July 9th, 10 – Jake 27

Dear All,

This is Jacob speaking. It’s now exactly two weeks since my transplant and my blood test has shown that I have now reached a suitable level to be allowed to go home. This is much quicker than both we and the doctors here at the Marsden had anticipated. I am now able to speak, swallow pills and eat some food although my appetite is somewhat suppressed by the huge amount of drugs I have been taking. The mucousitis in particular was hugely gruelling as my mouth and digestive tract basically disintegrated and caused large ulcers in my mouth and secretions of dead cells which also caused a significant amount of pain. For this pain I was on a morphine pump administering a large amount of pain relief making me drowsy and confused but I am now off this and the pain is now under control.

It seems amazing to me that such a huge procedure can be over in such a short period of time, although I will be back at the hospital twice a week as an outpatient for check-ups. It is so nice to think that hopefully this will have provided a finite conclusion to such a horrible year of treatment. I look forward to spending the next year not thinking about chemotherapy and radiotherapy but instead thinking about preparing to go back to the Royal Academy of Music in 2011. It will be sad for me not to go back into the same year and seeing my friends graduate as I finish my second year, but I’ve made such great friends already that I’m sure I will have all the support I need in continuing my studies.

For any of you who wish to visit ‘short but sweet’ would be the best advice as I am often extremely tired at the moment and will be for some months ahead.

Thanks to all of you who have remained so supportive in so many ways throughout this whole process,

With lots of love to all of you

Jake and the Barnes Family xx


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