My Bone Marrow Transplant

I am growing a moustache for ‘Mo’vember to raise money for the victims of the Bohol earthquake. If you want to learn more about Movember go to uk.movember.com. Please sponsor me.

Simple rules: you must have a clean shaven upper lip on November 1st, which I had. No beards or joining to sideboards. Here is my moustache on November 6.

I had my 22 month check up in HK last Monday. All is good but I am now resigned to the fact that I will never have a “normal” red blood count. The bottom of the normal range is 4.5 and I hover around 3.1, so anaemia is the norm for me. As is taking Lipitor to control my cholesterol. My next check up will be January 6.

They started my 3 year vaccination program, treating me as if I was a new born baby, 2 vaccinations this time, 4 more at the end of April.

I also saw a Pain Management Specialist recommended by James, who prescribed a new drug to go with the existing pain drugs. However, I didn’t have time to get it in HK and then found that it isn’t available in Manila even though it is a well known drug. Not even St. Luke’s has it in their Pharmacy. Luckily a friend is in HK this week and she will bring some back for me tomorrow. He also sent me details of a Lignocaine patch which is supposed to be effective. Again, not available here but this time not available in HK either, so friends in Australia will get some for me to try.

Update:

I got the drug, Amitryptiline and have started taking it. The instructions are to take 1 25mg tablet before going to bed. It’s supposed to help me sleep and also reduce the pain. All I can say is that, after 3 nights, it just makes me sleep through the whole of the next day. It’s an effort to stay awake to write this.

The pain has lessened. Its more of a dull but strong ache with occasional knife blades. In the affected areas my skin is very sensitive, it is best for me not to wear a shirt.