Round 10

13/08/2014

No news is good news so they say, and that's pretty much what I deliver today! 

Round 10 chemo last week was "same old-same old". No new surprises or anything to write about...oh, no, hold on, maybe when they forgot to switch the clamp off after the 1st flush, and the flush and the chemo bag pumped into me together. Don't know if that means I have had a watered down version of chemo...I didn't ask. Still having same side effects so don't think so. 

The chemo unit was all go. Honestly, there was a queue for the chairs and only two nurses. People lined up and waiting. Can be a bit daunting at times. Observed a man who was in the chemo unit from opening time to closing time and then was ushered upstairs to ED to finish the treatment...there weren't enough hours in the day at the unit, and he had to do that for 5 days. Our heart goes out to him and the road he's on. My experience is a doddle compared to his.

So we are on the home stretch for chemo. Have two to go 28/8 and 4/9.

Trying to coordinate the next step for oncology and pre-radiation appointments is proving difficult. For some reason, and after speaking to four different people and going between departments, we still can't coordinate an appointment on one day in Hamilton. It's a work in progress. One thing you learn on this trip is patience and perseverance and keep talking to people so they don't forget you.

I guess I really should learn to curtail what I share with my work colleagues. Standing around the water cooler yesterday, I expressed the excitement of a decent bowel motion and what it meant to me to my male colleague. He was very kind and made the appropriate comment...oh I love cop humour and that they put up with my verbal diarrhea. This is how I handle my experience, by letting it all out and writing about it. Wait till I start doing video downloads on YouTube...only kidding!

Right now my life is quite structured around work, rest and sleep. I am not one for answering the phone now, it is all too much energy to give out after a day's work. My weekly highlight is looking forward to my lunch dates with Wayne on a Saturday; other than that, life is pretty quiet and I like it like that. I realise I can't cope with too much physically. I'm hoping that 5 week 'boot camp' (radiation) in Hamilton will get me out walking and building up. I get so breathless just walking around town. 

Never ever thought this is what I would be experiencing when turning 55. Maybe one day I will see this cancer experience as a turning point in my own personal growth and use it to be able to give more out to others. I hope so.

Thanks this week:

A lovely gift from England from three special children and their mum, who I have never met but heard what I was going through and wanted to send me something practical - a homemade tea mug and English Breakfast tea. How special is that.

Bon voyage Lynn - safe travels beautiful cuz

And yay...Luke is coming home for the weekend!