A mammoth undertaking

The big event of the week for me was the radiotherapy to my back, while Gillian has been trying to keep her workload at a more sustainable level.

Gillian’s manic period at work reached a peak on Wednesday this week, but fortunately she was still able to accompany me to Cheltenham where I had my L1 vertebra irradiated with a palliative dose. Palliative radiotherapy is single-shot and tends to be more intense than curative doses, which come in much smaller daily doses. The L1 vertebra is right near my stomach, which probably explains why I was so sick on the way home (four or five times in a one hour journey), and afterwards (another five or so times that night). Indeed I was so sick that Gillian felt that she had to call the NHS out of hours service and ask/demand help. They arrived within the hour and gave me an injection which halted the vomiting, and allowed me to take a pain killer and finally go to sleep.

The following morning Gillian’s alarm didn’t go off when she wanted it to, which meant that she woke up nearly an hour later and rushed frantically through her morning routine, but did get out successfully, and managed to get through that final hectic day as well as she could.

My back has slowly been recovering all week, and I’m a lot better today than I was before the radiotherapy, although I believe there is still quite some improvement to come. For example, I was able to work for an hour in the kitchen this evening before the pain was too much, but I’m sure I’ll be able to do more next week, even if it’s not in the kitchen.

Now that Gillian’s workload is lighter, and my back is better, I’m hoping that we’ll be able to enjoy life a little more over the summer, starting with the upcoming week.