Date

Treatment Blog - January 10

30.01.10

Oh how the time flies! Holidays, whether it be weekend, or an away break or whatever time is spent away from home seems to be trying to get as far away from the parents as possible and getting out of the door in the most outrageous clothes. Now I’m not going to say “When I was a lad ..” but we just didn’t go out half naked! Not been feeling well again today, rather like a small child all innocent and needing a cuddle, and to think some people inflict this on themselves for kicks.... They must be off their heads! ‘Alf a day Andy’s been back and yes you guessed it, did ‘alf a day. In all seriousness though he did come back with Helen later just for a cuppa and to lighten the mood a little which was just what I wanted.

I’ll do the layouts for the next couple of months later on and we’ll see how I feel!

29.01.10

Well I’ve been and still am under strict guidelines today to keep my bottom firmly fixed to a seat when not just pottering around and even then only at snail’s pace. I‘ve been really shaky all day and fell asleep falling into the bed like some drama queen earlier today, a real swoon! Kathryn Monroe without the upper half!. What I need to do is sort a mountain of paperwork over the weekend and that will put  my mind at rest that I know where and what everything is here at home and then arrange a trip into work  to do the same there. Time sure flies by when you seem to have ages of it! At home work is well underway in the bathroom (out of commission for tonight) and in the kitchen pantry, not quite sure what ‘Prince’ stage that one is at.

28.01.10

OK so it’s alright for all you clever clogs’ out there with days of the week Simpons’ socks to keep a check on what day of the week it is unless you only change ‘em once a week or it’s a bit easier if you work on the bog sheet basis of one up one down and one polish then you’ll know tomorrow is the seventh day but I don’t have any of that - just the mystery of something bold appearing, not unlike it’s user, ever decreasingly dim on what has become one of each day’s great little surprises. Anyway I now know it’s Friday tomorrow, the 29th and Andy is coming to do ‘alf a day and will no doubt fleece me of eight cups s of tea and still manage to do a good job!!

Late with my sick note again, one thing I just can’t seem to get right, I think I was in hospital last time for when it was due. That’ll be a job for tomorrow as I think the shops in Ilkeston still close for half day Wednesdays! We’ve had that discussion at work many time, about how old habits die hard in some towns and villages and half day closing seems to be one dragging it’s feet in ‘Ilson. By the way did we ever solve the debate for the best and most correct use age of the word for the pavement?

I’ve been trying to settle back in after my time away and have probably overdone it a bit, a mixture of being away, Jane having had to have sorted around to accommodate the alterations at home and there is a sense of everyone being a bit ‘on edge’ (now what’s the alternative to that expression?) and I’m, walking on eggshells just trying to keep the peace. I’ve got some more generic mundane things to keep me occupied tomorrow so hopefully for the weekend everything will be as much back to normal as possible.

Isn’t it always the same though? The one bottle of medicine I could do with a great big do-hicky with to last the weekend has almost run out. I suppose I can just mix up a some sort of concoction to see me through to Monday - no that’s not big nor funny so don’t try it at home that’s how Wayne Rooney started out you know!

27.01.10

Yo Dudes here I am just to let you all know I’m back on the block. It’s been a miserly two weeks I can tell you. I’m just looking at how the, so far visible results of two weeks of blood taking finally manifest themselves on you hands and elbows leaving horrible black, blue, yellow and green blemishes from vampire nurses not that well versed in their own practices. I’m a little bit more at ease now knowing that the mark on the liver hasn’t spread, OK it still means it has to be dealt with in some way shape or form that I’ll find out about over the coming weeks. I have an outpatients appointments on Tue 9 Jan 10 at the Out patitiensclinc, Fri 12.02.10 to have bloods taken, then Chemo session again on Mon 15.02.10 at 2pm the session seems to only last between 3 and 4 hours which is a breeze after he 12 hour sessions from before.

I’ll try and back fill this time on the blog on the good times spent on what was formerly Nye Bevan II war and is currently Berman II ward but for now I’m getting some rest and trying and get used to being at home again, Already I’ve misplaced the car keys although I’m not allowed to drive. Main thing is I had plenty of visitors , mostly well meaning, just a few only intent on eating what they had brought while trying to avoid my steely stare at the last chocolate digestive.

Overall there was some good and some not so good news so I’ll fill you in on all that and we’ll be back to the usual before banter before you know it.

Look back on details but my brother leaves soonest for his trip to Kilimanjaro. He will be raising funds for Scope and their work for children and adults with cerebral palsy. It’s now dead simple to donate, just go to the JustGiving page and stump up a few quid or whatever you can afford. My £50 directly handed over doesn’t appear  but believe me if was hard to give up, he waited until just after I’d taken my  medication and was most vulnerable.

10.01.10

I forgot to mention that Leggy left a brochure with us of his house in Florida together with an invitation to go and stay, didn’t say how long for though!! Honestly he’s such a nice chap, a real gentle giant. Today’s been a real non descript sort of day with Sunday lunch being the highlight and Jane has of course been busy clearing out what was the pantry ready for Paul the builder coming tomorrow to start work on knocking through into the conservatory from the kitchen. I hope for his sake he
turns up on time or at least shows his face then goes of to get some materials rather than spend day 1 in the cafe! I’m sure he won’t though, he knows Jane and I’m sure he’s will have heard stories of her wrath from Alison his wife.

That’s it then just a few lines each day now at least until Tuesday when my story might start to hot up a bit more. Good win for Forest again yesterday and I notice Billy Davies got ‘Manager of the Month’ let’s just hope that Mr Madhusudan, mu Oncologist Consultant brings me the best news of the month on Tuesday morning!

09.01.10

Nice man ‘Leggy’ and his daughter Grace came to visit yesterday and got caught up in the middle of a boiler breakdown, it’s fixed now as it’s not only still under warranty but it required only a minor operation that could be performed under a swift whack with a claw hammer, apparently any condensing boiler that vents outside can have it’s vent pipe freeze up if it gets too cold. Now there’s something they didn’t think of - I’ll blame global warming.

08.01.10

Strange day again today , went to see the ‘pain doctor’ at 9.30 and managed to get a reduction in the amount of drugs just an increase in the dosage so they’ll be worth more on the market square! Or indeed on any market place. We both tried later to contact Kathy Van Baalen  on several occasions with no success. Finally she rang us back with an appointment for next Tuesday morning, I’ve yet to pass it on to my brother but hey ho we’ve always worked like that. I hope he can attend, I get the feeling Jane is starting to perhaps lose a bit of faith in the system while Barry is a fresh pair of eyes as to what is going on. What the outcome from the meeting will be is anybodies guess. I’m hoping for some sleep tonight, even while the doctor was examining me this morning I dozed off on the couch, oh well lets go and see what’s on the tele and have a look at the label on the next bottle of French red, if it looks rubbish it’s going to be swapped with a trusty bottle of what I can’t remember it’s name now but I did rip one off with some success and have if stashed away in my 8 out of 10 category for wines under a fiver!!

07.01.10

Sat in for most of the day today the sleeplessness running through my mind but at the same time keeping me awake as ideas ran through my mind as how to stop it. I managed a walk out mid afternoon to post some letters at the Post Office, one to the pensions department at County so at least I have something in writing about what I still think are bloated figures for my retirement. Anyway I’ll see what comes back along with the reference to my next of kin. Barry dropped by late this afternoon , somehow he gets Miriam in hysterics, in absolute fits of laughter then off he went to our parents’ house, he’ll get a grilling there for driving in such horrible conditions, he’s also more than happy to attend the meeting with Jane & I with Mr Madhusudan the date for which I haven’t got yet but I’m sure he’ll be able to fit in either next Tuesday or Thursday, Barry has only met him once and that was unplanned at the City Hospital on one of the wards. As I think about it; it all comes back to me as if I’m on a  back to me on the back to me a truck  and then jumping off and parking up somehow trying to mend everything again. Now we need to do it just one more time.

06.01.10

It seems I didn’t get too much grief for missing the meeting last night and all calmed down relatively quickly probably grateful that they could get away half an hour or so earlier. The Macmillan Nurse visited us at home  this morning and gave Jane & I some general information and some information on the remainder of the of the  period to follow. One thing I won’t put up with is people withholding information they know about

05.01.10

D’Oh - after all my meticulous planning of appointments I was reminded this afternoon that I should have seen Mr Catton last night at 6pm for my next check up with him. It was Kathy van Baalen who phoned so it wasn’t too much of a grilling from her with all that has been going on. Kindly she will check that Mr Madhusudan is at the MDT Meeting this Friday and that I then get an appointment to see him the following Tuesday then see Mr Catton (after sending my apologies) on either the 11th or 18th Jan 10 - what an absolute divvy for messing that up. I know for a fact that one or two people had held off phoning me because I often get bombarded with calls but if one call to remind me or an email had gotten through then that would have been good, nobodies fault but mine though I’m not trying to pass the buck.

Other than that I’m OK apart from these regular bouts of pain. It started with such regularity in hospital last week and it seems to come on early in the morning and takes three shots of OxyNorm, one every hour, to start to get it to disperse, after that I seem to be able to return to my regular routine of pain relief.  I have an appointment with the Macmillan Nurse, she comes to us so little chance of us not being there when she comes!!

04.01.10

Kids back at school today and both seemed glad to go, I’m pleased they like school, Miriam has a whole load of new starters today so she’ll be full of it tonight. Jane and I had a couple of daytime visitors, I’m guessing that will continue for the next few weeks or so or until I can predict what is going to happen to me in more detail, I’ve lots of things to sort out at work and loads of things to do with the house, in mine or Jane’s name or both or separate, all very confusing. Tonight I’m having a session with Jane to think up all the questions we need to ask the Consultant Oncologist, I suppose everyone goes through the same process and will have asked more or less the same questions so the day itself shouldn’t ne too difficult for him just for us to get the answers written down in time.

03.01.10

Back to normality today, the kids came home bearing gifts of chocolate of course, fortunately the wine cellar is well stocked. Jane is about to restock the tablet pouches for each of the next six hours and I’ll make sure there is enough OxyNorm in stock to last me the week. Later tonight I’ll sit with a glass of red and devise my workload for the week as I often do but then never get around to doing it. One of the jobs on my list will be to root out some photos from this week as we seem to have taken   so many but unless I get them up on the web they’ll get either lost or deleted or overwritten. Well hopefully I’m back up to date which isn’t easy after just a week away, I’ll post any definitive news flashes as and when I know them. 

02.01.10

Today was my Uncle’s local wake I suppose you’d call it, at the Three Horseshoes pub in Ilkeston, for the past years he had lived in or around Swindon. Karen & Dave didn’t know Uncle Cyril or his family so again they looked after the children who also stayed the night again. Barry went home, everyone returned to their rightful homestead and for the last time in what seemed like an eternity we were to have the kids back tomorrow. We slept quite soundly, We’d had some more visitors from Loz, Mary & Shaun, Loz & Mary live in London and Shaun in Detroit, not making special visits you understand just passing by during Christmas holidays

01.01.10

My temperature was apparently stable for the last 24 hours and at about 2.30pm Jane was allowed to collect me, we went to Karen’s just in time for a lunch buffet and to see the kids for a while before heading over to my parents’ house . My Brother stayed the night again, always a pleasure and always welcome. You’ll know I have problems with sleep patterns but this night I went to bed at about 9pm and came back down at 11:40 just in time to get ready to bring in the New Year with a wee dram - a day late!