Samoa was a lovely family holiday although it didn’t pan
out altogether as expected.
I headed over to Samoa with a bad flu so wasn’t feeling
in the best shape to begin with. Luckily
Dr Steve Joe had given me some antibiotics to get started with. These seemed to help and for the first few
days I felt reasonably good.
We enjoyed our lovely
resort, the wonderful people, some swims and walks along the beach. Ahhh bliss and how great to spend some time
together!
A few days into the trip we
were enjoying some snacks and talking rubbish, as you do, when all of a sudden
I developed a massive headache. I’m not
the type to get headaches and I’ve never had a migraine in my life so I just
assumed that’s what it was and that it was a result of my flu. Luckily we had some voltaren, tramadol and
paracetamol and within a few hours the pain eased off.
Unfortunately these
agonizing headaches lasted for a further four days and nights with the
occasional temperature spike and vomiting.
Not ideal while you are on holiday but amongst the pain I got to lie in
the fresh air and enjoy the scenery.
Another highlight to mention that helped distracted me from the pain I
was in was getting engaged to my fabulous boyfriend, Raymond!
A couple of days before we
were due to fly home we tracked down a lovely Samoan doctor who did a thorough
examination and gave me some pain relief in the form of intramuscular
injections. On the final day as we were
leaving I visited him at hospital and got another jab. This eased the pain. I was determined to get out there and enjoy
my final day after feeling like I had missed out on some of the fun activities. Off we went kayaking and swimming and enjoyed
a final meal together. The doctor came
to our resort later in the day to give me another injection to help with the
flight home. Unfortunately this did
nothing to help and the pain returned with a vengeance.
By the time we reached NZ I
was in excruciating pain. With my head
in my hands and my eyes tightly shut we had rather a speedy drive from Auckland
airport to the Waikato Emergency Department.
Thank goodness for Raymond’s experience in car chases through his job in
the police force!
Luckily the Emergency
Department was quiet and it didn’t take long for me to be hooked up to some
fluids and pain relief. By this time I
was in so much pain I was shaking.
Bloods were taken and a CT scan was arranged to find out what was going
on with my head. The results showed I
had bleeding on my brain. The increased
pressure was what was causing the pain.
I regularly have blood tests
done and the one before going on holiday had shown that my leukaemia had taken
off at a hell of a rate. I was in
desperate need of attention. Thankfully my Haematologist was scheduled on at the
hospital and I was transferred to the oncology ward. I was told if we didn’t do anything now I
would be dead within a week or two. Let’s
get started shall we then?! We were both
surprised by my blood test results. My
specialist was confident they would stay stable and therefore felt no rush to
see me until I got back from holiday. I
was surprised by my results as a couple of weeks prior I was feeling fantastic. My energy levels were superb and I was
managing brisk walks around the lake every day.
I even sat down in my doctor’s office and declared that my blood results
would have improved. I was sure of
it. It was a kick in the guts to find
out my results had gone in the opposite direction and at double the speed. I was hoping this was just a one off and my
next result would show a drop in counts again.
Though I will admit I was
worried before going to Samoa when I had developed a flu and my bloods weren’t
moving in the direction I wanted them to.
When you have leukaemia and you come down with a cold or flu it becomes
very worrying. A simple cold is no
longer a simple cold. It makes you doubt
the strength of your immune system and it becomes a question of whether you are
starting down the slippery slope towards death.
To visit previous blog entries, select posts from the archives on the
right hand side of my blog page or click on “older posts” at the bottom.
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