One wheel on my wagon.....

But I'm still rolling along, as the childhood song goes. The cherokees are still pretty hard after me as my platlet count has really sunk I am seeing small blood spots under my skin all over my body, not sore just a bit odd looking. My guts are still trying to jump out and strangle me from time to time but painkillers are helping that and the other connected sore bits. Lee's breathing exercises helped yesterday with a bad cramp episode while she was visiting. My mouth and throat are slowley loosing the battle to ulcers and mucuosis so the doctors have me on IV feeding overnight to keep my weight up as its becoming more difficult to eat much now. However my chart of blood counts should start to see some upward movement in four days or so and then the healing begins.

I discovered yesterday (good question from Lee) that I will loose a lot of my immunological memory and have to relearn my response to the normal bugs in the environment just as childeren do when they first go to school or nursery and have a kind of continous sniffel. Dr Scott suggested that exotic holidays should probably wait until 18 months have passed so I will have to relive all that chinese/indian/thia one day bugs once I have mastered the European ones. The trick will be not to get too many at once, all of which will need to effect my choices when it comes eventually to getting back to work.

I had a funny dream last night where I was half the time back at work in a leadership meeting at Gore, which was set out like a funfair, but the other half of the time I was back at the last place I worked in ICI Dumfries, this is my new version of the dream where you have to go back to school because they discovered you did not get your high school qualification and that would invalidate your degree. The drugs I am taking lead to very vivid dreams when I am semi conscious, I can now wake up for blood samples, painkillers or observations and fall back to sleep into the same dream. When I wake up it took a few minutes to unblur reality and dream.

Lazyness has taken over from good intentions with my DVD player, Fraisier, and daytime TV consuming the time when I am not sleeping. The history of the middle east has taken a back seat for a few days - though Iran is now the subject of some research once I feel well enough, so far all I have discovered is that the British are the villans of that period, Churchill annexing their oil reserves around the first world war being the new bit of history I have picked up. Shows how much the world changed between before the first world war and the end of the second world war when such things would no longer be normal.

My head has developed a peach ball fuzz in white/gray which may fall out in about a week as the chemo depiliation effect is due about two weeks after the chemo is applied. I shall let it grow for now to see how it does unless I get bored enough sitting her to shave it just for something to do. I have tried to research Le Mans and Goodwood the two great classic car events in July in this part of the world but I am reluctant to book anything until I have a better feel for how I am. In any case I think copilots will be necessary in case I feel unwell during the tours.

Lee is really enjoying her training for the Monster hikes, she turns up here in trainers and walking gear looking the picture of health in contrast to me - when she was here yesterday I was not in specially good shape so we just chatted which was nice as she was not having to rush to get the kids.

So four or six days before hopefully the blood cell calavary come over the hill top to the rescue, ticking them off, one by one.

Cheers

Gerry