The Montage

If my life were a movie, this blog would be a five minutes montage sequence, deftly edited, to show the audience what I have been up to in the six weeks since my discharge from UCLH’s care.  It would need a soundtrack, all good montages do, take Rocky for instance. My soundtrack could be ‘Things Can Only Get Better’, but then, that would be an anthem that would need to last considerably longer than an edited version of my the last six weeks. For, we all know that things for me, are going to get worse before they have a hope of getting better. No song would really fit this period post Transplant Number 1, so just imagine the whistling theme from Disney’s Robin Hood, for no other reason than the fact it is a jolly ditty and a montage should really be inspirational rather an insipid display of melancholy.

The only barometer I have for how I should be feeling 56 days after a stem cell transplant is how I felt at this point after my last transplant. Of course, I had less Melphan this time round and for better or for worse, when I feel frustrated and fatigued, remembering a previous point when I felt worse, does not make me feel any better. My brain is firmly locked into the now, and knowing I have felt weaker is negligible when held against my current daily battle to get and stay out of bed.

In my head, the montage will begin with that wonderful  taxi ride back to my flat, there might even be a close up of my face showing the relief I felt at being able to go home. This opening shot would then be followed by several different scenes of me in various positions of rest on my bed at Mamma Jones’, her sofa, my bed in London Town and my own sofa. Montages tend to not have subtitles, but somehow, it would portray that as the weeks have progressed, I require less sleep and marginally less rest. The key word there, is marginally. Three weeks ago, I was introduced to my old foe, insomnia, so you would also need to see the nights I lie awake watching episodes of Inspector Morse worrying about my future. Fictional murder is really proving to be a great companion.

The first dialogue would probably be the conversation I had one week after my discharge with a Medically Trained Person, who told me that I would fight with fatigue everyday and then one day, approximately three months down the line, I will realise that I have more energy and I would suddenly find that I feel ‘normal’ again. Then, cut to a shot of my face looking like somebody just told me that a cat was a donkey, because I knew and know full well that that is not what is going to happen to me in three (now two) months time.  I’ll be swapping one trough for another, and that sort of medical autopilot made me want to punch a wall and it has done every time I have thought about it since. I think my acting skills are good enough to capture my ever present anger at getting better to allow myself to get worse…

Very neatly, this brings me to my enforced mantra or should I say, mantras. I’m getting better to get worse to get better. When that one fails, it’s all a means to an end. Then, when things get really bad, I just tell myself a very firm IT WILL GET BETTER, eventually. Or most commonly, my nearest and dearest have to tell me that. Most of the time I am just trying hard to trick myself into thinking that I am not bored of My Myeloma and my inability to do more than five hours of activity a day on a good day. 

In the immediate days of freedom, I spent ten days at Mamma Jones’ sleeping 12-16 hours a day. My sleep was intermixed with trips out for (small) lunches, Tescos, a Hobbit marathon with Haemo Dad and being waited on hand and foot. I am positive enough to acknowledge that I improved far quicker than I anticipated, and thus I was given permission by Mummy Dearest to return to London, where I have been attempting to look after myself ever since. Technically, I had a four day trial run, followed by a five day return to Mum love, due to what I would describe as ‘a bad few days’.

My bad few days included a few tears, a declaration that I had had enough of ‘all of this’, nausea and flu like symptoms. It was a feeling of doubt that passed temporarily, until the next thing happened to rile me up and then it passed again until the next thing happened to rile me up. And so it goes on.

Since my return to London, I have imposed a strict one plan a day rule. On the days I have been weak and desired to see members of My Support Network and planned more than one outside activity, I have been forced to cancel the second, because my body comes to a fast and bumpy stop. By outside activity, I include the odd trip to Sainsbury’s, three hospital visits, one barbeque, a few lunches and several trips to the Hackney Picturehouse. That would work very well into the montage. I really cannot get enough of the Hackney Picturehouse. My inside activity includes daily logic puzzles in an attempt to get my brain working faster than a baby turtle walks, cooking and half watching a lot of the telebox. The montage should, whilst I have the ability to remember, feature a few conversations I had where I was forced to stop mid sentence because I failed to remember the word I was trying to say. It’s not just losing a train of thought, it’s forgetting the actual words. I will always then apologise to the poor unfortunate soul speaking to me and curse the day my blood decided to crap all over my life. 

As the whistling theme fades, the next conversation you’ll hear, would be my trip to St Bart’s Hospital on 11 May. Following a very long wait, I was prepared once more for the uncertainty of the post allograft side effects and told that Transplant Number 2 is most likely to take place during the third week of July. I then got very sleepy. 

Back to various scenes of sitting, resting and attempting to distract myself from the negative impact of having multiple myeloma. 

Before I forget, there should also be the occasional clip of me struggling to eat and drink, then burping. Once I was able to eat, with less oral flatulence, I still for what seemed like several weeks, struggled to drink anything more than a sip without wanting to vomit it back up again or having to lie down to avoid vomiting it back up. It was at this point when I realised the power of hot water and lemon. Cut to my new glass cup and saucer with a few slices of lemon. Thankfully, things have progressed somewhat, so you’ll also have to see a few clips of me being gluttonous. A gluttony that can only exist with a daily does of strong anti sickness followed by a milder dose during the course of the day. Feeding myself comes at a cost, and in the last few weeks I have suffered from excessive hiccups post gulp, chew and swallow. You can imagine what an attractive dinner guest I have become.

Last Thursday, I had my first clinic appointment at UCLH since my transplant. After an unpresidented 150 minutes wait, I met with a Medically Trained Person to tell him how I was feeling, which after such a long wait, was braindead. Intentionally or unintentionally, managed to make  me feel very bad about my fatigue and and other side effects because, in his words, I had a lower dose transplant. In a montage I am not sure how I would get across my confusion as to whether he was saying that I was not trying hard enough to recover, that my symptoms were not real or that I was just plain lazy. How should I feel after a stem cell transplant that was preceded by nine months of chemotherapy treatment? Better, apparently. As for my need for anti sickness, I was told that I should no longer require Ondasetron. Fortunately for my sanity, I had attempted not to take said medication  the previous weekend and consequently spent most of the day looking rather green. 

Can a traditional montage have voiceover? Would that work to depict the insecurity I just described? No? Well, the next scene should do the trick and that would be Mamma Jones saying something along the lines of this specific Medically Trained Person not knowing me, accompanied by  something derogatory about his bedside manner.

And that is the end of it, at least for now. I have a sneaky suspicion that this fatigue riddled, nausea filled, cinephilia, meloncholic and courageous montage is going to go on for a little bit longer. And on. And on.

I might not be Rocky Balboa punching meat or Vivian Ward hitting Rodeo Drive, but it is my life and at least you are up to date.

EJB x