Lee, as many of you may know is very much into taste and has to have her breakfast in bed with eggs done just in a certian way. I used to think she was just fussy but then when she correctly identified 8 out of 10 whiskies just by taste at a work event I began to realise she really has a sensitive palate. One of her ambitions is to get some proper wine tasting qualifications so that could be on the list for fun things to do after treatment.
Anyway along the same lines our new standing joke is that she prefers me at 40% sick or so. She has developed this theory having observed me somewhat hyper on steriods (120% of normal energy, totally unbearable), my normal restless self (100% needs to be distracted with projects, work and hobbies), on the chemo crash sleeping and feeling ill (60% sick, not looking too well) and on recovery from chemo (40% sick ). In the latter phase I am tired and not so full of energy so I am pliable, do not rush around doing "projects", let her read her book in peace, nap in the afternoon and have even been know to say "no thanks I am too tired". All in all she gets a peaceful life and finds me easy to live with as I am not Tiggering around. I am sure some colleagues can probably sympathise.
In this context my remaking the flower bed which was crushed by the rennovation of the stone wall has proceeded slowely since last week, with world cup football taking the major share of my relaxing time (easy to watch and you can sleep a bit to be woken by the goals). However yesterday for a few hours Holly and I worked away and it is now 50 percent done, with the weeding done by me and planting/watering done by Holly. She is very pleased with "Hollys garden" so we will need to find a matching Poppys garden so as to keep things balanced (and get some help with the weeding !).
After last weekends social whirl I had a very quiet weekend, as you can probably tell the chemo fatigue is cumulative to some extent so thursday and friday were mostly spent under the duvet sleeping. I did wake up for a few business calls but more or less went straight back to bed once they were done as I had no energy at all. Friday Lee had a "girls" night out while I watched USA play, and Saturday Poppy won a gold medal in the school sports day for relay running. In the evening both kids were on sleepovers so we had a quiet night in (ie me asleep Lee enjoying the peace and quiet) and a long peaceful lie in on Sunday morning.
I have regained some energy through Sunday but ducked out of my MG car run just in case I fell asleep on the way back from Boness where it was held. Today I am going to toddle into work for the afternoon to meet some colleagues, join a few phone calls and to take a friend Jeff from the USA out for an early curry.
Tomorrow I will be on the internet extending my research into the pros and cons of radiotherapy in time for my discussion with the consultants on Thursday. It seems that some of the modern techniques are much less likley to cause later cancers, and the radiotherapy may improve the chance of the Hodgkins reappearing, on the other hand, as the affected glands are around my heart the chance of later heart problems are increased, choices, choices. Anyhow I am trying my best to be open minded and get to the facts, so far it seems like a fair amount of judgement will be needed on Thursday. The good news is that I should have some idea of a timetable for treatment, holidays and return to work once I see the consultants that will help get me out of limbo and let me plan (you can see 20% sick me emerging !)
Thats all for now, I will let you all know what we conclude on Thursday and the timetable that results, hopefully we can build in holiday time and some time back in Ireland over the next few months.
Cheers
Gerry
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