Today is Lee's birthday, I shall enjoy teasing her that she hit a certian age before me, even though its only by a month or so, I still qualify as a "toy boy"! I called her at the Scottish Parliament and she had to jump off the phone as the First Minister was walking towards her exhibition and she wanted to show him around (check her out with the grand fromage of Scotland on her birthday!). Her exhibition is just outside the main debating chamber and they have a very lively questions session on Thursday, so this is proving to be a lot of fun for her, and may even be the beginnings of a longer term interest in politics and how things get decided here in Scotland. That should set her up well for her birthday tea which Holly and I will be working on in the meantime, while Poppy rehearses for Aladdin - normally we would go out for dinner and some good wines but just at the moment I am a damper on that sort of plans unfortunately. Instead the girls and I have set out to organise a birthday tea for Lee at home, current plans are:
Mood : Candlelit table, Birthday Flowers (from dad) Mozart background play list, chilled glass of champagne in hand when returning from hard day at Scottish Parliament. Hot bath to soak away stresses of political life (Poppy) while Holly (aka "the cooker") and Dad work on the menu.
Starter : Fresh dressed Nova Scotia Lobster (thanks to Waitrose a local shop)
Main Course : Lemon sole au Gratin (retest requested sober by lee), Butter and herb layer bake Potatoes, sweet peas in butter (lee likes peas !), Served with a Reserve Sancerre white wine (sadly not for me)
Dessert : Duchy Original Lemon Tart with birthday candles and happy birthday chorus.
Finish with : Birthday Chocolates (H&P), Espresso coffee and/or liqueur
Having written that all down there is of course the chance that she will come home to find the ingredients defrosting on the kitchen table, and me sound asleep on the couch instead, given the performance of the last few days. However it seems like my fever broke about 2am this morning and with a good sleep through to 10am I am feeling much stronger than I was yesterday or the day before. Yesterday was one of my reasonably rare "low" days so today being Lees birthday has helped me mentally buck up my act and get back on track.
I guess the problem was that I had been pretty sick solidly for about a week, the chemo was making me feel naseaous and very metallic, my fatigue was extreme as I discribed yesterday, and at the same time all these bugs were fighting an insurrection/civil war over my throat and nasal passages which meant I could not breath well enough to sleep. So after two nights of not sleeping and a day back in the hospital I was just mentally shattered, phisically tired like a rung out dog, and needed hugs and reassurance from Lee to keep going. Thankfully the big pills which I started taking at lunchtime started to kick in, nasal passages cleared enough for breathing, tempreature and fever dropped off, and round about 2am my dreams slipped over from scary fitfil green monster things, to normal gentle odd life stuff - and I slept pretty solidly for 8 hrs. That was a major relief. This morning I feel like a big damp blanket has been lifted off my mind and although phiscially things have a long way to go, (industrial scale fungicides and antiboitics at the same time have an alarming effect on body function) I feel we are on the way out of the trough of chemo 3 and the nose is pointing towards the sky from a pretty deep dive.
I hear Holly at the door, so we shall start the routine of homework and snacks before heading into our "birthday dinner" project.
I'll let you know how it goes, in any case its nice to feel like I am back in the world after the last few days.
Cheers
Gerry
Mood : Candlelit table, Birthday Flowers (from dad) Mozart background play list, chilled glass of champagne in hand when returning from hard day at Scottish Parliament. Hot bath to soak away stresses of political life (Poppy) while Holly (aka "the cooker") and Dad work on the menu.
Starter : Fresh dressed Nova Scotia Lobster (thanks to Waitrose a local shop)
Main Course : Lemon sole au Gratin (retest requested sober by lee), Butter and herb layer bake Potatoes, sweet peas in butter (lee likes peas !), Served with a Reserve Sancerre white wine (sadly not for me)
Dessert : Duchy Original Lemon Tart with birthday candles and happy birthday chorus.
Finish with : Birthday Chocolates (H&P), Espresso coffee and/or liqueur
Having written that all down there is of course the chance that she will come home to find the ingredients defrosting on the kitchen table, and me sound asleep on the couch instead, given the performance of the last few days. However it seems like my fever broke about 2am this morning and with a good sleep through to 10am I am feeling much stronger than I was yesterday or the day before. Yesterday was one of my reasonably rare "low" days so today being Lees birthday has helped me mentally buck up my act and get back on track.
I guess the problem was that I had been pretty sick solidly for about a week, the chemo was making me feel naseaous and very metallic, my fatigue was extreme as I discribed yesterday, and at the same time all these bugs were fighting an insurrection/civil war over my throat and nasal passages which meant I could not breath well enough to sleep. So after two nights of not sleeping and a day back in the hospital I was just mentally shattered, phisically tired like a rung out dog, and needed hugs and reassurance from Lee to keep going. Thankfully the big pills which I started taking at lunchtime started to kick in, nasal passages cleared enough for breathing, tempreature and fever dropped off, and round about 2am my dreams slipped over from scary fitfil green monster things, to normal gentle odd life stuff - and I slept pretty solidly for 8 hrs. That was a major relief. This morning I feel like a big damp blanket has been lifted off my mind and although phiscially things have a long way to go, (industrial scale fungicides and antiboitics at the same time have an alarming effect on body function) I feel we are on the way out of the trough of chemo 3 and the nose is pointing towards the sky from a pretty deep dive.
I hear Holly at the door, so we shall start the routine of homework and snacks before heading into our "birthday dinner" project.
I'll let you know how it goes, in any case its nice to feel like I am back in the world after the last few days.
Cheers
Gerry
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