Good news and bad news….

On the good news front had a great start to the week after a good weekend. Strange as it may seem I have started to look forward to injection days [Friday in my case], I actually feel better afterwards! Earlier in treatment I felt better the further away from injection day I got, that seems to have switched round a few weeks ago. Sounds strange to me, not really sure whats going on but there you have it. Worked everyday and enjoyed it too, been launching some new product ranges which is always nice.

On the bad news side things took somewhat of a downturn Thursday night. After a busy day, [started working at 7.30am, then went into the office, then went up to biz partners home and did some more] I got home pretty exhausted. As I have said before if you aren’t exhausted after a good days work then….you ain’t working hard enough. Things then took a turn for the worse as a call came in to summon me to hospital, my Sister was in there and the word was she wasn’t coming back out.

I won’t bore you with the details but thankfully she passed not long over 24 hours later. If you are gonna go it might as well be as quick and as painlessly as possible.

Normally 40 is really no age to die but things are a little different in my Sister’s case. She was born , what was called back in the day, severely mentally and physically handicapped and to be frank its nothing short of remarkably that she made it this far. Time just caught up with her and no doubt the decades of drugs needed to manage her various conditions wore her body out. I feel it is only right to point out the remarkable level of care she, and we as a family, have received from the NHS over the last 40 years. Remember we started this journey in the mid 60’s, the improvements in care over the years has been huge, driven by many committed professionals and to be frank a budget running into many millions of £’s. Thank you to everybody who played a part in that and not forgetting the backbone of the NHS, the taxpayers.

In a strange way my Hep C made things a little easier to cope with, at least I had something else to focus on making sure I kept to my Ribavirin schedule, although what bystanders must have thought as the wifes car pulled up passing me 3 little pink pills and a drink I’ll never know! Managed to squeeze my injection in right on shedule too. Still you get through it, thats just what you do, but a little gritting of the teeth was required this time. Maybe too much as I have worn a groove in one front tooth and somehow managed to push the other one about 1/4″ up into my gum, oh well.

On the good news side I bumped into my Consultant on the ward, had a quick stop and chat. Good news in two ways, firstly it was 5.30pm on a Friday nice to see the man still on the case at that time, shows commitment. Secondly, and this may just be me, I like my Consultant to look like a Consultant and a quality black pin stripe suit, crisp white shirt and a rather nice red silk tie does the trick for me. If I had my way I’d switch a year of medical training on to matters sartorial, train those Doctors to look like a Doctor should, a style placebo effect

A busy week for me next week, obviously, with a 24 week PCR on Monday to see how the virus slaying game is progressing. As I enter the second lap of treatment its important to press on and step up a level, like a race when the final lap bell rings you have to raise your game, dig in and at least stay in contention. My devastating speed and awesome strength off the final bend will see me through to the finishing line but for now its time to dig in and press on.

As a special treat this weeks inspiration, should you choose to accept it, comes in video form. I won’t spoil it for you but if you watch it I guarantee it will bring a smile to your face and warmth to your heart and maybe a little tear to your eye. If you only do one thing this week make sure you click this link.

Keep the faith, kill the virus and if you get the chance say a little prayer for Mandy.

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 26th, 2006 at 6:40 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.