Tag Archives: skate

What’s that coming over the hill. Is it the chemo?

Another 2 week gap since posts, but this time the gap’s been somewhat eventful.

Firstly, and most importantly(!), I did eventually buy a skateboard! It’s an Enjoi complete 8.0” Helvetica Neue deck in a beautiful aqua for those interested! I’ve learnt how to push and roll so far but can only stop by launching myself off the board and running alongside it. I’ll get there eventually!.. Probably.

Isn’t she lovely?

But 2 weeks on from my last, and in my mind quite dramatic, post I now find myself back in the same ward I was discharged from almost a month ago. Home bittersweet home. Although I was fine when I left the hospital, I eventually started becoming more and more feverish. Starting off with one fever a day, and gradually evolving to the point where my temperature was spiking every 4-5 hours, with temps sometimes creeping over 40 degrees.

After making a few phone calls to the cancer nurses, and receiving weekly positive covid test results from the walk-through centre, the doctors finally called me into the hospital on Thursday, 2nd September. Long story Long, the general consensus was that the fevers were most likely being caused by covid as opposed to the lymphoma (the reasoning being that lymphoma fevers don’t tend to run that high). The course of action therefore became to treat the covid before chemotherapy could start, thus preventing that pesky little side effect of death, I suppose.

I began a course of Meropenem antibiotics to tackle a high infection marker (CRP) found in my bloods. I also started a 5-10 day course of Remdesivir (which always brings the image of Donald Trump to my mind when I think of it) to treat the covid.

I was then finally given the long awaited news, which was, drum roll please..

… The chemotherapy should be starting next week fingers crossed, with a provisional date given to me of Tuesday 14th September. Insert crowd cheer here.

The news was a little bit of a shock since chemo has always been 2-3 weeks away in my head due to all the roadblocks, but on the whole it is of course very welcome. The real treatment can finally be kickstarted. The show must go on.  

Anyways, fast forward to the 11th of September and so far I’ve had / have started the following:

  • 4 covid swabs. 2 which came back negative (woo!) and 2 positive (boo!).
  • A 10 day course of Meropenem antibiotics.
  • A 5-10 day course of Remdesivir.
  • A high dose of Prednisolone steroids, which is used both for covid and chemo.
  • Anti-viral and prophylactic antibacterial tablets, to be taken before and during the course of chemo. Conveniently I’ve forgotten the name of both of these.
  • Allopurinol tablets, typically used to treat gout (gout??) but in my case given to counteract some of the effects of the steroids.

There’s also the small issue of fertility which thankfully should no longer be a problem, since the clinic has kindly decided to freeze my sperms despite the positive covid test results. Perhaps I’ll make a separate post about that later.

This morning’s pills n potions. Plus a sneak peak at my hospital view.

But all in all I’m currently well and truly pumped full of drugs right now, and raring to get go.

Thanks as ever for reading. In the words of every youtuber that’s ever lived, don’t be shy to comment, like, share, or dare I say it.. subscribe!

Lots of love,

Dan

Searching for a hobby

Shorter post than normal. It’s almost 04:00. The weekend’s drawn to a close. I definitely need some sleep. So of course, what do I do? I pull out my laptop and attempt to write a blog post.

I currently have a few things on my mind whilst I wait for a plan of action from the doctors, and one of the least pressing ones (which incidentally takes up most of my thinking) is that I should find a hobby to start during the chemo process!

Perhaps a little back story on me that you don’t really need, but I have been known to occasionally over-hype potential new hobbies. I’ll watch hours of Youtube videos for said hobby, spend way too much money acquiring the necessary equipment and then finally won’t really go through with it.

But this time it’s different. I can feel it. I can feel it in my enlarged lymph nodes.

The hobby in question is skateboarding. I’ve never skateboarded before, I’m not sure how much balance I naturally possess and I’m not overly keen on grazed knees. It seems pointless asking this question since I don’t think anyone will read this to answer, but is this a little silly? I’m low-key conscious that I’m 27 and maybe a little old to start, so I really need someone to comment below and tell me otherwise.

I have no idea how taxing the chemotherapy will be on my mind and body, and perhaps I’m not giving it the respect it deserves. To re-cap; the chemo will ideally last 6 months, with visits to the hospital once every 2 weeks to be IV-fed some drugs. On the other hand however, it is recommended that I try and remain active throughout.

Is chemotherapy really the right time to be starting skateboarding? Is it silly to start an activity which involves falls and grazes? Will I even have the energy throughout chemo to try and learn how to do it?

A lot of questions. Any answers/insight would be much appreciated.

If I was to set a goal, it wouldn’t be to learn any crazy tricks/flips, but rather to be comfortable on a skateboard. Comfortable enough to cruise around, force someone to record me from their car, stick some indie music in the background and post a video to Instagram/reddit. That isn’t too much to ask for right??

Other potential hobby ideas were to learn a new language (though even the thought of that pre-chemo is slightly tiring) or perhaps take up drawing/painting. Skateboarding however keeps cropping up as the number 1 contender in my mind so far.

Shall I go ahead with it? Do feel free to leave a comment below with your thoughts or experiences.

Peace and love,

Dan