Into the Vortex

30 minutes left before the taxi comes to take me into hospital for the first chemo and I am a bundle of nervous apprehension.

There have been no blogs over the holidays because I took the conscious decision to try to be as normal as possible, have a nice Christmas and then dive into the treatment. We were very successful at that, lots of things got sorted out around the house, movies were watched like the Simpson's all lined up on the couch (including the cats), fat cakes of various sorts and many bottles of bubble or normal wine were consumed. As the doctor pointed out that wine was trivial in comparison to the poisons I am going to get next week I felt being good was a waste of time.

After a nice quiet Christmas with just the family we had a more party oriented New Year. The day before new year Lee and I took the Aston up Glencoe and stayed in a very nice country house hotel in the highlands which has a fantastic restaurant and is a great one day romantic treat. Thankfully I only scared Lee a couple of times when overtaking 3 or 4 cars at a time on the straight bits, but with long sweeping curves, rivers or lakes on one side and mountains on the other side I couldn't sit behind a skoda for long!

On our return we picked up the kids from Jim and Sarah's and organised an impromptu part on New Years Eve with another friend Ken. During the evening after the first few bottles of bubbly had been consumed and the kids had settled down watching a DVD the adults discovered itunes on the computer and quickly dancing and fake microphones were in broad use. An excellent party in the new study on the roof allowed us to see what was left of the fireworks (the main party being cancelled because of the gales which were strong that night - I had to rescue our big 12ft diameter trampoline from the roof of the garage at the end of the night.

So today has been spend packing my bag for the hospital, a suitable assortment of books, DVDs and computers has been tucked in to the bag as the chemo itself will not start until Thursday but preparations such as implanting the Hickman line will start tonight and carry on through tomorrow. Although I have had some time to prepare there are still a lot of things that I would like to have sorted out for Lee before going in for the treatment, in our more practical moments I have been showing her how to assemble bookcases, put up pictures, change light bulbs in what we call "Lee the apprentice" moments. We have also had to have the "what if" conversations, usually that drives us to open a bottle of wine, about money and the other things so that I do not have to fret about that if the going gets tough.

Today I did all the sensible packing stuff and then went out for a sill roof down high speed burn in the Aston down the twisty country roads south of Edinburgh that I know so well, it is safely tucked up in the garage (the MG had its go yesterday). I have explained the treatment to the kids, played Shreck on the computer with Holly, and got Lee chicken soup as she has picked up the flu so we unfortunately have had to be in some isolation from each other for the last day, I least I got to find out that my "chemo den" is comfortable before I move in on the return from hospital.

A few days ago I put the "gone away" message on the work email which has been the final cutting off of my non social ties to work - folk can still get in touch that way or through mulliganhome@blueyonder.co.uk or by text on my mobile number if you have it already.

So 10 min to go, hugs and kisses needed for Lee and the kids we will try to keep you all posted on the blog every few days, wish me luck in which every way works for you.

Tally ho.....

Gerry