any part of the film. The werewolf look in the aforementioned transformation scene is different from the werewolf in later scenes, and I think its the first time I spotted the werewolf crouching in the back of the alley in the closing scenes. Movie legend has it that the 'terror' in Jaws was built up because you don't see the whole shark til a long way into the movie. Partly due to the fact the mechanical fishes they used kept breaking down, or looked rubbish. Most of the shots of the werewolf are headshots just before the thing attacks, or long range shots like the closing scenes.

I thought it was nice of Landis to allow the poster for 'Airplane' to be featured on the walls of Tottenham Court Rd tube station (Northern Line), as well as the 'See You Next Wednesday' porno flick that David and his undead friend go to see off Picadilly later on.

It's the 3rd film I've seen this week! This Is It! and Fantastic Mr Fox being the other 2.

Ware is Wherehouse?

Warehouse 13 is a new show on Syfy in the US and SciFi in the UK. I hadn't heard of it before, but apparently each week, the team try to rescue artefacts for an ultra secret depository, a warehouse, if you like, run by the US Government. So far there have been 13 episodes, and 3 of the shows stars were on hand to meet and greet fanboys and newbies alike.

During the talk they had in one corner of the ExCel centre, the guy in the team, played by Eddie McClintock, recounted a tale from the previous night. They had been sight seeing by nighht, and had reached the Houses of Parliament. Seems someone thought it an idea to pose for some piccies whilst climbing the fence underneath the Clock Tower holding Big Ben. Apparently a policeman approached them, and Eddie thought he was playing around. That was until he was informed that if he didn't come off the fence, he might get arrested, fined and wake up next morning in a cell at Her Majesty's Pleasure. They got a moody shot with the Clock in the background though.

After the talk, a few folks queued up for a couple of autographs, and pics. Just after this talk, was another for the BBC show, Merlin, and they had some stragglers queueing up nearby to get the jump on autographs when they'd finished.

All 3 were signing for free. Like I said, some folks were doing the show to promote their show, and not necessarily earn themselves or the studio, cash in hand.

Welcome to Deep Space

After getting over the diversity of costumed characters wandering round the ExCel Centre (if it's good enough for the G20, it's good enough for the fanboys..), I decided to check out some of the stalls.

Unlike many of these autograph shows, the video games industry had quite a showing. As well as a new RPG called Borderlands, where you're some sort of mutant rampaging round a post-Katrina style lawless terrain, they also had the video game to accompany Avatar, the new creation from James Cameron.

Depending on which games console you have, can lay down which storyline you can take in the game. From what I saw, you are exploring the same fantastical universe as the movie. However, the rep told me that both storylines are different from the movie, so if you haven't seen the movie before playing the game, the movie isn't ruined, and there are two versions of the game. Also, the game is available to be played in 3-D, if your TV allows it. Using the same Real 3-D glasses as the ones used to watch 3-D cinema movies these days, you can play this shoot 'em up. Whilst I didn't get my mitts on a gun or anything, watching the demo in 3-D was pretty impressive.

They also had a 'design your own Manga character' area. Manga is, as has been previously noted, a style of Japanese cartoon. There was also an area that at times, had a demo of drumming. If you recall the opening ceremony at Beijing, they had a few thousand of these drummers. Here they had 2-3. They went for it! They appeared to be doing demos during the day, as the room was filled with the not so distant sound of drums quite often.

Ok, now for the autographs...

On the website, the organisers had helpfully divided those folks being paid to attend by their tv network, and thus promoting a show/film or whatever, and thus signing stuff for free.. Those being hosted by a third company, so still charging, but there to promote company X, Y or Z. The most common category of guest were those who were charging to be there themselves. However, on the Sunday, there were only 3 guests in this category.

Ronny Cox was the bad guy in Total Recall and Robocop. He played Arnie's nemesis in Total Recall, the guy Sharon Stone worked for. In Robocop, he plays Robocop's enemy, Dick Jones. Despite Robocop and Jones both being cops, it seems Jones, played by Ronny, is actually the mastermind behind Robocop's demise in human and (so Jones hopes) Robocop form. He was very gracious and welcoming.

Next to Ronny were two stars from the Star Trek Universe. Both played different generations of the same character. Nicole de Boer played the younger version of 'Dax', and Terry Farrell played Jadzia Dax. I recall at the time, the angst the Trekkies were having about Nicole taking over the role of Dax from Terry, and would it work. As far as I was concerned.. yep.. LOL!

Since her stint in Star Trek Deep Space 9, Nicole has moved on to headline the long running Sci-fi channel show, Dead Zone. She was pretty easy to talk to, and we talked, as you do, about flight lengths, the silly rules the folks at Paramount Craft Services had to work by (NO Tuna sandwich to be made or eaten publicly at 10am or earlier, it might encourage your fellow thespians..), and stuff like that. Yep, world politics and the World of Miley Cyrus were forgotten temporarily. Nicole was cute as Ezri Dax, and remained cute.

Terry Farrell was pretty stunning as the Jadzia incarnation of Dax, which made Nicole's playing of her incarnation important in the Trek Universe. She's still pretty stunning now, a few years later. She moved onto another long running show called Becker. No, it's not a reality tv show following the life of 'Britains favourite German', but a show about a Doctor, and his environs. It starred Ted Danson of Cheers and 3 Men and a Baby fame.