Tuesday 19th February 2008

Tuesday
Marsden today, It was very foggy so we left even earlier than usual, there were some hold-ups on our side of the Dartford tunnel but not as bad as wee were expecting and fairly clear on the Sutton side so we got there early (I think it may be cos some of the schools are on half term) My bloods and everything were fine (I think the honey may be helping as the white blood cells were back up into normal range but of course it may be because of the reduced dose) Anyway as my side effects were better this time Dr Alex went for the reduced dose again; I checked as I’d been a bit confused and he had only reduced the 2 standard chemo drugs by about 20%’ the trail drug I’m still taking at full strength.

The chemo drugs were late arriving so I didn’t finish until late and we left at 6.20pm but the traffic was great and we got home at a very reasonable time. WE had what is becoming our standard chemo day supper of Quorn Shepherds pie with peas and sweet corn; quick, tasty and easy to eat… fantastic!

As usual the steroids have kicked in and I woke up at 4am which is why this is being posted at such an odd time.

Monday
Phil had to take the car off to St Albans for an MOT so I got him to drop me at the station and jumped a train to visit Dad. We played cards had lunch then I had a nap (slept badly last night for some reason). Phil came and picked my up at 2 is and we went home, I did do a bit more work of Phil’s neck which is still sore but at least the stuff I did yesterday meant he could drive safely earlier in the day.

Rest of the day was doing house stuff and getting ready for the hospital tomorrow.

Sunday
Our friend Sam had told me about a new Farmers market she found near her place (about 20 mines from us), I’m finding I can’t make our local Farmers market as it’s early Saturday morning every fortnight on my bad weekend and I don’t feel up to the trip at that time. The local one at Barleylands is very good but the one she found at Thames Chase seemed to have a good selection of stalls listed in the site and was also a good place to walk so we could kill three birds with one stone (buy good stuff, see Sam, have new walk).

Well life doesn’t always work out the way you intended does it? We got there first cos Sam was running late and then got lost. It was £1 to park in a car park that was far too small for the number of visitors who go to a Farmers Market but in the end we found a place. We went in and started to look for the market; we found it then carried on looking cos there HAD to be another section. It was tiny; maybe 9 or 10 stalls, these were strange to say the least, The 1 veg stall had cabbages, just cabbages, rows and rows of cabbages, nothing else but cabbages, it would have been a wet dream for and self respecting cabbage fetishist but didn’t do much for me!, Then there was this cheese stall, it had pre-packaged local cheese. That is just one type of pre-packaged local cheese, one strength, one make, rows and rows of identically sized identically labeled local cheese.

To be fair to the Market there was another cheese stall which had a good selection of various cheeses open and fresh looking. Well…. If I’m honest we only saw them from a distance because this was about the only stall which looked any good so it was surrounded by about 90% of the visitors.

Anyway I called Sam and told her not to bother, there had been a celiac stall listed which was her main interest but it wasn’t there, Later I looked at the site again and the list was of stalls that (usually were there) maybe it’s better sometimes but there didn’t seem to be space for more stalls so who knows.

We’d got the quite early (it started at 10am which was quite civilised for a Farmers Market) so we arranged to meet up with Sam at another place nearer our house. The we attempted to leave; there were number of other visitors also attempting to leave (most of them were grumbling about paying £1 for parking when the market was such a waste of time)

Now I may be unfair here but I don’t think that Thames Chase have thought out the whole Farmers Markets concept. There is plenty of space for walking and they are working really hard to reforest the site but it’s quite new and raw looking and very open so not our favoured type of site for .walking. They obviously don’t have hoards of visitors normally so the entrance road is one way with a number of passing places. When we left the were a few other people also leaving but (and this is a big but) loads and loads of people arriving, there parking place s were all full now so they couldn’t park so there was a queue of cars lined up down the one way road in. You are already seeing the problem aren’t you? We did eventually manage to bull our way out but it wasn’t easy, I felt sorry for the arrives who probably thought the Farmers Market was going to be great cos they had to queue for so long to get in, oops……..

Saw Sam for coffee and cakes, the revised plan had been for her to come on to our place but Phil was looking quite unwell by this time, the headache from yesterday had gone and he had a truly horrible shoulder and neck pain which was making it difficult for him to turn his head to the left (this is apparently a big problem if you drive) so we all shot off to our own homes. The good part of the exercise was seeing Sam and particularly that she’s so much happier and brighter now.

After I had a nap I spent a good while working on Phil’s back, shoulders and neck which did seem to help a bit and which I really enjoyed, it’s so good to be doing a bit of therapy again.

Saturday
We both had headaches today so I can’t blame it on the chemo; I think it was the cold from yesterday which made us tense our back and neck muscles, my guess is that these were fairly tense from the stress of the situation anyway and the cold winds at Tilbury were the last straw.

We did go out for a 20 minute walk in the woods, we wrapped up well and the tress gave some shelter from the winds so it wasn’t as cold as yesterday. We also came across the great bonus of a fire were they were burning some of the logs they had cut down. The guys left the fire burning so we sneaked out to it and warmed ourselves at it was fantastic as we both love bonfires. It was actually too hot to stay close too long and we had just started to move away when we saw the men coming back from lunch so the timing was superb.

After the walk I felt a bit better from the headache and Phil had taken painkillers which had also kicked in so we rushed off to the supermarket for a big shop while the going was good and bought food for the next few days. That just about finished me off for the day so it was back to the house for painkillers and nap.

Friday
Phil and I decided to take the day off and go somewhere nice for the day (in the end I got up late so Phil did a bit of work in the morning and we only took the afternoon off.

In preparation for our outing I’d trawled through the English Heritage book. (We became members a year or two ago and it’s well worth it if you like castles and stuff like that. You only have to visit a few places to make it cost effective but the thing I like best is that you can pop in to see somewhere for a very short visit and don’t feel like you’ve wasted loads of money on the entrance fee). I found the Tilbury Fort which had the added advantage that if it was cold or wet we could go on to Lakeside, and visit places like Lush and Borders (Jill rubs her hands in glee)

This was a good move in the end cos it was a great place to visit but absolutely bloody freezing (I even got tingling fingers through thick gloves which just doesn’t happen this late in the cycle). We had a lurk in the small museum which was heated and literally dashed around for a quick look then decamped to Borders for a shop and lunch session. I was tired and didn’t feel like moving on to Lush so Phil took me home for a nap with our stash of books and magazines.