They all say that I am reacting well to the treatment and that my blood-counts are on the up, so that's good news.
The not-so-good news is that for some reason I have developed a selective photophobia. I've had a similar thing a few times before when accidentally exposed to welding glare, in the trade we called it arc-eye, the proper term is Photokeratitis and that is due to exposure to strong UV emissions. Anyone who has ever had it will know just how excruciating it can be.
This time, however, it's different. I'm fine with most light sources, but the strip-lights in the ward corridors and rooms are driving me crazy. The Wikipedia page for photophobia lists chemotherapy as a cause, and the docs are going to get an Ophthalmologist to take a peek at my mince-pies. I thought that their interim advice for me to "keep an eye on things to see if they get worse" was a tad droll.
Oh, and the combination of high-sugar, high-carb, high-protein drinks, antibiotics and a new dietary regime (at odds with the diet recommended by the cardio peeps) has given me the raging trots. I tell you, I could shit through the eye of a needle!
So you can imagine the scene... a temporarily blinded man racing down an obstacle-filled over-lit corridor to get to the over-lit toilets...
Some you win, some you lose 🙁
Can you tell that the prescribed NiQuitin Step 2 nicotine patches aren't quite cutting the mustard? Still, they are better than nothing - I had to wait 3 or 4 days for the first lot of patches, and when they arrived they were Step 3 when I really should have been started on Step 1. I'm down to 2 ciggies a day, I think that's a major reduction and I feel quite triumphant. Others have their own opinions, but generally they have never smoked and don't understand how difficult it is to kick a 30+ year habit in such a short period of time.
I would like to give up completely, but the boredom here now, and the prospect of another 4 weeks of it, are not exactly conducive to a measured, managed and controlled withdrawal from the ubiquitous South American herbal remedy. Oddly, the staff here consider e-cigs to be a total no-no due to the lack of scientific evidence of their safety, despite the lack of tar and particulates found in "proper" smoke.
Apart from that, I'm fine. Honest!
