Mostly OK

Firstly I want to thank the lovely Bill for taking me to hospital this afternoon. He was a great help and a great companion.  The hernia guy suggested using ibuprofen if I get the hernia pain again. I stopped ibuprofen back when we weren't sure whether the pain was hernia or ulcer related. Given that I got the pain later despite having stopped the ibuprofen suggests it was the former.  Still doesn't explain why it's stopped though but let's just be thankful for small mercies.  He was unable to suggest anything else.

Secondly, I want to thank DD (yet again) for calling round to see me tonight and waiting with me whilst my temperature subsided.  It went up to 37.5 which is a little on the high side but is back on the way down now to 37.4. As she's away this weekend I may call on some of my other supporters for help if it goes back up again.

On the whole I've felt OK today. Which I think augurs quite well for this second week of my cycle. Knowing it won't be as bad as the first week will hopefully give me strength as the cycles go on.

And that's all I've for for now. J x

Short Again

Started day really well, hospital went well now feeling like shit. Hopefully more detail tomorrow. J x

Who Ate All The Raspberries Part Deux

The guilty have relented and replenished my raspberry stock. And given that I'm feeling loads better today I have just eaten a bowlful of raspberries, yoghurt and chocolate torte (via chick with the choc) very nice it was too. Hopefully will not now throw up.

Sorry if I've worried anyone with my posts on the last couple of days but it really hasn't been easy for me.  I've been sleeping a lot (that's been the best bit to be honest) and whenever I've been awake I've just felt dreadful: ill, bad taste in my mouth, foul smell in my nose, aches and pains etc i.e. nothing dramatic but when combined together things that make one feel thoroughly miserable and unwell.  In addition, having stopped the "gold standard" anti-sickness drug and reverted to good old metachlopromide I've had one night where I was up and down trying to be sick but incapable of being so.  On the gold standard, I didn't even have the desire to try.

But luckily this morning I feel like I've turned a corner and I feel a lot "better" today (I'll be interested to hear from my fellow chemo-pals if this chimes with their experience). Hence the appetite. To be honest I think the Ensure Plus diet is going to turn out to be an advantage for the bad periods as it allows for the taking on of quite a lot of calories with minimal effort.  Even so I have lost more weight and am now down to near 11 stone. Hopefully I can use this new period to build myself up a bit.

I'm also feeling very weak and get out of breath quite easily and so need to take things slowly (I have to sit down for 10 minutes even after a shower!). This does make me wonder whether a return to work will ever happen. But that process is all in train and we'll just have to see where we end up.

It's back to the hospital tomorrow for a top-up chemo shot. Please God it doesn't have the same effect as the last one. I'll let you know.

Throughout this all Denise has been my rock and continues to call in and deliver my paper every morning. So frankly, we can forgive a few raspberries.... :-) J x

Sorry Again

Didn't get round to blogging again. Briefly, had a rough night, a better day and a dodgy evening. J x

Not Blogged Today

Not really felt up to it. I'm OK though. Don't worry. Hopefully back tomorrow.... J x

Who Ate All The Rasperries?

Not me, and that's all I have to say on the subject.

Not feeling as good now as I did earlier. And I don't think it's anything to do with poor Lewis crashing out of the final F1 (at least Alonso didn't win).   I just think one tends to feel worse as the day wears on. Also had a visit today from three lovely ladies which was just brilliant although I did get a bit worn out towards the end. I did at least get a run down of most of the incidents at Bryn's wake. And boy were there some incidents... which of course is just as it should be.

Haven't managed to eat any solid food today so I'm having to resort to the laxatives - quite disgusting taste in liquid form but needs must.  On the plus side I haven't needed as many painkillers today as usual so that might help a bit too.

I've also discovered the date my Coronation Street episode airs - it's 14/01/13 so please make a note in your diaries and throw parties and the like. According to my chemo schedule it's slap bang in the middle of a bad week for me so I'm afraid I won't be hosting any premiere parties.  So don't be upset that you haven't had an invitation.

And that's about all for today folks. May go to bed soon or may try and stay up for Homeland. We'll see. J x

I Expected...

... to start this post by saying expect a lot more posting now that I have an iPad. I can't seem to put the thing down. It's fab!  A very wise purchase I think. But I think it doesn't like my blog since it takes me 2 or 3 attempts to get it to allow me to post. No idea why that is. If it doesn't get any worse then I may live with it or I may just have to wait for a visit from my iPad expert to talk of many things. I'm sure he (or his very lovely wife who is also an iPad expert) will have a solution. Come on over guys - pyjamas optional.

Feeling a little better so far today than I did yesterday. Still very tired but not quite as "ill" at the moment.  It's an odd feeling to describe but it's a cross between a stomach feeling a little queasy, an odd taste in my mouth and a general sort of malaise.  Also a loss of appetite not helped by the odd taste in my mouth. Even my Ensure Plus didn't taste good yesterday. I did manage a tin of baked beans though, slathered in Lea & Perrins sauce to beat the odd taste in my mouth into submission! This may also help with my other problem - constipation: apologies if any readers get offended by my liberal use of medical terms but this blog has never been intended as a feel good site (at least not only a feel good site - obviously there are times when I do feel good!). Those of you who have been with me from the start - about 6 and a half years ago now - will know what I'm talking about: the infamous "Cancer is a Cunt" post title that caused a bit of a stir. Incidentally, it still is.  But I don't intend using that word again liberally on these pages. But then again who knows how bad this is all going to get. Rest assured I'm not setting out to deliberately offend anyone but then neither am I catering to anyone's sensibilities apart from my own.

Anyway, as I said feeling a bit better today which I'm happy about. Got visits from Denise and Michele to look forward to and, if I'm up to it, maybe a cocktail in The Midland. We'll see.   I'll let you all know how it's going later. Love J x

Chemo Plus Two

Welcome to Day Two everyone. Still feeling very tired. Slept well last night and then fell asleep again on the sofa this morning. Was awoken by the arrival of the delightful Ms Drury (not got a cold) with my Saturday paper. One of the reasons for me buying this iPad was the desire to subscribe to The Times online to make getting hold of the daily paper less of a chore for all involved but now having looked up the reviews in the ap store I'm not so sure it's a good idea. The reviews are dreadful. Perhaps I'll wait until they run an enhancement.

My stomach feels a little "odd" but not been sick yet and am still taking the anti sickness medicine. We'll see. And that's all my news so far folks. May post again later if I feel up to it. J x

Today

So it was Bryn's funeral today so never going to be easy. Denise picked me up in our car at 1200 with Chris and Dave already ensconced in the back.   It was the first time I'd seen them since my diagnosis but today wasn't the day to talk of this.  We picked Jude up on the way and arrived at Michele's at 1230 for drinks prior to following the cortège to the crematorium. I, of course, can't drink for the three days covering my chemotherapy so I took over the driving at this point. (How the hell I'm supposed to keep up my weight with these sort of restrictions is anyone's guess).

Apropos of nothing, Come Dine With Me is on the telly and it's coming from Swansea so it's like a double dose of hell. I've pressed record because I know there's nothing DD or Michele enjoy more than a double dose of Come Dine With Me hell.  One of the contestants has just said "If its good enough for Joan Collins, it's good enough for me". Nuff said.

There were hundreds of people at the crematorium, suitable testimony, were it needed, of how much Bryn was loved.  The thing about Bryn is that if you met him once I don't think you'd like him.  If you met him twice you'd see through the gruff exterior to the really genuine and lovely person he actually was.  Five people spoke about Bryn. Jude was first and had written a poem.  I'll confess here that when I heard that she was to read a poem of her own composition I didn't really know what to expect but she knocked my socks off.  It was funny, meaningful, sincere, genuine and summed Bryn up perfectly. Good on you girl.  Next was Dave, Bryn's business partner and he talked to us about Bryn's business life - most of which I didn't know. Then Gordon, a long time friend of Bryn and brother to Chris who was in the car on the journey, talked about some of Bryn's exploits - again, most of which I hadn't heard about.  And then it was Denise's turn.  Denise had talked through her speech with me a number of times beforehand as she wanted me to take over the delivery if she broke down on the day. She didn't. She was superb - composed, clear, funny and sincere. She delivered her "best man's speech" which worked really well because it allowed her to also talk about Michele as well which everyone there really appreciated I thought. Finally, the humanist minister read out some words that Michele had written which were moving beyond my power to express.

I didn't go to the wake because I was quite tired. Instead I came home and dozed on the sofa until about half an hour ago when I woke up and decided to play with my new iPad. Yay.  J x

Oh Brave New World....

...that has such wondrous devices in it.

With all the usual apologies to Will Shakespeare.  Those of you who read previous post comments before reading new posts will realise this is my second attempt to publish through this new iPad. Luckily, the device now seems to recognise me having first posted a comment in the comments section.  Onwards and upwards.

I'm liking the new iPad so far. It's fast, easy to hold and light enough to carry with you everywhere. Will now have to go and see those lovely people at Orange (or EE as they now seemed to be called) to see how much my non-wifi connection will cost. Hopefully it won't be more then my disability living allowance or we're all in trouble.  This device seems to suffer from the perennial Apple problem of only recognising one press of a double press on a key (such as the double "l" in will). I may be able to do something about this in settings but I'll have to wait until my Apple expert chum Bill visits me to talk of many things to find this out.

I have other news but I'll publish it separately from this technical update..  That's all. J x

Such A Martyr...

... been a tough old (long) day but blogging anyway as I know a lot of you will want to know the details.

So, door to door, it took 11 hours today.  I was actually in Wythenshawe hospital from 0845 until 1830.  The reasons for this long session are (in no particular order) -

*  It was my first visit so there was a lot of background stuff that needed to be covered first.  The Chemo Sister, Lesley, who was looking after me though took her time, wouldn't be rushed and made sure I understood everything she was telling me.  She also checked to make sure I am getting all the support I'm entitled to.  She is a real star.

*  I needed lots of tests done to get a benchmark on Wythenshawe's computers (most tests are currently held at MRI or The Christie - talk about a joined up health service!).  So I had blood tests, an X-ray and an ECG as well as an MRSA swab.  We then needed to wait for the blood test results to come back before we could launch.  In future the District Nurse will do the blood tests the day before I attend Wythenshawe which will save time.

* The "gold standard" anti-sicknes drug they gave me can be done intravenously (remember me and pills?) but of course there was none on site and they needed to track down the drug rep to make sure it was OK to give this to me half way through my treatment (the instructions on the pills say they have to be given a half hour before treatment starts).  It was and they did but it did delay things.

*  One batch of my chemo (no idea how many I had, they hung loads of drips next to me - at least 12 probably) was late coming up from pharmacy so they slipped in an extra dose of fluids.

On the plus side I didn't need a central line (which Bill had to endure in his treatment) so that's a relief.  Its a small, friendly unit with regular staff and customers.  I'm not sure I'd have got that from The Christie.

On the down side, the lovely Debbie doesn't work at Wythenshawe and the X-ray department is miles from the chemotherapy unit.  And my breathing today was atrocious.  Not sure why.  I was probably anxious ahead of the treatment starting (we had to get the X-ray first).  It feels OK now.  Next time I feel like that I'll get a porter and a wheel chair.

On the plus, plus side Denise was, as ever, a star.  She hung around until all my tests had been done and everything had been explained before leaving (not that she wanted to go and she is threatening to stay all day next time but THERE IS NO NEED) and then picked me up when I had finished.  Perfect.

And that's all I think.  I feel tired at the moment but not sick or any of the other side effects.  But its early days yet.  I'm sure it won't be too long before I am once again regaling you with my tales of woe.  :-) J x

Chemo Minus One

That's still happening tomorrow so not much more to say really.  DD and Michele (?) are coming round tonight to watch the football and to help me take my mind off it.  I'll report tomorrow or the day after on how it all went.

But, today's events need telling I guess...

So I turned up at the studios at 1100 as instructed wearing nary a logo (its a rule apparently) and a winter coat.  I was met by Jude from the costume department (for those of you who don't know Jude, she is the one who - with Jenny - arranged this gig for me and also did the tour for us the other week - a lovely lady).  Jude introduced me to my directors - "Woody" and "Richard III" (the second director apparently sits in an office somewhere).  Jude put me in the hands of two of her colleagues who took me down to the set where I waited whilst the scene before mine was filmed.  And then came my big moment.  I was taken onto set by Richard and sat at a table in Roy's Rolls with another extra and given a cup of cold tea to drink.  After a few minutes Richard moved me to a stool towards the entrance to the cafe so that I would get my face filmed (how kind was that?).  Unfortunately the first stool I sat on I broke (oops) and so settled a little more gingerly on the second one and commenced to read my copy of the Weatherfield Gazette.  We had three or four run throughs of the scene where all the actors (apart from Jenny!) forgot their lines and quite a few of them came out with most un-Coraonation-Street-like language.  We then did three real takes which was so exciting.  I can't believe how much I enjoyed the whole experience.  Those of you who know me well know that I am normally quite unfazed by stardom but I confess I was a little starstruck by the whole thing.  Jenny, of course, was an absolute dream and made me feel right at home.  I don't think it would be fair to relate what was happening in the story as this would spoil things for some readers but the characters involved in my scene were Fizz, Hayley, Roy, Audrey & Norris.  And its actually quite a funny scene.

For those of you who need all the details whilst I was not wearing any logos the suppliers of my costume for today's filming were Messrs Burberry, Hermes, Nicole Fahri, Thom Browne, Rolex and Topman.  Bet they've never had that combination on Corrie before!

At the end of filming Woody said quite loudly "thanks for that Jonathan" and the entire cast and crew gave me a round of applause.  I was so touched that Jude and Jenny had gone to so much trouble.  Its really made my day and took my mind off tomorrow.

I've no idea yet when this will air but Jude is going to find out for me and one I know, you'll know.  :-)  That's all.  Wish me luck for tomorrow.  J x

Chemo MinusTwo

Two days to go before it all kicks off.  Today was spent very pleasantly meeting Jane for coffee this morning and then going to see Skyfall with Gill this evening.  Great to see Jane as not seen her for a while.  She was rather shocked by how much weight I had lost and the fact that I had no colour in my face when I arrived at the coffee shop.  She isn't the first to comment on this but it seems all the blood drains from my face when I walk into town.  I still find it difficult - more difficult I think than it was a couple of weeks ago.  Hopefully the chemo will help with this.  Caught a taxi home.

Not seen Gill for absolutely ages as she has been ill of late (colds and possible chest infections) but is better now.  Luckily she picked me up in the car to take me to the cinema and then dropped me back so I didn't need to walk anywhere :-).  Skyfall is a good Bond film.  All the requisite car chases and explosions and Daniel looks gorgeous.  Nothing much to distinguish it from the other Bond films though although the suggestion that Bond has had homosexual experiences in his past was a surprise as, indeed, was the ending.  And Javier Bardem is a superb Bond villain.

Big day tomorrow - take up duty as an extra on Coronation Street. Its only one scene though (and no lines) but I'll let you all know when its due to air so that you can tune in.  Hopefully it will take my mind off Thursday.  I'l post after that to let you know how it went.

That's all for now.  Night.  J x

Monday Monday

Busy day already - phonecall from my boss followed by Denise dropping my paper off (bless her) and having a coffee then off to Sainsburys to stock up on water and beer.  That was quite challenging and I had to sit down for a bit half way round.  Then a visit from the ever adorable Maggie and the ever adorable Paul this afternoon for an hour.  Paul, as ever, came bearing gifts - 2 portions of mushroom soup, one of which I shall be consuming this evening.  Yum.

Quiet night from here on in.  The Ageds have arrived in London to visit my Mum's sister and her husband for a couple of days.  She has had a stroke you may recall and he has cancer but they are coping admirably with the situation.

Denise was round last night to catch up on some recorded TV programmes - The Hour, Gran Hotel (that's in the original Spanish) and Countryfile (we fast forwarded through the inevitable calendar selling bit - why do they do it every week?).  And that's the last I shall see of Denise until Thursday.  She's taking some time off to recover and well deserved it is too. I wish her joy of it.

No other news at the mo.  Still feeling a little anxious but less so than I was which is a relief.  Catch y'all later... J x

Bit Anxious

Don't know why, but now I have a date for the chemotherapy to start I'm a bit more anxious. I'm not looking forward to any side effects.  I remember that going through the radiotherapy last time was hell at times but at least that had the potential outcome of a cure.  This time we could be talking about, at best, a couple of extra months.  I probably won't think it worth those couple of extra months if the side effects are severe.  But nothing ventured... lets see how it goes and I can always decide to stop half way through the treatment if I want to.

Went to The Moon Under Water yesterday (yes, I must be ill) for the Manchester trainees' promotion party.  Dreadful venue and I was a bit overwhelmed by the number of people there and so didn't stay too long.  Learned that my three all got promotion too so am dead chuffed about that:  well done, Richard, Liam & Julie.  Hopefully I will see Liam on Sunday and can congratulate him in person.

Out with Denise and Michele tonight for cocktails and a meal.  Looking forward to that as we're going to Don Giovanni's and neither Michele nor I have been there before.  Cocktails at The Midland are always good on a Saturday night too as there is normally a chivvy wedding or two to observe.  :-)

Ma & Pa are fine and will be spending Christmas with me here in Manchester as the dates mean I will be in one of my "bad weeks".  That should be an interesting experience as we've never spent Christmas away from Swansea before.

That's all I can think of for the moment.  Will update more as it occurs to me... J x

Information

FYI -

Spent a very pleasant (!) 2 and a half hours at The Christie today.  I learned that my chemotherapy starts on 22/11/12 at Wythenshawe hospital.  Given this experience at The Christie I am pleased to be able to have the choice of opting for Wythenshawe for my treatment (although of course I am gutted that the very lovely Debbie won't be in charge of me - at least officially, I will of course continue to bow to everything she says generally speaking).  It will not be possible for me to take part in the clinical trial I was offered (its a tablet only regime and I can't swallow tablets).  So, having digested that information we can deduce the following -

1.  The chemotherapy will end on either 07/02/13 or 21/03/13 depending on whether I have 4 or 6 cycles.  This will depend in turn on how effective the treatment is and how it affects me.

2.  I know the dates when I will be particularly vulnerable to infection (essentially days 8 - 14 of each cycle).  If I refuse to meet up with people on certain dates it is likely that I will be on a day 8 to 14.  Please don't be offended.

3.  I know the dates when I am likely to be feeling at my best (comparatively).  If you'd like to know when these are then work it out from Day One for each 3 week cycle - the best days are 15 to 21.

4.  I am a bit scared by the whole thing.  How many side effects am I likely to have?  Will it all be a complete waste of time?  Will there be much additional pain?  Will I lose all my hair (to be fair this is finely balanced against the possibility of wearing a huge beehive wig - Mrs T will know what I'm talking about here)?

5.  I will be able to attend Bryn's funeral (which takes place on 23/11/12).  I'm really pleased I'll be able to do this.

6.  I will be able to make my television debut (watch this space for further details in due course).  Not sure how pleased I am about this though.

And that's your lot for this post.  More updates soon... J x

Drain Away

Had my drain out this afternoon.  Took about half an hour at Wythenshawe hospital and was an extremely painful experience despite the fact that I was given a local anaesthetic.  I could not believe how much tubing was actually in my lung.  There must have been about 9 inches.  Indeed the tubing inside me was longer than the tubing on the outside of my body.  And because there was so little fluid in my lung space the tube had attached itself in a number of places and had to be pulled free.  Not at all pleasant.

I now feel much better though.  I've been told to take lots of painkillers (yay) and take it easy this evening (double yay) so that is what I'm doing.  Thanks to Lesley for driving me there and back and looking after me. :-)

Experienced some hernia pain last night (which went away by about 0230) which is a little worrying but I still have my appointment with the hernia guy arranged for 30/11 so I may go along to that anyway and see what I can do about the pain short of an operation (which I can't have whilst undergoing chemotherapy).

Have an appointment at The Christie tomorrow (although I'm not terribly sure why - I'll let you know afterwards!).  Looks like I will get my chemotherapy at Wythenshawe which I'm quite pleased about apart from the fact that I won't get to see the lovely Debbie on each visit.  Met up with her briefly last week and it was fantastic to see her, gorgeous as ever, with a new hair colour.  Wythenshawe has quite a small chemotherapy unit which should make it all a lot more personal and I still get to see Dr Summers.  I'l let you have more details when I have them.

Off to watch the series finale of The Paradise now (trash television but its about shopping!) so that's all.  J x

RIP Bryn

I am so sorry to have to be the bearer of this news but my friend Bryn died in the early hours of Saturday morning.  He passed away peacefully in his sleep, pain free and with his partner and love of his life Michele at his side.

Bryn was one of the funniest, driest, most sarcastic, grumpiest, loyal, dedicated people I know.  He was also one of the cleverest.  If you ever entered a pub quiz then it was Bryn you wanted on your side as it almost certainly guaranteed a win.  He loved his work and he loved his home life. He loved Michele and the girls and he loved his friends.  He was a rock on which you could rely.  I will miss him greatly.

Towards the end Bryn knew his time was severely limited and I last saw him late on Friday night and we therefore had a chance to say goodbye.  I am so grateful for that.  It is one of the hardest things I have ever done.  What on earth do you say?  Luckily Bryn made it easier by being honest and genuine and unafraid and unembarrassed to say what he wanted to say.  He also made it clear that he was ready to go, didn't want to hang around just being ill but wanted to go peacefully and free from pain.  Luckily that is what happened.

Obviously it has made me think about what I want to do when the end comes but now is not the time to go into that.  Today is a time to celebrate Bryn and his life and how he impacted on me (and you).  Please feel free to leave any thoughts and/or anecdotes you want to as a comment.  I'll update with details of funeral arrangements when I have them and I'll update you on my latest news later.  RIP Bryn.  We love you.  J x

Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer's Day?

Big fan of Dr Summers.  Like her a lot.  She is very approachable, understandable (not too much jargon) and gives you the information you need to make decisions.  She also spent about an hour with us yesterday talking through everything.

I'm not sure we learned anything particularly new yesterday but she was able to fill in a lot of the background detail that hadn't been filled in before and to answer our questions where we had them now but hadn't thought of them before.

For instance, I shouldn't drink alcohol on the day of treatment nor the day afterwards but otherwise could drink as normal.  Yay.  The treatment has "positive results" (which covers the range from the tumours actually shrinking to "no change" i.e. the tumours haven't actually grown) in about 50% of cases. The seems to me fairly good odds and enough to convince me that I should at least start the treatment.  I can receive treatment either at The Christie or at Wythenshawe.  Not made up my mind on this yet.

Starting the treatment means committing to at least the first three Cycles since no changes would be expected to be evident before this point anyway. Week One (of the three week Cycle) will have a full day in hospital (8 hours) followed by a one to two hour visit in Week Two.  Week Three is free.  Days 8 -14 are the days that my immune system will be at its weakest and so I may have to restrict access during this period.

There are lists and lists of side-effects but I don't think everyone gets them all and some people get none.  From memory, last time I had cisplatin I was quite sick (so will get anti-sickness stuff up front) and had some abdominal pain (that sounds familiar).  But I don't remember anything else.  And this time I will be having two drugs - cisplatin and something else whose name I've forgotten so things might be different this time round.

I wil be having blood tests all the time and scans from time to time to monitor how the treatment is progressing.  I'll let you know what that shows.

Apparently I am "young & fit" (no, I didn't know either) which means that I could expect to be at the top end of ranges (i.e. potentially more than 12 months prognosis) but since there's no way of telling how I will respond to treatment (if at all) no promises are made.  She advised me to start thinking about how and where I want to spend the end of my life so that any arrangements can be made in good time and any necessary research (e.g. on hospices) can be carried out.  I'm thinking though that I would like to be in a hospice as I get towards the end as they will have all the necessary drugs and facilities to make things as easy and painless as possible.

I will also need to get a flu jab (arranged for tomorrow) and have my pleural catheter removed (arranged for next Tuesday).

And that's all I've got for you for the moment.  Looking forward to seeing the lovely Sarah from Leeds later on for a drink.  Will report back on news from over t'Pennines tomorrow.  J x

O Manchester...

.... you're bloody freezing.  God its cold up North.  Anyway, home safe.  Not much more to report.  Will update following oncologist visit tomorrow.  J x

O Glorious Day

Absolutely beautiful day in South Wales today.  Wall to wall sunshine.  So of course it was straight in the car and off to the National Botanic Gardens.  They were as fabulous as ever but now with the addition of an "installation" of tree roots from trees originally growing in Ghana - trees such as Mahogany for instance.  They are absolutely enormous.  And so beautiful too.  They were brought to the UK by an artist making a point about tree clearances in Africa and have toured the country (including Trafalgar Square) before finding a final resting place at the Botanic Gardens.  Lunch wasn't as good as normal though because the main restaurant is undergoing a refurbishment and so we had to eat in the smaller cafe.  But otherwise another lovely outing.  Then it was back to the homestead to watch Andy Murray (fair's fair I watched the Grand Prix yesterday) and Antiques Road Trip.  Quiet night in now before trip home to Manchester tomorrow.  And that's all to report really.  Hope you are all well out there in blog land and I will blog either tomorrow or Wednesday (when I will have seen Dr Summers - and the lovely Debbie - and so will know something of my proposed treatment regime).  I just hope someone turns these bloody fireworks off soon... J x

Sick

So, am back in Wales and certainly arrived with a fanfare.  After about 6 hours of being home I proceeded to embark on a 2 hour long vomit-a-thon.  Not pleasant, let me tell you.  Particularly since it also meant I couldn't take any painkillers.  Finally got to bed about 0100 in the morning but then did at least pretty much sleep through until 0800.  My throat was terribly raw feeling this morning though but luckily Ensure Plus seemed to coat it nicely and calm everything down.

No idea what caused the sickness but it was probably the long drive down to Wales.  The real down side of course was that we had to abandon our trip to the National Botanic Garden of Wales scheduled for today.  Hopefully we'll still be able to go tomorrow.  On the plus side it afforded me the opportunity to watch the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix and what an exciting race it was.  Luckily Alonso didn't win (don't like him) and Vettel managed to make up 21 places after starting from the pit lane.  Not particularly a fan of Vettel either but realistically he is the only one who can stop Alonso winning the championship.

Nothing else to report really.  Both Aged Ps are fine.  So I'll report more tomorrow.  J x

Apologies...

... for no posting yesterday but I was ministering to the needs of Madame La T.  Both before her arrival - washing floors, dusting, making beds etc - and once she was here - entertaining her, running round with plates of sweetmeats, laughing at her jokes etc.  None of this is true of course, her jokes aren't that funny!  And talking of jokes (and here's another first  believe) -

Barman talking - "We had a guy in here last night that was completely bladdered.  In the end he was causing so much trouble that I had to throw him out.  He was that actor guy, the one who plays the baddie in the new Bond Film.

Customer - "Javier Bardem?"

Barman - "No, I'll let him in again as soon as he's sobered up"

Boom.  Boom.

Who knows?  Perhaps it will be religion next. God forbid.

So, it was lovely to see Mrs T again.  I can report that she is as lovely as ever.  We laughed, we cried, we drank coffee and booze and we ate Indian food.  We watched both Golden Girls and a couple of episodes of Antique Roadtrip which is still on series record following my mother's visit.  DD joined us for some food.

I'm afraid the news from Wythenshawe Hospital is a little worrying.  Bryn seems to be getting worse and at one point the doctors were talking about transferring him to intensive care.  I'm pleased to report that he rallied later and that this no longer on the cards.  However, he is quite ill and that is worrying for all of us, particularly Bryn & Michele themselves.  My thoughts and my heart go out to them both and I'm sure you will all send your love and best wishes too.  I'll keep you updated on progress as I get the news.

For myself, I now have a date to see the Christie oncologist - next Wednesday - when she will discuss my chemotherapy treatment with me.  I'll then make the decision as to whether I wish to go ahead with it or not.  I've also managed to speak to the Wythenshawe lung cancer nurse specialists about removing my Pleural Catheter but unfortunately, the nurse who will be responsible for doing it isn't back at her desk (bed?) until Tuesday. That actually fits with my timetable because...

...I'll be going down to Wales tomorrow and coming back to Manchester on Tuesday ready for my Christie appointment on Wednesday.  Its all go, I tell you.

Meeting the lovely Patricia for cocktails at 1600 today and then its DD and Lesley for food tonight which will be nice.  And that's all I have to report at the moment.  The next posting will probably be made from the land of the bi-lingual signs so see you on the other side of the Severn Bridge.  J x