I do not think many of you know, but I had been planning to go to see my little sister in Stockholm in June.  She is there with Sami (her fiancé) as an exchange student until the end of June.  I had planned to visit her at the beginning of the year, but as we know, the cancer grew back and all my travel plans had to be put on hold.  Anyway, one morning, ages ago when I was feeling exceptionally homesick, I decided to book myself to Stockholm for the last week when Johanna and Sami were still in Sweden.  I thought, surely the treatment must be over by then!  I bought a one way ticket there, thinking I could then also go to Finland, and fly back to London from Helsinki.

When this stem cell transplant kicked off last week Thursday, I asked if I could go to Stockholm on the 22^nd when my flight was booked for.  The answer from Joy, my specialist nurse was: “Yes Mark says you can go – he’s not over the moon BUT says its only delaying you by a week –so you may as well go!!!”  That was music to my ears, so I went and bought the rest of my flights to Finland and then back to London.  At that point my hospital admission date for the transplant was the 30^th June.

After booking all the flights, and being over the moon excited about the prospect I was going to see my little sis, and my little brother in Finland, I began to worry.  What if the cancer comes back, like it did in December last year.  Two days after when my seventh cycle of R-CHOP was due, my cancer was back with my chest raised again!  It has taken six months of hard-core chemo since it grew back to get to this point, not to mention everything that has gone into organizing this stem cell transplant, I would be devastated if it all failed because I went to Sweden/Finland for 6 days.  Therefore, I really had no other choice but to cancel my holiday plans, and ask to be admitted for the transplant on the 23^rd June.  I feel sad about it, but my gut instinct says do not go to this holiday, and I better trust it.  I am going to lose the money I spent on the flights, but that is just money at the end of the day; the most important thing for me right now is to beat this cancer!

In my last blog, I mentioned about the early appointments, and the lack of money to stay in a B&B in Sutton.  Well, I contacted Maggie’s last Friday and had a lovely chat with Bernie who runs the place.  She immediately began to sort out applying funding for me.  She delegated the job to Jay who has helped me with financial matters before, who got in touch with Macmillan Cancer Support, and managed to get a little grant towards the cost of a couple nights in a B&B in Sutton!  I love Maggie’s, and Macmillan, two absolutely amazing organisations.

I am currently in a B&B (Beeches Lodge) in Carshalton, which is near Sutton and the Royal Marsden.  I needed to be in the hospital for 8am this morning for my minor operation for the tunnelled central line, LTS line (I believe it stands for ‘long-term silicon catheter’), and tomorrow I am booked for 8.30am for the Cyclophosphomide prime, a chemo drug which will aid for the stem cells to come to the blood stream from my bone marrow.

The operation went well.  Although, they had planned to put the line in my left side, but failed, so I have it on my right side now.  The PICC line is gone!!  It is weird not to have it anymore after nine months.  My right arm looks so bare without the dressings etc.  But, then I have this ‘thing’ in my chest now; I look like a cyborg with tubes coming out of my chest (please see the pic below)!  It is a bit painful at the moment, as the tube is much wider than what the PICC line tube was.  I should not have this for that long though, only a couple of months I think.  I have to mention, that the anaesthetist was amazed how long I had had the PICC for, as in his experience they only last about 6 weeks!

The nursing staff at the Smithers ward where I was for this operation were absolutely wonderful.  I have mentioned how lovely the staff is at the Chelsea branch of the Royal Marsden, but these nurses were that one notch even lovelier (I did not even think it was possible).  They were ever so caring, which left me feeling happy and looked after.  They really wanted me to stay the night there once they heard I had no one to look after me for the next 24 hours.  I said, I was feeling well and I was staying very close by in case anything happened.  Plus, I was coming back early next morning.

In fact, I was feeling so rested after all day sleeping, that I decided to go to this London International Fine Arts Fair in Olympia where the Maggie’s were holding a Champagne and canapés reception.  I got an invitation for this ages ago, and as per usual was not sure if I was able to attend.  I am so glad I went, even though I was only there for a short while, as it cheered me up.  It was extremely fancy; the place was filled with posh people sipping Champagne.

When I walked in the VIP lounge, few Maggie’s people came to me and said, “you must be Piia!”  They had seen pictures of me, so could recognise me.  I was introduced to all these people as the ‘face of Maggie’s’.  Team Piia, my lovely five friends and I did the Maggie’s London Night Hike last year, and our footage of the experience was used in their Night Hike film, then I was interviewed by Kevin McCloud for the RIBA building of the year programme last year and featured in Channel 4 when that came out, and now they are going to use a picture of the girls and I (Team Piia) outside the Channel 4 building during the hike for their this years poster for the hike, so no wonder people have started to call me the ‘face of Maggie’s!  This advert is going to be in several tube stations starting this Monday!!  Crikey.  As I was not drinking alcohol, I was given a bottle of special London International Fine Arts Fair Champagne to take home with me.  I will enjoy this once the treatment is finished and I feel better again.

LTS line - the entry site is where the (bloody) dressing is, and the exit site is where the tubes come out. I'm such a cyborg!