A burst of energy

Over the last few days I have felt like one of those baby sea gulls I have seen on TV trying to learn to fly, they think they can do it so launch themselves off into the air (my equivalent of normal life) but then they glide into the ground, bounce and roll, and find themselves in front of the fox/seal who will eat them up. Its all been quite exhausting and I was ready for a break, thankfully today that break came, I had to get up to take the car to the Aston Martin garage for its service (as the warranty has only two weeks left to run it could cost me thousands of pounds not to get it serviced now). That went well and set me off in a good mood as Lee got a bit lost trying to find the garage so I had 30min to sit in the Vantage's, DB9's etc and talk cars with the guys there. There was even a DB7 GTA and a Zagato which are pretty rare plus some older cars ( trading at prices higher than mine, lets hope the trend up continues) I was pleased to find cars just like mine, age model and colour, at 8k more than I paid on the forecourt!

Once I got home I ate some soup (this on top of the weetabix and egg roll for breakfast washed down with fruit smoothie) as part of my campaign to get back to a weight reserve for the next chemo. After the soup a kip in the study was needed for about an hour but I woke feeling refreshed - the nights sleep had been disturbed by night sweats which are a classic Hodgkins symptom so three pairs of PJ's later I had not slept so well and had a pile of washing for the machine in what is now a daily ritual. These sweats leave me soaking and then eventually chilled as they are not caused by feeling hot just one of those weird side affects.

Once my kip was over my bound of energy continued so I pocketed my special hand cleaner and headed off to get a few bits at the shops. First stop was the HiFi shop to look at TV's for the study and to get a high definition cable for the downstairs TV, the new set top box promises great definition TV but the installer could not get it to work with the TV and I was in hospital. Much to my delight ( Go Dad !) the new cable did the business after only 30 min of pushing buttons and trying different things to get the TV and the box to talk to each other.

That done, and a bit pleased, I then set to with my tax return which is due in at the end of the month so needs to be done before the next chemo, amazingly I got it all done, I had put all the papers in the right place, and when I pushed "send" it went through first time ( I owe them 500 pounds, typical ! but not too bad). So car in, TV fixed and tax done, what a day. To cap it off I cooked a lamb stew from a shoulder of lamb, garlic, parsnips, carrots, onions and potato all bubbling in a big pot. Mashed up (so I could eat it with my ulcers) it went down a treat and the rest of the family had it as well. Great!

So today is the first day that I have felt, despite the wee sleep I had at tea time and the wee sleep this morning, pretty much OK, with some level of mental energy and focus returning - this is now nearly two weeks from when I was given the first of the chemo and more than a week since it stopped - that's quite a hangover compared to the previous experience !

So tomorrow I am off to the hospital for the normal maintenance of the Hickman line, which is still a bit sore, and some advice on the mouth ulcers. I will probably pop into the Aston garage as they seem to want to sort out every minor oil leak, if its covered by the warranty that's fine however at 100 pounds an hour if I am paying I can top up the oil occasionally. I took the precaution of checking the garage floor where the car sits and no significant leaks are visible so I will insist on seeing the problem before emptying my wallet in their direction.

The bad weather is still here and seems set to continue for the rest of the week, hopefully a discussion with the builder and the architect will lead to the resolution of the small outstanding details on the construction work when we meet up on Wednesday after I go to see the blood transfusion and separation people.

So a good day, energy is returning, and another bowl of lamb stew and some ice cream beckons.

Cheers

Gerry