One more maybe

 

The two copies of the book I'd pre-ordered were delivered last Saturday so on Monday morning I posted one to my daughter. While out I took advantage of the late summer sunshine and sat  for a while at the harbour overlooking the sands. The weather forecast said the weather was about to change for the worse this week and it has.

 

Unfortunately I've only been able to read my book in short bursts as last week's chemo has left both hands feeling very sore and holding open the book for any length of time has been quite painful.

Anyway, this week's chemo went ahead as planned and the hospital have given me some soothing menthol cream for my hands which I keep in the fridge, that's the cream not my hands :) Next week will be my last chemo session that's if it goes ahead as planned which I've been warned may not if the side effects of chemo get any worse. If I have my final chemo then I will be ringing the ceremonial bell on the ward. The nurse said it could be videoed on my phone but as I don't have a smartphone I can take in my camera. Apparently the radiotherapy department have their own bell to mark the end of that treatment too. I have a scan arranged for next week to mark out the area for the radiotherapy sessions. So I'm nearing the end of my treatments slowly but surely.

Heart of gold

I mentioned in a comment in my previous post that daughters are worth their weight in gold. Well, I'm proud to say my daughter has done something truly wonderful for her father-in-law. I mentioned somewhere else in a blog post that he is a cancer sufferer too. He had an operation last week that won't cure him of his pancreatic cancer but will relieve him of some unpleasant symptoms.

My daughter has been in touch with a charity which provides gifts to people affected by cancer. Daughter's father-in-law has always had a fascination with aeroplanes and she has arranged for him to have a flight simulator experience. Her application has been approved and fingers crossed his flight training should go ahead this weekend or next. Her father-in-law is absolutely delighted and has called it a lifetime's ambition to take to the skies as an airline pilot.

I've been approved for a pair of leggings which my daughter thinks is rather cool and says "You go Mum" :) What she doesn't know is that hubby took me to a jeweller's shop today and has bought me a gold necklace but I can't have it  until my treatment is over and by then it will be my birthday.

Not getting me down

I was having a moment yesterday when I thought here we go again, I need to make my blog private again. I have had so many hits on my blog and discovered new followers with taglines that are pornographic with no way to block or report them. Having contacted two of my lovely blogging friends who both sent me lovely email replies which I will reply to at some point if you'll bear with me.. I've decided leave things as they are and at some point will put links in my sidebar to the blogs I read and if my blog is in your sidebar I'm thrilled to bits and thank you.

I'm also having to deal with some bureaucratic stuff at  the moment like neither hubby nor myself have photo ID. Both our passports have expired and we both have the old green paper driving licences which are still valid until our seventieth birthdays. What makes it worse is that hubby had photo ID accepted three years ago and it seems that isn't enough to compare with a current photograph even though he hasn't changed much in that time.

We watched the millionaire show last night where one man sailed through the questions he found quite easy, only used one lifeline and won a million pounds. He admitted later that he absorbed knowledge like a sponge but found remembering everyday tasks like where he'd  put his keys a challenge. I'm not clever like him but I am suffering chemo brain right now. I lost my hat yesterday, one minute I was wearing it and then I wasn't, I'd been to the  fridge but I hadn't put it in there. I found it this morning tucked inside a pair of soft summer shoes :)

I had another telephone consultation with my doctor and she'll be coming to see my next week for me to consent to the three weeks of daily radiotherapy treatments which I'm not looking forward to. Only three more cycles of chemo to go now, I'm getting there slowly but surely.

I took a photo the other day of the skeleton of an old ship wreck at the harbour and have promised my lovely blogging friend Eunice I would include it with this blog post, not the best photo but hey. You can read her post and follow up comments here.

Click to enlarge photo

 

 To all my lovely blog readers I thank you so much for your continued love and support and I intend to carry on blogging and I thank you for your comments and emails xx

Not the same

Something annoying happened last week that meant yesterday we had to go out to post a parcel.  I had to return an item I'd ordered as the seller had sent the wrong item, definitely not the same as I'd ordered. When I contacted the seller they promptly emailed a returns label but my printer ink had dried up from lack of use. Anyway I was able to add a replacement ink cartridge to my online grocery order and wait for that to be delivered and more annoyingly they are not exactly cheap either. 

At least the waiting meant there had been an improvement in the weather since last week and it was nice to be out of the house for a while. Unfortunately last week's chemo has left me with muscle pain in my legs, just another of the many unpleasant side effects. It's not too bad to cope with as normally I'm able to rest at home as we continue to shield from the virus but walking any distance is out of the question for now.

Down at the post office we met a dog walking friend who we hadn't seen since March and first thing she asked was if we still had Annie as she knew she'd been ill. She was upset at the news and in turn that upset us. Hubby and I had already decided while we were out and about we would go to the harbour and sit and have coffee. It's a place we would regularly take Annie but of course this time we had no Annie and this time not able to walk the route we'd been accustomed to taking with her. 

Thankfully the weather was quite warm and it was good to see restrictions in place  at the cafe with no queuing to contend with. Ordering at one window and collecting our coffees at another and sensibly served  in disposable cups. Alright for once in a while but not something we'll make a habit of doing.

I did walk onto the nearby bridge to take a photo of the boats moored up. 

It feels rather strange that such a short trip and out for such a short time should become the highlight of our week. Something our brief escape from the home taught us is how much we still miss our Annie. We have so much love we'd dearly love to give to another dog but not now, not yet, the time's not right. This is our lives.

A guided tour

I've not wanted to write too much about my ongoing hospital treatments and as you can imagine life is far from easy right now. I'm happy to say that I feel like I'm on the home straight with just four more chemo treatments to be followed with three weeks of daily radiotherapy sessions.

I've been having my previous chemo treatments on Tuesdays but this week it was Thursday because of the Bank Holiday Monday throwing things out. All the Tuesday appointments had been booked up, a sure sign of just how busy the Cancer Centre is.

Photographs are allowed as long as we are mindful of other patient's privacy so I took the opportunity to show you my little ward while it was quiet. It has four reclining chairs and one extra chair in front of the window. Each seat has a side table and we are kept supplied with as much coffee as we can drink. We're also given a bottle of water to take tablets with or just drink if we so wish. We don't have to wear a face mask although obviously the nurses do. I have my little Sudoku book to keep me occupied as not all patients want to chat.

That's my drip stand attached to the line in my upper arm. I am able to unplug it if I need to walk to the nearby toilet and I take the stand with me without interrupting the infusion.

I'm usually there three to four hours and I'm given lunch with whatever is the soup of the day, a pre-packed sandwich and there are packets of crisps, cake and a choice of fruit and I usually enjoy some of what's on offer. I still have my appetite and I haven't lost or gained any weight despite my lack of exercise. I'm doing alright I think. I'll be happy when hubby and I can look forward to living a normal life again, well that's deadly virus restrictions permitting!

Not a nice man

Our daughter is safely back in her home now and we had  a lovely long chat on the telephone with her yesterday. She'll be self-isolating for fourteen days and will see us when she knows she's not infectious. She's upset because she was being so careful while in Berlin only to be surrounded by thousands of anti-mask wearing idiots who obviously weren’t.

I have done something to cheer her up! I've pre-ordered two copies of this book which will be published later this month and I know my daughter will enjoy reading her copy.  It's been written by the solicitor who defended this serial killer describing his harrowing experience which left him needing counselling and was a factor in him giving up practcing law.

 Internet photo

You may be wondering why we have such an interest. Well, when hubby and I lived in our first home we heated the living room with a calor gas heater as we really couldn't afford to run the all electric central heating. This would have been in 1976 when Peter was 30 years old. At that time he worked with his mother in their hardware store and we would order the replacement calor gas bottles and Peter would deliver them and change the bottles in our living room. He was quite chatty with no hint of his dark side. It's always been a source of amusement in the family that we thought he was a very nice man!