Sunday 26th February

Progress Report

Papa : B+ Has improved greatly over this last week, still has slight discomfort, but appears to rectify with painkillers. (A* for initiative).

Bex : A-  We have seen a significant improvement in weight gain over the last ten days, this has also contributed to a positive change in personality. (A*for effort).

Jill : D- Sadly despite Jill's enthusiasm for the subject she has been unable to maintain her progress, we have therefore decided that as she finds the syllabus too demanding, that it be curtailed for the foreseeable future. However we wish her well and hope to see her back on the course shortly. (B for "bother").

It's been a busy week this week, but I love it! Monday saw me playing tennis, walking the girls and playing badminton in the evening. Tuesday was my tough (!) but mentally rewarding yoga class, and I even managed to play three quarters of a game of Netball Tuesday night, yeah.

Wednesday had a cheeky game of racquetball with the lovely AB ( thats the Scottish/Jersey one NOT the mad aunt), and more badminton in the evening. Flitted into hospital for a blood test, fortunately the port worked beautifully.

Thursday was plumber/aga man morning, then I was lucky enough to get hold of two 'carers', who walked with me and the dogs through the lanes for a five mile stroll and even took me to lunch..... Clinic meeting at the hospital with my Oncologist. Steve came too as its helpful to have another pair of ears. We talked about my recent blood counts- pretty rubbish!

Last week HB 9.5, this week 8.9. White cells dropped from 2.2 to 2.0, neutrophils dropped from 1.46 down to 1.29 and platelets about the same 91 to 90. That's all without any chemo last week.

No more chemo, and in order to help my HB and give me more oxygen/energy a blood transfusion in the next few weeks, plus a CT scan just to see whats been happening to those tumours. The best news is that my CA125 has dropped again from 62 to 47... whoooppeee.

I am being as careful as I can with general hygiene, trying to wash my hands loads, not hug/kiss friends with colds etc, and sadly keep away from small children with chicken pox... :-(

Followed  hospital appointment with  yoga at Macmillan and a little tennis in the evening . It was absolutely freezing, and I couldn't wait to get home and run a bath, however upon my arrival back at the house lo and behold my lovely daughter had already sorted out a hot bath! How did she know? She had sneakily tracked my phone and saw when I had left the club, so knew I'd be ten minutes......

Friday was fab, played tennis with friends and the lovely, lovely AH had made me not one but two fish pies, so supper was sorted! Be jealous. Whizzed into town to the 'pub'. (more of that later!) , then a little food shopping, dog walking (very cold, not that they mind, splashing in the sea!) and then a visit to the nail parlour. I should really have had a facial, I do realise there is no hope but my sun damaged skin seems to have taken a bit of a battering with the chemo, and all the basal cell carcinoma ( Basal-cell carcinoma (BCC), also known as basal-cell cancer, is the most common type of skin cancer. It often appears as a painless raised area of skin, that may be shiny with small blood vessels running over it or it may present as a raised area with ulceration.) are far worse. I am visiting the doc on Monday to see if I can get a referral to the skin specialist.   

Dates for your diary....


On Wednesday the 14th March 5:30pm to 6:30pm is a lecture at the hospital Halliwell theatre on the "Menopause". Its been given by my lovely consultant, free of charge , but there will be a an Ovacome bucket for donations towards helping my daughter in law Steph reach her target for the London Marathon in April. I am going to try and add attachment poster. 


If you like to take part in a quiz, keep Thursday April the 5th free, I have booked the Posthorn pub in town to hold a meal and quiz, once again hoping to raise money not only to help Steph with Ovacome, but also my other son's girlfriend Baz with Alzheimer's....It's all happening! 

Finally, Steve and I are off to London on Friday for the w/e to attend the Ovacome conference on Saturday. Will be nice to put faces to names, and bring back more donation buckets!

ITS FRIIIIIDDDDAAAYY

A very short update tonight, as I've had a fun filled day and now I need to go to bed early!

Felt bit yucky all week, takes me until Wednesday for energy levels to start picking up, and the sickness to abate. Never mind though, a small price to pay. As long as I can walk my girls, play a bit of sport and see my friends, all is well with the world.

Had a blood test on Wednesday and have recently discovered there is a new technique to make the port 'work'. I've tried the chicken wing dance (thanks Steph!), I would do the star jumps but I know I'd end up knocking the very expensive equipment over, let alone disturbing all the other 'inmates'. I have also 'run' up the four flights of stairs in the vain attempt to get the blood flowing.

Far more simple solution, and it is......  cough, not just the once though, I have had to cough myself through two phials of blood samples, bizarre but it works!

Of course nothing about me is normal, family and friends will agree wholeheartedly, and so I shouldn't have been surprised when I queried the small black 'mark' in my scar above the port. I thought it was possibly the end of a stitch that hadn't quite been removed.

Needless to say the staff had never seen anything quite like it, don't worry they've all had a good look.....we have eventually worked out that it is in fact the top of the screw that fixes the tubing into the port. It was supposed to be buried, but as there is not a lot of adipose tissue ( ok, FAT) it appears to be making a break for freedom.

In finding out my fellow inpatient had a port fitted too, I cheekily asked her If i could see it, I was amazed, there was hardly a bump in the skin, whilst mine looks like a mini Mount Everest on my chest, yes i can hear my brothers (and others) guffawing, and I shall get the usual derogatory comments about the size of my chest, but I am not blaming the surgeon, he did the best that he could with the materials he had.

We are monitoring the situation weekly.

Back to the blood test, I had a call on Thursday to say whilst three of the tests were ok (ish) my platelets were very low at 91, and so no chemo this week. That was a bit of a hurrah, hmmm, oh right, moment. Not entirely sure if I'm pleased or a bit disappointed.

Jolly glad to not be feeling sick though, and got to play tennis with friends, walk my girls in the sun and drink tea with other friends, full on day but gorgeous.

Then come home to a homemade Shepherds pie, large enough to feed a small platoon ( and a special dairy free one for me I hasten to add) thank you SH, truly feeling blessed today.

St Julian

And so our good Lord answered to all the questions and doubts which I could raise, saying most comfortingly: I may make all things well, and I shall make all things well, and I will make all things well; and you will see yourself that every kind of thing will be well.

– The Thirty-first Chapter

Saturday Night In the house...

Another week, another chemo, and so far my blood results are just about holding their own, which of course is good news.

I am still managing to play tennis, badminton and racquetball, with the odd class of yoga and aerobics, my netball has suffered a bit, understandably  as it's such a cardio workout, plus in case you hadn't noticed I'm actually quite old, and running around after 15/16year olds is really tiring!

Side effects are still minimal all things considered, feeling sick is the main one, tiredness and general aches and pains (or is that the sport?). I go to hospice every couple of weeks and get a lymph massage, as there is still some swelling in my leg/groin area, and the lovely nurse then usually straps me up with kiensesology tape which really does help.

Last night the family enjoyed a delicious chicken casserole cooked by AH, (plus some ginger biscuits just for me), and I had SW running around town doing my shopping whilst I sat down in Oncology for most of the day. A big thank you to them both.

Changing the subject completely, I have just started reading a book called The Cancer Whisperer, written by Sophie Sabbage. On the blurb at the back it states..." I have cancer, it does not have me". 

I have only read a few chapters, but there is plenty of information and certainly a lot I can relate to, without wanting to be accused of plagiarism, I would like to share some of the most poignant pieces in this blog.  

As with Sophie there is a myriad of emotions after being given a cancer diagnosis, "Denial is a deeply disempowering force, it rips you from the truth of things and paralyses your capacity to respond. It is a temporary shock absorber, a way to keep your horror and sorrow at arms length while you try to compute the mortality cancer makes you face."

So accepting the fact that you have cancer is a big step, "This is the passage from no to yes, darkness to light, victim to author, paralysis to creativity, passivity to power."

It states on the front of the book.. Finding courage, direction and the unlikely gifts of cancer.

I shall let you know how I get on.

This week has been busier than normal, as we have the kitchen being painted, and as with most houses the kitchen is the hub of the home. Fortunately It should be finished by Tuesday next week, so not much of an inconvenience, it looks better already.

We also had another trip to the vet with Beanie, she managed to rip a hole in her 'armpit', probably when she was chasing pheasants in thick undergrowth. (honestly if its not one dog its the other). So now she has stitches and is restricted to lead walks for ten to fourteen days and to keep her 'calm'.

Oh, that's easy then. She is actually a model patient, takes her pills and doesn't lick the wound too much, Its Jess I feel sorry for as she has enforced lead walks too!! You can see her thinking, "that sister of mine is nothing but trouble", strangely I feel the same way about my sister! Jokes.

Talking about overseas, I had a lovely afternoon walk with a friend (who now lives in Cornwall, but popped over to the island for a few days), on the one day it was sunny and reasonably warm this week, just like old times.

Ending tonight with a few photos.

 A chilly walk on a Saturday morning with Bex...

St Ouens bay

 Le Saie

 Le Saie in the sunshine!

 Gorey castle with plastic over the Jersey Royals.

We walked from home to Gorey.... 

Funky Friday Fun Activity Day!

Felt very sorry for myself last week after I had limped through the Friday chemo session, really down in the dumps. Didn't like myself much either, I guess you could call it moping, my back ached, I was so tired, felt sick, no energy, the list goes on...

My Family treated me exactly the same, got called a slacker, they insisted I walked the dogs at every opportunity , had to shop and prepare meals, clean and do the washing every day, they also banned all sporting activities.

The above paragraph is a complete lie.

They made me rest, and generally coddled me all week, ( although sporting activities were curtailed tis true) . I don't think those antibiotics helped my mood either, but I'm done with those now.

Fully expected to have another set of poor blood results on Wednesday, but unbelievably they were amazingly good ( think they were someone else's ).

Haemoglobin 9.8
White cells 2.3
Neutrophils 1.75
Platelets 115

And, my CA125 is down again to 88!! Hurrah, we are now in double figures, last January it was on the rise at around 29.. It continued to rise all year, until I began this chemo in December.
I am still on a very baby dose of 30ml of cisplatin but it seems to be doing the trick so fingers crossed my bloods carry on dealing with it.

Meanwhile Papa is doing his hardest to thwart my plans of remaining healthy during this winter, by only going and catching shingles!

On a serious note, this is pretty miserable for him, partly because of the discomfort, but mostly because he is banished from seeing any of us for the next week or so. Think we'll have to leave our Red Cross parcels on the doorstep, poor man.

In hospital now having another dose of chemo, it's one of the nurses last day, she has been with me on my 'cancer journey' since the start, which by the way is coming up for the six year mark. Not necessarily an anniversary I celebrate as such, but one that I hope to stretch out for a few more years yet.

Wishing everyone a good weekend, and all those in Jersey stock up your cupboards, I'm sure there is some sleet/snow on the way, you know how we islanders tend to panic..... ( for those in the UK and USA keep warm and wear your snow boots!)

BY the way, Bex was on national radio on Monday night, I'll attach the link in case you want to listen ?

Http:www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p05srcz6 ....

It's about 1hr 35 min into Radio 2 Georgy Spanswick show. 29th January

Quote from my bro..

"When January gone night and day, the rest of the year just slips away"











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