going under

This is the last blog you'll get from until I'm out the other side of my operation.

It's Sunday evening and I'm not in a very good mood. No, it's not football results related but for the last few weeks I've just been feeling more lethargic and useless every day. My whole weekend can be summed up by three words:- sleeping, sweating, TV.

I am sweating so much at night that it is insane. I'm drenching my bed, my pillows, my clothes. My temperature shoots up and down and I'm absolutely sick to death of waking up freezing cold in a pool of sweat. It's foul. It stinks and night after night, it just gets you down. I've tried everything - two different beds, different sheets - it's all the same - the moment I fall asleep, the outpouring begins.

So I've slowly turned into a shut-in, hardly leaving the flat. I was dragged out for a meal last night out of duty to meet my friends girlfriend, but it was all I could do to be out and awake for the 4 hours it took.

I'm having to take painkillers - codeine and paracetamol - every 4 hours just to keep things level. This obviously doesn't help my mood or energy levels at all. I don't know if it's now an addiction or what. I frankly, don't care any more because ...

... on Tuesday morning, I'm going into hospital to have this damn horrible spleen removed. I cannot wait. It feels so big and angry now ... I think it's 'depressing' my whole system. It needs to go.

So, that's it - a final moan from me before the Big Op. I don't know much of the details of the operation but it goes something like this ...

• I go to the hospital at 7am on Tuesday morning (11/05/10)
• I don't know what time it will start
• The actual operation will probably last about 5 hours - I am being cut from the top the chest to the belly button
• I will be in 'intensive care' for about 2 days
• I will then be in some other ward for about 5 days
• I think it will then take another couple of weeks to return to full health
• Chemo will then start again 

I hope that answers most of your questions - to be honest, I don't really ask that many myself so I don't know too much. I'll just turn up and see what happens. As long as there's morphine-on-demand, everything will be just fine.

Rest assured the moment I'm able, I'll ping a little blog update from my Blackberry phone to say that I'm still alive.

See you on the other side, some 6lbs lighter.