Monday 24th September

Monday 24th September

So, its gale force winds and raining and I decided to take the dog for a walk in the woods! I didn’t hang about after the third stick/branch fell close by me!

I drove into town for another blood test, and met up with SW at the hospital. You would think that having injections would get easier, but it doesn’t, well not for me.

Red blood count dropped again to 8.5, (almost back to pre-transfusion) I am Neutropenic again at .4 (so keep taking the antibiotics, and watch out for any sudden high temperatures etc.). The ‘good’ news is my clotting platelets have risen slightly to 27. 

We spent an hour in town, shopping a bit and chatting before I came back for lunch and dog. Arriving home I was met by a collapsed puppy lying by the aga, upon enquiry I was informed proudly by son no2 that she had been for a ‘lovely walk in the woods!!!’ He had misread my note explaining I had taken her, not take her!!!!!

I am feeling a bit in the doldrums…….. Thought I would look that up- very interesting.....

The doldrums is a colloquial expression derived from historical maritime usage for those parts of the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean affected by the Intertropical Convergence Zone, a low-pressure area around the equator where the prevailing winds are calm. The low pressure is caused by the heat at the equator, which makes the air rise and travel north and south high in the atmosphere, until it subsides again in the horse latitudes. Some of that air returns to the doldrums through the trade winds. This process can lead to light or variable winds and more severe weather, in the form of squalls, thunderstorms and hurricanes. The doldrums are also noted for calm periods when the winds disappear altogether, trapping sail-powered boats for periods of days or weeks.

When the winds are gone the sea actually has no swells, on a clear day the color of the sky is reflected in the water. At night the same effect, with no clouds or moon, gives one the effect of floating in space.^{[citation needed]}

The term appears to have arisen in the 18th century (when cross-Equator sailing voyages became more common). It is derived from dold (an archaic term meaning "stupid") and -rum(s), a noun suffix found in such words as "tantrum".^[1]

Doldrums in literature

The Pacific doldrums were famously described in Samuel Taylor Coleridge's Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner in the following stanzas:

All in a hot and copper sky,
The bloody Sun, at noon,
Right up above the mast did stand,
No bigger than the Moon.

Day after day, day after day,
We stuck, nor breath nor motion;
As idle as a painted ship
Upon a painted ocean.

The doldrums gave rise to a place called The Doldrums in the Phantom Tollbooth inhabited by the Lethargarians who do nothing all day, a place where "nothing ever happens and nothing ever changes" 

I’ve got another blood test on Thursday morning; meanwhile I must rest and look after myself!

When son no1 heard of the outcome of today’s blood test and the very strong possibility that I wouldn’t have any more chemo (Dr H is conferring with the Marsden). He rushed off and presented me with a gift of some beautiful Estee lauder skin care creams. He said he thought I’d be feeling rubbish!! (Bless him –more tears!)

Health is the greatest gift, contentment the greatest wealth, faithfulness the best relationship.
Buddha