Plodding on

I’ve not blogged for a bit as I’ve not got much more to say, except, as ever, to express my appreciation of all the messages of support, love and good wishes from you all. Main developments have been establishing contact with the district nurses and the community palliative care team, formerly the Macmillan nurses but now funded by the NHS around here at least. I’ve seen Dr Cowley twice now, first off to sort my prescriptions and then two weeks later as a follow up. She’s started me on Mirtazapine, a tricyclic antidepressant which has both improved my sleep and lifted my mood a bit.  She also wrote me up for some injectables, the “just in case” meds that live in a box by my bed together with the necessary paraphernalia for giving them. This means that if I have a sudden bad do of pain or nausea, an attending nurse or paramedic can give me the needed drugs without delay.

It’s all made us feel more supported – the nurses each visit fortnightly, so I see one or other each week, an opportunity to check out any problems and to get that all important psychological support. I’ve got a whole set of phone numbers I can call in the event of having a problem, day or night, any day of the week.

The other development health wise is with my eyes. I had a routine Eye Clinic appointment the other day. As far as my pressures go, all was well and I would normally have been discharged from that clinic to the care of my optician, but unfortunately, the fields test showed that the blind spot in my left eye had got larger. If this had been both eyes and I was also having severe headaches, one would suspect raised intracranial pressure, which would be alarming. As it is, it’s a bit of a medical mystery (here we go again!) which needs explaining if possible. Pancreatic cancer doesn’t normally spread to the brain, so this is not likely to be a secondary. I’ve had the usual routine bloods, which only showed that I’m still a bit anaemic, and I’m booked for an MRI scan of my head to look for causes. This isn’t until the 7th of November. Oh well, I’ve been missing all those trips to the Royal Derby.