3 Too Many

T Day = 21 (Chemo only in weekends) 22 Chemo to go this round.

Well another night and next to no sleep – well bugger all anyway!  Awake at 3am with pain – then got take pain killers at 4am wait for them to work – then back to bed till 5:45 and alarm wakes me to start the daily intake of drugs. Bloody aching all over – joints are giving me hell today and can bearly walk!  It is more comfortable to be on my feet so make up a pancake batter for brunch as we have the Booths coming over for brunch and a catch up today. Then it’s up to get Lachie out of bed at 6:15 as he is going to What Now again today.  This time he is one of 3 kids getting handed Adam’s fundraising cheque for the Cancer Society – there was a group of about 200 people riding scooters (like Vespa’s &  nifty fifty’s) from Christchurch to Hokitika – under the name the great scooter safari. Sue is up and gets him off to the studio in time, then home and back to bed for her – no point been up this hour of the day if you don’t need to be.

Bizarre weather today – it is warm but looking threatening with rain, but mange to put through 4 loads of washing – get towels out then it rains – curse it!  30 mins later rain gone – warm and sunny – washing out again!!  HIts 22 degrees – what i it with this weather at the moment – I  don’t know how long since it has been rock hard ground and no rain or real winter to speak of yet – there – I’ve just jinxed it!!

I keep plodding around and wait till I have the Chemo drugs on board before hitting the shower as i know the kidneys are going to get their morning workout and the hot water in the shower helps to ease the pain – also I’m due the next lot of pain killers – and today is a pain day   At least today is not as fatiguing as yesterday was and I am coping better because of it.  Also the blob on the eye seems to have shrunk  – yay!!  So I’m not wearing the eye patch today.  On the down side though I now have a band of baldness in the right-side of my hair – hair today – gone now!!! It’s official  – my hair loss is really underway – no smartass comments please!  Considering just razoring the rest off now as it looks dickie!

The Booths arrive for brunch (and as they relatives arriving in town at 1:45 so are on a timeframe) Greg, Sue and Jacob get to work cooking while Wendy and I sit back and observe ;-( – on the menu today we have Pancakes, Waffles, Bacon,  maple syrup and loads of toppings. All very nice and very filling   Had a lovely catch up too with Greg and Wendy.

Afternoon sort of melts away in the autumn sun – it is still very warm but the wind is coming up.  The boys have gone to Pioneer Pool for a swim and I am intending to go out for a walk – this weather is too good to be ignored,  I am sick of feeling flat and crappy, and I have just dosed up on pain killers – so I’m ready to roll!!  Plus as part of the steps  – walking challenge that IT are partaking in will help compared to yesterdays total of 3800 odd!  Managed to go for a 5 km walk around the block – all but painful – but done it none the less!  God it felt good to break free of the house!

Home then at the same time as the lads, and we have home-made pizza for tea.  Sit down to watch the Food Truck – and again the sleep demons arrive and out I go like a light – I really hate that when you’re awake then – gone. Need to follow it up with the doc’s as they could actually be classified as seizures because of how they are and not fatigue as I think they are. 

Been doing more research on the steroid (dexamethasone) I’ve been on – turns out beside the ‘moon face’ that is a common effect along with a lot of the other effects – pain in joints, mood, appetite, weight gain – and as they’re had me on the maximum dose for the past 5 weeks it means that the effects have had a good chance to get hold.  Now they’ve decreased the dose to half, they have said it could take another 5-6 weeks for the effects to drop off – if you like.  In fact I have been going through all my drugs and checking out what is the real info on them and particularly how they interact with each other.

Well folks – that’s about it for today  – signing off earlier as to tried to keep going – must be all the hair that I’m loosing – have a clear bald spot now!  M&D time early and some rest while I can as if the pain demons return then could be another broken night again.

Have fun one folks!

Kia Kaha.