On the whole, another good week.
I met the consultant on Wednesday, and we agreed that it was sensible to reduce my painkiller dosage. I’m down to 30 mg of morphine per day, and feeling no pain at all, which makes me very happy. I hope to reduce my intake of painkillers still further, if things continue to improve as they have been doing.
On Thursday and Friday I started the second round of chemotherapy. This time my liver function was fine, which meant that I could have the full ECF treatment, including the epirubicin that was omitted last time. The downside will be that I expect to start losing my hair in two or three weeks time. Never mind, it was never my crowning glory. Gillian would normally have delivered me to the hospital, and picked me up again, but this time she had an appointment that we both really wanted her to be able to keep, which meant that she could only deliver me, and not be there to take me home again the following day. Her sister, accompanied by her boyfriend, picked me up and took me home, and generally babyhusband-sat me. I was extremely grateful, mostly because I don’t want my illness to step too far into Gillian’s own life. I can see that it must affect her, but it would grieve me sorely if I saw Gillian losing many opportunities because I was ill.
I’ve already mentioned that we planned a blow-out orgy of food this weekend, and we did indeed have every single meal as planned. Better yet, I was able to cook all of them, even if I was helped out quite a lot. Gillian’s sister is a wonderful cook too, so it was slightly nerve-wracking, but it all passed off really well. Even better, she brought some of her famous apple tarts. Proper glazed tarts with superb pastry and frangipane. Wonderful! And we still have two small ones left.
Everything is not perfect, however. As the weekend is drawing to a close, I am still feeling a little sick. I had hoped that the nausea would have passed by now, but instead it has been ebbing and flowing. I don’t think I’m going to be able to cook this evening, and even though I’ve eaten well this weekend, I think I’ll be unlikely to eat much tonight.
On the upside, I shall be making progress on one of the projects I planned for myself when I was first made redundant. It is a real pleasure to have brought that project out of hiatus, and I am looking forward immensely to continuing that work. I’ll write more about it when I am able to, but it has to stay under wraps for the moment.
That’s about it. Still eating well on the whole, but post-chemo nausea is more troublesome than I would like. I’m well enough to contemplate doing some real projects, and am definitely looking forward to that.
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Thanks for a great weekend – hope we haven’t worn you out too much. For the record, you’re not the only one not feeling at all hungry this evening. If “husband sitting” always involves such fabulous food then don’t hesitiate to call on us again whenever you like… please!!
You are very welcome. I had a great weekend too. I certainly will call on you if the need arises again.
It’s the first time I had been invited to an orgy of food (or any other type!) and it was very enjoyable. Thank you for all your efforts this weekend, my taste buds appreciated them immensely.
Chris,
J put me onto your blog just today. Sorry I didn’t find it sooner. Glad to see that the treatment is getting sorted and that you can enjoy your food a little more now. I too would love a weekend of your and J’s cooking. Hope you find the energy for your “project”, the world has been waiting too long for a hover board !!! Love to both you and G. You are in our thoughts and prayers. Matt & Teresa
@Matt, so you think it’s a hoverboard, huh? I’m afraid you’d be disappointed, then. But it is something dear to me, so I do want to keep it moving while I can. You can be sure I’ll trumpet it from the roof tops when I can.
You’ll have seen from the follow-up that it was a great weekend. I hope to have many more as good.
I’m glad you enjoyed it. We did too, immensely. Thank you for coming.
Hi Chris,
Glad you’re feeling able to dig up old projects and blow the dust off them. I’m sure having something to focus on must help 😉
Certainly does. Although I don’t want to get out of my depth in my field… 😉
“[My hair] was never my crowning glory” — does that count as a terrible pun? I look forward to hearing about your project. BTW, on the matter of eating and weight, I found this link (http://www.dcscience.net/?p=2584) interesting; perhaps you can engineer some weight-gaining advice from it if you are still looking to do so (I think broadly: more carbs, more sugar, fat is a red herring).
Well, I certainly knew that “crowning glory” was an Edwardian reference to a woman’s hair, if that’s what you meant.
That DCScience link does look interesting. I’ve seen other writings about trying to affect the calorific set point, and thereby affect weight, but I can’t quite recall the source at the moment.