cycle 5- almost didn't make cycle1 !!!!

As you know I have never made it past cycle 5 of any of my chemos. I almost didn't make it past cycle1

Woke up on Thursday morning- last day of cycle 1- with a temperature reaching 39 and also had a bad case of the rigors. I've had these before and if you don't know what they are they're severe shaking of the whole body- not tremors but shaking and trembling from deep within. I think its the body's attempt to reduce the temperature. To cut a long story short- a quick call to Ward 1 at the WGH Edinburgh and within an hour I was on high dose IV anti biotics and then a couple of hours later I was admitted to Ward 8 where I still am ( Saturday night). My concern was that I might not get to continue on treatment but Huw my consultant is confident this is just a blip and that we'll start my cycle 2 a week later.

The good news- though we haven't got the full paraprotein result yet- is that Huw can infer from other biochemistry thingies that it does appear that even after cycle 1 my paraprtein might have down even a small bit- which is after all the name of the game. Probably for that reason- though I won't get the melphalan and prednisolone till next week - I'm to continue taking my dailly thalidomide dose. I wont get home quickly as they'll want to be sure my temp doesn't yoyo( one of the nurses got a reading of 39.2 earlier).
No easy this stuff!