Inspired Rugby passes the time

France have just scored a last minute try to take Ireland out of the running for the top spot in the six nations championship after Ireland seemed to have won, inspired Rugby after a close fought game, disappointing but brilliant Rugby.

The Rugby has been my way of passing some of the time this weekend as my body has recovered blood counts and stamina to allow the occasional beer and the games take my mind of the week of critical tests, consultations and the imminent start of chemo 3. Waiting for tests and results, while pottering around doing ordinary things, is strangely stressful and both of us have shown some cracks or stress relieving behaviour over the last few days.

Lee had a good night out after work on Friday and a few glasses of wine while my gastronomical distractions led me to create hand rolled roualdes of lemon sole au gratin from scratch. Getting Lee out of the pub to enjoy the delicate fish dish at its best was more of a challenge (complete role reversal there, I felt I should have an apron and a rolling pin to complement the threat that she would be wearing dinner if she did not get home!). In the end the fish was fantastic, she did come home, and I caught up with a very nice Chablis both ending up with sore heads the next morning as a result. Thankfully it was the start of half term so one of us did not have to get up at 7.30am to take Poppy to Hockey so we all had a great sleepy lie in.

After my wobble of Tuesday I have felt fine with just the odd bit of fatigue and I have crossed off a lot of the "honey do" jobs around the house during the lull in treatment to let my body (hopefully not my cancer) catch up and get ready for chemo 3. Sometimes I worry when I am doing well myself that my cancer might be as tough as me, the old Gerry vs Gerry worry that Lee spoke about in an earlier blog. Well this is the crunch week for working that out.

Unfortunately for the kids this all kind of messes up their mid term week, we would usually try to get away for a short holiday but that is out of the question just now, in fact we have struggled a bit with holidays for the last year but have managed a few memorable weeks in Loch Rannoch, Ireland and Orkney. I asked Poppy if she wanted to have a friend over to play and she said "no there all away, most of them are in France skiing" changed days since I was a child ( and an exaggeration as most of them are actually with grandparents or in cottages in Scotland but a few are in France)

So our "holiday" plan for the week is CAT scan Monday in Edinburgh, up to Aberdeen to stay with Lees sister this time for PET scan on Tuesday (also picking up bikes and getting Lees mum set up with a computer). Staying over at a nice country hotel Tue night with the kids tucked away in an adjoining turret room as our treat. Then returning to Edinburgh Wednesday night ready for the consultation with Dr Scott Thursday first thing and chemo 3 on the same day. Hopefully Dr Scott will have the results of the scans, at least preliminary, on Thur or Friday. If the cancer has been pushed back by the chemo then we are on for the stem cell procedure, it needs to show a minimum of 50% reduction for the prognosis to be good and the treatment to go ahead. Lets hope I continue to be the model patient and get the right answer. In between I will try not to think about it and not worry too much, but honestly that could be easier said than done.

So by the end of this week we will know much more about how the future looks, and be in the depths of chemo 3, these things are cumulative so expect me to be wiped out a bit heavier than the last two times, as long as I can avoid infection, then lots of sleeping and feeling sick should be all that needs to be endured - I will keep up the scrubbing!

I should also have a timetable for the return of my long lost Aston, but it is not getting too much mindspace inside the big polo mints, I must have had an incredible amount of xrays in the last year, even more than I used to pick up flying across the Atlantic every other week! Perhaps I will start to glow in the dark after this week.

Sunday night here in Scotand, some good movies on the TV, and some good food to enjoy so things are not too bad even if my head wants to fast forward to Thursday.

Cheers

Gerry