Friday 30th May 2008

Friday 30th May
Last time we went to the reservoir I noticed a windmill on the way, we’ve seen it several times but this was closer so we got out the map and located it’s position and then today we went to visit it. Apparently it’s open on the 2nd Sunday of the month so we may try to see if they have it in action those days (the board said it had been restored to working order).

Afterwards we did a walk at the reservoir and then visited Dad, he’s going to look after the cat for a week or so; I’m not sure that we will be going away as we have some appointments but we will go out for days if the weather is nice so that we can take advantage of my chemo break.

BTW my arm looks lots better so fingers crossed that the antibiotics continue to work.

Thursday 29th May 2008

Thursday 29th May
Pottered around the house while Phil was working and did some of my OU homework. I’ve started the short course about Fossils and I’m finding it fun. My arm does seem to be getting better albeit rather slower than I’d like.

Wednesday 28th May
Phil was training in London for the afternoon so I cooked dinner and then did lots of tidying. As I’m having a chemo break for a week or so I’m full of enery and feeling better.
The big event of the day was that he got trapped on the train; you may have seen the news about the bridge collapsing just outside Liverpool station. Well Phil was on one of the trains, eventually he was able to exit the train and walk back along the tracks and he finally got home just before 10pm. He was very tired especially as he was training again on Thursday morning but unharmed so I’m just glad he’s safe.

Tuesday 27th May
Feeling better and my foot was good enough so that I could put my boots on for the first time. We went out for a walk at the reservoir which we haven’t visited for ages, did about 40 mins which was enough, it’s surprising how quickly you lose I when you don’t go out for a few weeks.

The other thing is that I got a new computer today. My old one has been playing up for a while and so we finally snapped and went put and bought a new one. It’s lovely and I’m typing on it now!

Monday 26th May
Went to visit dad, my arm was still very sore and quite fatigued so mostly slept while I was there. Oops! But he seemed to enjoy the company even if it was mostly comatose.

Sunday 25th May
We were both fairly tired following the ‘lost in the woods’ scenario so we did a bit of shopping but mostly just lazed around.

Saturday 24th May
Went to visit our friend Lisa and went for a walk in Epping Forest. It’s a lovely forest but the walk was a bit longer than we expected cos we got lost and spent hours wandering around. Still I managed it which means that my foot is heaps better.

Friday 23rd May
Just as the diarrhoea and stuff started to get better the PICC line which is plumbed into my left arm got infected. We rushed off to the hospital which was just as well because it was scary just how fast it got worse. Anyway they had to remove the line and put me on some powerful antibiotics.

Obviously I can’t have my treatment on Tuesday; I couldn’t have it while I’m infected and I’ll need to have another PICC line inserted before they can give me chemo again.
Currently I have an appointment for Thursday 5th June to have PICC done and also chemo but it will depend on how the infections gets on.

Wed 14th to Thursday 22nd May
Not much to report for this week, it was a bad cycle with more pain than usual and the fact that my sore foot made it impossible to go out for walks added to both the pain factor and my depression. Feeling sorry for myself which is one of the reasons I didn’t post for such a long time.

At the to[ of this post is a picture of my foot on Thursday which is 10 days after I first did the damage.

Tuesday 13th May
Hospital for chemo, also got scan results which were good. They couldn’t see if there was any reduction in size (I can’t have iodine so my scan are fairly blurry), but there wasn’t any growth. I was a bit disappointed at first but then the Dr explained that as the tumours got smaller it becomes difficult to compare sizes from one scan to the next so in a way it’s positive that they have got small enough to be difficult to check.

Monday 12th May
Went to hospital for scan.

Sunday 11th May
My sunburn had got really red and mottled looking (still not painful but it looks ghastly); it was at this point that I remembered that some booklet we read at the start of treatment said not to sunbathe. Now this makes me look stupid in the extreme but in my own defence we read the booklet in November and it didn’t seem very relevant at the time.
Phil and Mike went off to do some Urban exploring while Shan stayed in to revise, I pottered. I was just getting lunch when I cut my finger; only a little cut but bleeding so I went upstairs to clean it and put on a plaster. Now the next bit of this reads like an Ealing comedy; I washed it under the tap then decided to go into the bedroom to get the Teatree oil so it wouldn’t get infected, on the way rushing so I wouldn’t bleed on the carpet I managed to bash the top of my foot on a raised bit of wood (don’t ask what it was doing on the bedroom floor cos the story would just be toooooooo long and convoluted). Anyway got the oil and went back to the bathroom (that’s when I noticed that there was another bottle of Teatree already in the bathroom) cleaned finger and put on plaster then looked down to see how my foot was!
Ahhhhh! there was this swelling that looked like a huge blister growing larger as I watched, put it in the bath under the cold tap at which time Shan had started to get worried so there was this little voice from the bottom of the stairs “are you okay Jill”.
After hobbling downstairs I put my foot up above my heart level and
Shan got me a bag of peas wrapped in a teatowel which did start to bring the swelling down.
Then we discussed which one of us Phil was going to be most cross with when he got home (it was me) the first thing he said was “are you okay?” swiftly followed by an explosive “I can’t leave you alone for 2 minutes”.

Sat 10th May
Our friends Shan and Mike came for a visit from Oxfordshire, Shan is just finishing her accountancy exams so she revised at home for the early part of the day and they drove down to us to arrive in the early evening.
Our friend Sam was going to come over on Saturday too and go to the farmers market with me in the morning, do some beading/metal work and then stay and see Shan and Mike in the evening and have dinner with us all. Unfortunately she was very unwell so she couldn’t make it (partly cos she felt awful but mainly cos she was terrified of what Phil would do to her if she passed the bug on to me ).
Phil cooked proper chips, Quorn sausages and fried eggs which suited us all.

Friday 9th May 2008

I know I'm still behind with my Weblog but I'll try to catch up over the next couple of days.

Everything is fine; I had chemo yesterday and my scan on Monday was okay too but I'll write in more detail shortly.

Friday 9^th May
Feeling much better today so the antibiotics are doing their job okay ( I never used to take them but now I realise that my body needs the extra help to fight off infections and I’m getting better at distinguishing between chemo diarrhoea and the tummy bug kind so I don’t have to take them too often).

Phil was working up in Stafford so he had to go off at the crack of dawn and was very late home; I had a hairdresser appointment for a colour and cut in the morning. I find that I feel a look much better if my hair is in good nick so I’m better at doing this than I used to be. I’m very lucky in that the chemo drugs I’m on hardly ever makes you lose your hair but I was a bit upset as Sandra showed me that my hair was breaking off about halfway up at the back, I suppose I should have realised that even if I didn’t lose it at the roots it would still be more fragile with all the illness and drugs but I’ve been on chemo for 5 months with no problem so it was little bit of a shock. Sandra was great; she knows that Phil and I both like my hair longish so she put some layers in which tidied up the broken ends while keeping the length.

After that I had lunch in the garden and then I had the energy to do some washing hang it up and then clean the kitchen floor (I never thought I’d be ecstatic about mopping the kitchen floor but it felt great!).

The only downside of the day (apart from Phil being away) was that I picked up a tiny bit of sunburn in a few inched of arm and the bits of my feet which were exposed by my sandals. It been years since I got sunburn! I’m very fair skinned and I’m fanatically careful about it. However I’d forgotten that there was a warning in the literature about staying out of the sun when you are on chemo (this was back in November as didn’t seem very relevant at the time). I was only out for 15-20 mins and was very mildly pink without any pain at all so I though I’d be fine – big mistake as I found out over the next few days!

Thursday 8^th May
Woo Hoo! Looks like I was right about the bug as I was feeling a bit better already by late morning after only two doses. We went to shop in the Costco at Lakeland and then on to the bookshop for more shopping and a bit of lunch. Costco was okay but we spent much more than we should have in Borders; I’m actually embarrassed to say how much but we did get magazines, books, a CD and a DVD.

Wednesday 7^th May
We were determined to take advantage of the good weather and went out for a picnic in Wat Tyler Park. It was lovely and the only fly in the picnic was that my tum was still really bad which meant we had to cut it short to go off to find a loo. This persuaded me that it was a bug so I started with the antibiotics Wednesday evening (the hospital gives me a supply to keep at home and the freedom to decide when they are needed although I can always phone them for advice, this saves me from trying to get a GP appointment or having to travel all the way to Sutton)

Tuesday 6^th May
I should have been a lot better today as Sunday and Monday were good for the cycle time. I did have more energy and we went for a 45 minute walk in the woods (I posted the Bluebell pics a few days ago. However the diarrhoea suddenly got much, much worse and I had tummy cramps and stuff too; we weren’t sure if it was cos I’d eaten too much cream on Monday or if I’d picked up a bit of a tummy bug.

Monday 5^th May
Monday bank holiday we went to visit Dad and so did Richie and Caroline; it was a very emotional and fraught visit as Dad has just put the house on the market and is looking at various sheltered accommodation. Phil and Richie intended to start clearing out stuff for the move as there is masses and masses (Mum and Dad lived there for more than 50 years).

don’t think Dad has realised how upsetting he would find the process and he certainly didn’t realise how long and draw out it is going to be. Phil and Richie found it quite difficult because they were sorting some of Mum’s hobby stuff and I was upset when I realised that I wasn’t going to be well enough to help with the sorting at all. Phil used to do most of the household work when I was working in London so it hasn’t been so strange for me that he is still doing that but I’m not used to sitting on my bum while he’s doing major sorting type stuff we usually work as a team so that hit me kinda hard.

Caroline was less affected than the rest of us and she kept busy getting lunch ready for everyone which was amazingly helpful; I realised that the best way I could help was to try to keep Dad occupied and in the house as he was getting very tearful and also trying to stop them throwing anything away. They spent a reasonably proportion of the day and didn’t even manage to clear one of the three sheds (it’s going to be a long long job!).

Anne Sudworth Art Exhibition

Sunday 4^th May
Luckily I was feeling quite a lot better on Sunday because we had an invitation to see Anne Sudworth’s art show at Strawberry Hill House in Twickenham. The exhibition is on for several weeks but Anne was there on the 4^th doing a book signing. Anne had said that we could bring friends so we invited our friends Gaye and Paul who live reasonably close and also Phil brother Richie and his wife Caroline. None of the others had seen Anne’s work except for the prints we have at home and they all enjoyed the show lots.

We saw loads of other friends there and generally had a great time. I had to sit down for most of the time and it was rather hot in the house but it was a lovely day so I spent a lot of the time sitting in the garden and letting people come to me for chats.

If you’d like so see some of Anne’s work you can visit her website at: http://www.annesudworth.co.uk/

Thurs 1^st to Sat 3^rd May
Not my best day; Friday is always the worse day but the burning sensation in my finger started early this cycle and when it’s at its worst and I can’t bend them or really use them at all. Felt pretty grotty all three days so didn’t do much but lie around on the sofa and watch TV or read a little.

Wednesday 30^th April
Bit tired as I always sleep badly on the day of my treatment but pretty quiet day. My fingers started to get quite sore at the joints where that are cracked towards the afternoon which is horrid because it means I can’t do knitting or beading, typing is difficult and even reading because of holding the book and turning the pages.

Tuesday 29^th April
Went to hospital for treatment; everything okay except they are a little concerned about the tingling and numbness in my fingers and feet and the cracking on my finger joints. I thought this was from the 5FU from the timing of the effect but the doc said it was a known side effect from the Oxiplatin. We agreed that as I can cope with the side effect at the moment and the scan results are so positive we will keep the dose the same. I’m allowed one more reduction while staying on the Clinical Trial so it is an option if thing get too bad.

Sunday 27th & Monday 28^th April
Sunday we were pretty tried from the drive back and our exploring so we had a quiet day and just did a little shopping.

Monday we went to visit Dad as we needed to pick up the pussy cat and also because we hadn’t seen him for a week or so. We usually try to see Dad before I go to the hospital for treatment as I’m often not well enough to visit in the week after treatment.

On the side effect front, these days were good but I am starting to get a tingling and numbness in my fingers and feet which I know will probably get worse as the treatment progresses. This is different from the sensitivity to cold which I get in the first few days after treatment.

Our trip up North

Saturday 26^th April
Driving home we visited a theme park called the American Experience. It’s closed down now and in the process of being dismantled but we managed to find a place where the fence was open so that we could get into the site for some photographs

Now this is an activity called Urban Exploring or Urbex, we used to do a lot of it but this is pretty much the first we’ve done since I’ve been ill. It’s not illegal so long as you don’t do any damage and don’t actually break anything to get in; we love exploring old abandoned buildings and sites and taking photographs of things which would otherwise be lost forever.

This trip I didn’t do any photographing and I had a rest while Phil did most of the exploring but I was soooooo happy that I could still do a little exploring as I’ve missed it.

Here is a link to the photos Phil took if you’d like to see them: http://www.flickr.com/photos/philbradley/sets/72157604744061960/

Friday 25^th April
We went out for the day to do some sightseeing, Eric drove which made a nice change for Phil as he could see the countryside (and have a nap in the car too). The Peak district is so beautiful and the small towns are great fun to see too. We stopped for a spot of lunch at Glossop and had a look at the weekly market (I bought some wool that was ridiculously cheap).

Then we went on to Matlock which has a wonderful old fashioned sweet shop with lots of jars (I bought quite a bit). We were a bit peckish again so had some chips before we went for a bit of a walk along the river. Great fun!

Thursday 24^th April
Not such a good day physically as the diarrhea came back and I felt pretty icky but it was lovely to sit and catch up with Kay and Eric. Kay looked after me and fed me up like a Christmas turkey so it was a good day even is I felt a bit rough.

Wednesday 23^rd April
Up early to drive to Nottingham where Phil was speaking in the afternoon at a Cilip event; it was held at the British Geological Survey. They were lovely and while Phil was busy with the breakout groups they let me sit in the library.

This visit was particularly useful as I’m starting a short Open University course in a couple of weeks about fossils (I could have spent days in their library).

After the course finished we drove on to visit my sister who lives near Stockport where Phil had another full day course on Thursday. We weren’t expecting Kay and Eric to be at home because they were on a 2 week holiday in the Lake District and so we had arranged for Gary their son to let up in. I was therefore both surprised and delighted to find that they had cut their holiday short so that they could spend some time with us (I’m very lucky in having both Phil and such a great family).

Tuesday 22 April
We had intended to drive up to Nottingham with some sightseeing on the way but Phil had some urgent work come in at the last minute so it was 3.30 before we were ready so we stayed at home instead.

However it was a really good day in the end, I was feeling so well I managed to do some ironing so that Phil had shirts for the next few courses and then as the weather was so good we both did a bit of gardening followed by a good hour walk in the woods.

Bluebell Woods Picture

Hi Everyone,

I've been talking about our walks in the local woods and the bluebells so I thought you might like to see what I was wittering about. I've tried to load one image (with Phil's help and you can see some others at my Flickr account