'Roid Rage

I hope I don't curse myself, but the actual infusion part of the chemo (thats the R-CHO part of the regime) doesn't seem to have given me too many side effects.

The killer for me is the 'P' part: Prednisolone, high dose steroids.  For a start they are issued as 5mg tablets.  That means I take 20 of them.  I thought they might make me feel euphoric but unfortunately Im agitated and restless during the day so I can't settle to watch TV or read etc.  (I had a great Amazon delivery of The Sopranos and Curb Your Enthusiasm from one of my colleagues that Im dying to start watching).  You just feel like you have to be somewhere else but there isn't anywhere else that you need to be.

The worst thing is the insomnia.  Even taking a sleeping tablet I was getting 3 hours sleep and then cos of the restlessness I couldn't even sleep during the day.

After about a week of this I was determined to get some sleep.  So a few glasses of red wine during the evening, then a sleeping tablet and a strong painkiller, should do the job.  I thought Id give them a bit of time to take effect before I went to bed.

Because of the risk of developing a clot in the vein to my arm, every night I inject myself with a blood-thinning injection (Fragmin). Its easy, normal syringe, just pinch bit of spare tyre on your abdomen and inject straight into the custard guts!! No problem

That night I also had to have my first injection of Filgrastim as well.  This helps you make more white blood cells to help fight infection.  I hadn't looked at this yet and had put the box straight in the fridge for storage a few days ago.  Anyway, same technique as the Fragmin, shouldn't be a problem, how difficult could it be?!!

By now Im half pissed and half asleep because of the tablets.  I open the box and find this, OMG what is going on, its got a spring in it!!

Im now panicking a bit.  Shit I'd better read the instructions.  I get the instruction leaflet out of the box and the writing is absolutely tiny.
Forget that, in it goes!! (The spring allows the needle to retract into the barrel to make it safer to dispose of). Panic over, bedtime, still wake up at 3 o'clock!!