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!).