Chemo at Home

This is a photographic display, taken on day 2, round 2, of the chemotherapy.  The chemo bottle is attached to me and is pumped into my body while I am at home from the night of the first day to the afternoon of the third day.  You might find the fourth and final photo more revealing than you want.

This first photo shows me looking very normal.  The chemo is on.  The bottle is in my front, left jean pocket.  The tube winds from the pocket in between the two low buttons on my shirt, under my shirt, passing through the pump that is taped to my skin and joining to the needle that is inserted in my port-o-cath.

The second photo shows me displaying the bottle.

The third photo is a close up of the bottle.  You can see the chemo is contained in a balloon inside the bottle and has shrunk somewhat.  The balloon shrinks as the chemo is pumped out over the two days.  The chemo almost completely emptied this time while the first time it fully emptied.

The fourth (and revealing photo) shows the bottle and tube passing across my body up to the port-o-cath on my upper right chest.  I am pointing to the pump part on the tubing.  The pump is on the lower side of the join to which I am pointing.

Chemo Round 2

All three days in my second chemotherapy round were amazingly good and I still can’t quite believe it.

Day 1, Monday 18 April

The following is an email I wrote to my immediate family at the end of Day 1.

This morning I did my washing and hung it out before I went to Royal Prince Alfred Hospital.  This afternoon I walked home and put out the rubbish!

I might be balmy but I am feeling good at the moment.  I am hoping the next few days go well too!

Barbara and I went to the hospital together and arrived just after 8.00 am.  I went so early to get my blood taken so as to speed up the process of it being checked and the chemo being made up in the Sydney Cancer Centre pharmacy.  Met with the Registrar Dr Demi, who was filling in for Dr Lisa Horvath who is on holiday.  He was pleased with my description of how things are going and liked the idea of the blog.  Reported to the chemo area to let them know I was around and paid my bill – another $95 for thousands of dollars worth of treatment.  And I get a Medicare rebate!

Went to the café and had a ham & cheese croissant and weak black tea.  Today I did puzzles in the Sydney Morning Herald and the Daily Telegraph, finished the Soul Stories book and started the Michael Kirby biography by J Brown.  This was a gift from the publisher, Federation Press.  They arranged for it to be signed to me by each of the author and Michael Kirby.  Our sons can be proud to be Fortians with quality and influential people such as Michael Kirby coming from your very significant school.  I have read the first two chapters – the first on his childhood up to and finishing Opportunity Class at Summer Hill and the second chapter on his time at Fort Street.  He was amazingly focused and studious.  I am finding the book inspirational and every bit as good as I thought it would be.

My treatment started after midday but was quicker and seemed more efficient today and I was home by 5.30 pm.  The nurse said my blood test showed things were going well.  I ate four sandwiches (two cheese and two tuna), my Smiths Salt & Vinegar chips (the doctor was interested, amused at their effect) and salted nuts as well as drinking lots and eating jelly and tinned fruit.

It is just about dinner time and I am looking forward to a good night’s sleep.

Day 2, Tuesday 19 April

I awoke day 2 still feeling good – took the anti nausea tablet, which I take before treatment on day 1 and when I wake up on the second and third days of home chemo treatment.  I have not taken any additional anti nausea tablets this round.

Monday night I had spoken by phone with Alison from Tamworth (we travelled with Alison and John on the River Cruise from Amsterdam to Budapest last year).  Alison mentioned that she and friends from Tamworth Uniting Church that are involved in doing artworks once or twice a year and displaying them at their Church and some others were coming to St Ives Uniting Church (in a northern Sydney suburb) to look at the Stations of the Cross art display.

Since 2007, the minister, Rev Douglas Purnell, himself an artist, has arranged for artists from around Australia to produce artworks so as to present the fifteen stations of the cross.  The artworks are returned to the artists at the end of the exhibit.  You can find out more about this project at www.stives.unitingchurch.org.au/StationsoftheCross.htm.

We arrived at the church about 10.30 am.  Alison and her friends were already there looking at the exhibit and having morning tea.  We joined them.  From 11.00 am till midday, Doug led us around the artworks, explaining how he arranged for them, how he briefed the artists, explaining each station of the cross and then describing and interpreting how he saw each artwork.  It was a wonderful, uplifting, inspiring and thought-provoking time.  Afterwards we went to a nearby home for lunch.

Alison, Barbara and I are standing in front of Station of the Cross 14, Jesus in the tomb - this is a charcoal drawing (you can see a bit of station 15, the resurrection)

Tuesday of round 1 I felt tired and inactive.  This Tuesday in round 2 I had a wonderful day and am so glad that Alison invited us to this exhibit.

Day 3, Wednesday 20 April

This third day was another good day.  I slept till about 8.30 am and so it was a slower morning getting going.  I revisited the financial case study I had written for the Australian Institute of Company Directors and found I needed to make some revisions, which I spent a couple of hours doing.

Walked to the hospital arriving at the appointed 3.00 pm time and was attended to immediately, with chemo bottle, tubing and needle removed and was on my way home by 3.15 pm.

Walking down Ross Street, passed the local doctor’s room, my physio, Sandra came out (she runs her practice there in the afternoons).  She asked me how I was feeling, told me to make sure I had enough rest, mentioned how she was still going strong 15 years after first being diagnosed and treated for cancer (3 times of cancer in 8 years) and said that she was praying for me as friends had prayed for her.

My encounter with Sandra symbolises how blessed I am with so many of you giving me your love and care, your good thoughts and prayers.  My journey through chemo round 2 being so smooth is part of this blessing.

My Strategy

In this blog entry I aim to describe my strategy for living in this phase of my life.

Early April, Katharine wrote this to me in an email:

I must say I was so touched by your visit here.  We really admire your courage and your continued zest for life even in the face of your health situation.  One of the things that really sticks in my mind is how much I enjoyed our trip to NZ and this was because you were so engaged in exploring, discovering, marvelling, seeing and experiencing all that this trip could offer.  The enthusiasm was infectious.  In the face of your current situation I see those same qualities, albeit in a very different context.  You really engage with what is happening to you rather than try and shut it away…..  You do live life to the full and have a rich experience to draw on.

Katharine has hit the nail on the head with how I have come to my strategy for living through this phase of my life.

Coping strategy

I aim to approach each new situation with a ‘blank’ mind.  By this I mean that my mind is together and at peace and there are no negative thoughts.  I am not thinking about ‘what if’ something goes wrong, does not work, they make a mistake, I am allergic to the chemo, etc.  How do I get my mind in this state?  Three ways:

1. Filling my mind with positive thoughts – you have helped me, indeed done this for me.  All your love, prayers/thoughts and care poured into my mind and heart from your emails, letters, phone calls and visits.  As I have mentioned before, I did not expect such a blessing from deciding to go public with my situation.  In addition to my own thinking, the power of your good and kind words has been wonderfully practical in filling my mind with positive thoughts and keeping my mind in a good place.
2. Trusting the medical system – each of the general practitioner, the gastroenterologist and oncologist saw that my need was great and quickly moved me through the medical system.  The services I have received have been outstanding and are provided to all Australian residents or permanent residents when they have serious medical need.  I have decided to trust the system and believe it will deliver its best for me.  I do ask questions, observe and ask for help when I am with doctors or at procedures in the hospitals.
3. Realising I cannot control my situation – my body sometimes is tired, sometimes feels strong – it responds to the things going on it and is at times busy handling the chemo.  While my mind is strong, I cannot simply think that I will make my body do something and expect it to respond.  I am going with the flow and trusting those who are looking after me, both medical people and my family.

Thus, when I went to Concord Hospital for the port-o-cath to be inserted, my mind was in a good place and I believed the operation would go well.  When I started chemotherapy round 1 two weeks ago I believed that I would be well looked after by the staff, that I would be well-briefed and I would be assisted with any problems that arose from the chemo.  I am aiming to approach chemo round 2 this Monday the same way.

Within this coping strategy I look for simple ways to do and arrange things and am aiming to live as normally as I can, that is, to live as much as I can like I did before I began the chemotherapy.

Avoiding failure

Along the way one or two of you have expressed the idea of perfection and encouraged me to see my body as whole without the cancer.  My bottom teeth are very crooked and would take a lot of physical movement to be straight or I could remove them and replace them with false teeth.  My asthma is controlled by medication but is closer to the surface now.  I think these things are real and so is the cancer identified within my body.  I ignore the reality at my peril.  Thus, I could be regarded as having failed because I do not see myself as perfect.

Many of you are praying for healing, some for a complete miracle.  Have your or I failed if I am not healed completely or if my life does not last another five or more years?

Even the advocates within cancer organisations encourage you to ‘fight the cancer’.  The motto for Relay for Cancer in Australia is ‘celebrate, remember, fight back’.  So, if I do not successfully beat the cancer have I failed?

Barbara has borrowed a British book by Deborah Hutton, What can I do to help? that contains 75 practical ideas to assist those with cancer.  It mentions the advocacy of ‘fighting back’ against the cancer and the risk of feeling you have failed if you die from the cancer.

How have I decided to handle these potential failures?  I have decided not to see them in terms of success or failure.  Rather, I see myself as living as best I can through this phase of my life and whether or not the cancer is defeated or goes into remission or not, I will be satisfied by living as best I can.  Different people have different experiences and outcomes with their cancer.  Modern medicine is achieving more outcomes where people are living longer, with better quality of life.

My goals

I have two goals. 

My aspirational goal is to be returned to wellbeing through the chemotherapy and yours and my thoughts and prayers reducing or eliminating the cancer in my lymph nodes and liver and enabling an operation to remove any remaining cancer in the bowel.

My base goal is to have a good quality of life for several more years but whatever the outcome, to live well in the situation in which I find myself; to live well day-by-day, as best I can.

Receiving Advice

Three male friends who have received chemotherapy treatment for different cancers have phoned in the last two weeks.  I have found it very helpful and useful to listen to their stories of their experiences with chemo.  All of them are well, which is wonderful and may they continue to be well.

Some have advised about our home arrangements.  We have found this more difficult to receive this advice and found it a bit traumatic.  I think we are more sensitive to some things than others.  Your concern about our home arrangements is for my ease of getting to a bathroom and moving around our two-storey home.  One simple suggestion arising from these discussions is having a urinal bottle beside my bed.  We have purchased one and, at night, it has already been helpful when the bathroom is occupied.  Love those simple solutions!

Reflecting on receiving advice Barbara and I have realised that several of you have been providing us with advice over a number of years and up to twenty years for one or two of you.  You have been living in situations where you and/or one or more close relatives have been dealing with serious health issues.  Typically, you have shared your stories along the way, explaining how you have coped with difficult times, how you have worked with the medical system, how you have had to advocate better care, how arrangements have been made at home to assist with care, how you have lived with grief. 

We have listened to these stories, which we can now recall to assist us.  On reflection we realise we have even made decisions about things we would follow and things we would do differently.  Thank you to those of you who have shared these journeys with us as your story telling over time is a very powerful way of receiving helpful advice from your experiences.

A Broad Church

You, my wider family and friends are a broad ‘church’ of beliefs including Christian, other faiths, belief in God and secular.  This leads to many different ways of expressing your love and concern for me.  I enjoy the variety.  I greatly value the broadness of my wider family and friends.

I am writing this blog entry because I feel a need to make a request concerning what some of you are writing.  This is the most difficult blog entry I have written so far.

In my late teens and early twenties I was very black and white.  I believed things, such as, the Catholic Church was not Christian and the Pope was the antichrist.  Through the intervening decades seeing faiths and cultures operating in different countries around the world and being married and having a family my view has broadened.  I used to think you could control people but my children taught me you cannot control anyone.  You can influence people.  Today I am very grateful to our friends Bill and Fran and their family for enrolling me for a year of masses and prayer to Our Mother of Perpetual Help, Mary, and to be remembered daily in prayer by all Redemptorists.

Some of you are concerned for my salvation and I know you are concerned because of your love and care.  In the first week after I sent out my initial letter one of our visitors talked to me about my need of salvation.  Recently I received a letter from a friend that included a letter from one of his friends writing of my need for salvation.  One email on this theme was beautifully written and framed my salvation in the love of God.

It is interesting when we consider the three great monotheistic faiths that they have a strong tradition of ‘in or out’.  In Judaism, you are Jew or gentile.  In Christianity you are Christian or non-Christian, believer or non-believer, saved or unsaved and you can be a ‘lapsed’ Catholic or, like me, under a protestant view, a ‘backslider’.  In Islam you are a believer or an infidel.

I look to a broader more inclusive view of belief.  I see things like love, respect for people, seeking the best for people, trying to see the best in people, trying to be non-judgmental but realistic as worthwhile pursuing.

I have found the approaches about my salvation disturbing to my mindset.  Some of you may say this is God speaking to me and, perhaps, it is.  But I have decided I am adopting and living in a positive mindset in this phase of my life.  I do not want to be distracted by unnecessary negativity.  Hence, I am requesting that you do not email, write, phone or visit with me to talk about my salvation.  You are welcome to pray for my salvation and I hope such prayers are framed in a positive rather than a negative and judgmental way.

You, my wider family and friends are a broad ‘church’ of beliefs including Christian, other faiths, belief in God and secular.  This leads to many different ways of expressing your love and concern for me.  I enjoy the variety.  I greatly value the broadness of my wider family and friends.  In this inclusiveness I want to walk with you on my journey.  I hope you will allow me to do so.

Travelling Well

Tomorrow is Chemo Round 2.  In the eleven days between chemo rounds I feel like I have improved.  I feel like the chemo is already reducing the cancer.  I am feeling more normal each day and have slept less during the days.  Friday and Saturday I did have afternoon naps, as we were with friends both nights and I wanted to stay up later.

I have found that it is salt and vinegar potato crisps that work best.  Plain ones not so well.  So, I am continuing to eat one small packet a day.  Our friend, Lynne who volunteers at the Sydney Cancer Centre on Tuesdays mentioned that a number of the chemo patients have their packets of salted chips.  Our friend, Lee, whose brother is dying from severe cancer, said he likes to eat salt and vinegar chips.  Interesting, isn’t it?

We have enjoined companionship with family and friends during these eleven days.  Pat visited for lunch on Monday bringing sunshine through our door with bright yellow roses and her wonderful ‘up’ approach to life.  Monday night we had family dinner with Al, Pete and Will. 

Bill came for morning tea and a chat on Tuesday morning.  We have children around the same age and have known each other since the mid 1980s when I started writing a Securities Institute subject. 

Wednesday late morning our accountant Andrew and Nicole a tax lawyer came to discuss an appropriate strategy for running our self-managed superannuation (pension) fund.  Barbara and I are very happy with the way to move forward with our fund.  Then we went out to lunch with our neighbours Joy and Graeme for lunch at the Persian Room, Harris Street, Pyrmont where we enjoyed exquisite Iranian food.  Toward the end of lunch Barbara noticed Chris riding his bicycle up Harris Street, I raced out, called his name loudly and he dropped in and chatted with us for a few minutes. 

Thursday lunch was spent at Phil and Katharine’s place.  Friday I spent an hour and a half in some financial coaching and completed the financial part of a case study for the Australian Institute of Company Directors that I worked on throughout the week.  Friday night we spent a wonderful evening at ESFNG (Every Second Friday Night Group), a small group of friends emanating from Petersham Baptist Church.  It was so good being among loving and caring friends. 

Saturday we were back at Katharine and Phil’s for lunch and to enjoy photos from Carolyn and Judy’s recent five week holiday in South America.  I had some white wine and found that my body did not like it.  I finally settled down after eating the steamed plums and yoghurt for desert about an hour later.  I have found that alcohol, coffee, rockmelon and avocado are too strong.

Saturday night Lee and Michael came for dinner and we were mesmerised by Lee telling the story of journeying with her brother as he living with terminal cancer.  His faith, love of his family, approach to life and approach to his looming death is amazing and inspirational. 

Today my friend John dropped in for morning tea and at night our family celebrated our youngest's 26th birthday dinner.  We enjoyed delicious calzones and a scrumptious chocolate birthday cake.

Post Chemo Round 1

Today is Sunday 10 April.  Our youngest turns 26 soon.  My Dad’s birthday was 15 April and, if he was alive, he would be 114!

Thursday was the lowest day in the sense of feeling low in energy for the first day after completing the first round of chemotherapy.  During that night I worked out why I saturated the bed the night before.  I was too hot.  So, now I am using a cotton blanket over the sheet.  I am hottest around the shoulders and neck.  So, I start the night with no blanket there and a single cover lower down.  During the coolest part of the night, I tend to pull the blanket up to my shoulders and double its thickness around my legs and feet.  This flexibility solves the problem of perspiring.

Friday I awoke feeling much more normal.  During the day, my light morning exercise was pruning a bush that was growing over our side of the fence from the neighbour’s yard.  In the afternoon I brought in Pete’s washing (done by Barbara) and packed away most of his clothes in the wardrobe drawer and made his bed (sheets only).  After a break I vacuumed the downstairs.  The security door was installed at the dining room outside door between 12.30 and 2.00.  I also did some other work (mainly for our Super Fund) on the computer.  I did not have any snoozes during the day and went to bed around 10.00 pm, after watching New Tricks on ABC TV.

Saturday I felt OK but not as good as Friday.  My asthma has been bothering me more and I have increased my asthma medications.  Normally, I take the medication in the morning and at night but I have added one or two extra doses during the day.  Sharynne and Brendon McLeod visited for lunch.  Brendon did a theoretical music exam at the Glebe Library.  Will and Christina dropped in for an hour or so around mid afternoon.  Late afternoon, Barbara and I went for a walk for about half an hour.  Back home I felt a bit wheezy and down on energy.  I decided to eat the rest of the plain potato crisps.  Immediately my energy lifted and the wheeziness disappeared!  On the Thursday afternoon I had some chips and my energy level immediately improved.  I am thinking the salt must be part of what I need and decided to incorporate a small packet of chips in my daily diet.  I went to bed at 9.00 pm which works better for my feeling rested.

So, here I am Sunday feeling pretty good, listening to John Williamson, a very well-regarded Australian country music singer and song writer.  He has a great mixture of serious and funny songs.  I seem to be adopting a daily routine that includes

• getting up around 7.30/8.00 am
• eating one or two eggs (soft boiled, scrambled, fried or omelette) with toast and vegemite (thick – I like the vitamin B and its seems to help my asthma), extras in the eggs such as cheese and mushrooms, two orange juices and cup of tea
• later, eating some cereal adding fruit and raisins
• before lunch eating a small package of potato crisps
•  jelly (Jello) and tinned fruit in the late afternoon – this is a different way of taking liquid as the jelly turns to liquid in your stomach
•  dinner is usually some type of delicious stew that Barbara has made

I did not expect potato crisps to be such a magic potion.  It is certainly an easy way of helping energy and better than taking extra medication for my asthma.  I will keep having a small packet of crisps daily and ask at the hospital during chemo round 2 if they have any idea why they are so helpful for me.

I can taste my food and am deliberately keeping it up, not in big helpings but more, smaller helpings spread over the day.  And the liquid intake is at least two litres per day.  It does get a bit tedious drinking and eating so much but I know from the advice received this will help me.

I have not slept during the day since Friday.  I am hoping that these good days will continue up to chemo round 2 on Monday 18 April.

So, overall, I am comfortable with only a few niggles – seems that the chemo bad effects are being minimised and I am hoping that good effects are being maximised!

I am completing and reviewing this blog entry listening to Kasey Chambers, ‘Barricades & Brickwalls’.  She is another successful Australian country music singer.  Barbara and I, with our neighbours Joy and Graeme, have seen her and her husband and others perform at her brother’s farm in the hinterland of the central coast.

Chemo - Round 1, Days 2 & 3

Days 2 and 3 were heavier going than day 1.  I felt tired, indeed, though sleeping a lot at night, I slept for 1 to 1.5 hours around midday each day.  I have been advised not to sleep in the afternoon because that can change my night sleeping patterns.  Light exercise is recommended.  So, the walk to and back from the hospital on Wednesday filled the bill on the third day.

My third and final round of chemo was contained within a balloon inside a well-sealed bottle.  As mentioned in my last update, there is a pump that operates through the warmth of the stomach.  It is fitted to the tube between the chemo bottle and the port-o-cath.  Mine worked really well as the balloon was empty when the bottle was removed.  The bottle and the tubing were all thrown away.  In fact only metal containers and metal items that can be sterilised to be re-used are re-cycled.  Thus, I am quite heavily adding to planet pollution now.  But no one wants to risk items infecting other people.

At night I am sleeping from around 8.30 to 6.30/7.30 but on Tuesday night I had to get up every hour or hour and a half and use the bathroom.  When I told the nurse Wednesday afternoon they took a urine sample to test for infection.  I rang today and found out there is no infection.  The nurse suggested I drink more before mid/late afternoon and less after that.  But it can be hard work drinking 2 to 3 litres on a chemo day and 2 litres other days.  I am hoping I will not be using the bathroom as much as time passes because it is a too much frequented room in my day and night!

At the moment it takes me till around 1.00 pm to feel energetic enough to do some work.  The tiredness is just with me all the time.

My appointment for removal of the chemo bottle, tube and pump was at 3.00 pm but I was not seen till after 4.00.  They see patients in chronological sequence of appointment times.  This time I read the parts of the Institute of Chartered Accountants Journal I was interested in and left it in the paper-recycling bin.  I had deliberately drunk less prior to going to the appointment but as time passed, I really needed some liquid and food – biscuits followed by a turkey and cranberry sauce sandwich.  Some much needed energy returned.

Wednesday night I had the most amazing experience.  At about 9.30 pm I awoke and the bed felt really wet.  I went and used the bathroom and called Barbara.  Under the room light we could see that my side of the bedding was saturated and as Barbara removed it, so was the mattress protector, the top of the mattress and my pillow.  It was like someone had thrown a bucket of water.  I felt dry.  My body seemed to have flushed itself.  We checked my temperature, which was 37 degrees centigrade, just above normal.  Barbara put two towels on top of the mattress and a towel around the pillow and we made up the bed.  I went back to sleep pretty readily but with a light covering and halfway through the night I needed more covering.  So last night and today my world pollution contribution was lots of washing powder and water usage.  Overall it seemed to be a cleansing experience.  We are hoping it is a one-off situation.

Chemo - Round 1, Day 1

This is what I wrote to my Edinburgh family last night to tell them about my first day of Chemo.

The first day of chemo has gone well.  I am catching up on emails before going to bed....

Arrived at Gloucester House at 9.00 am and was briefed by one of the nurses around 9.15 am.  The pharmacy had not prepared my chemos and other items and so I had time to fill in.  Went and had some fruit and a tea at the cafeteria.  Returned to the waiting room and did most of the puzzles in the Daily Telegraph there.

My treatment actually started after midday.  Two different chemos and other items were distributed until 6.40 pm.  The first chemo took about 2 hours as did the second chemo.  Next time the second chemo will only take one hour and after that a half hour.  It is pretty potent and so initial doses are more slowly given.  The treatment started with a tablet designed to stop nausea and then a liquid also designed to stop nausea.

During the day I read my Chartered Magazine, information on the chemo, finished your Christmas book of Australian essays and began Soul Stories.  I am sure that Monday 18 will also be a long day as I will need to take a blood test, see the doctor and wait for the chemo to be made up.

I left with my third chemo in a bottle in my jeans pocket and attached to my port-o-cath via a tube.  On the tube is this mini pump device that is taped to my stomach.  The warmth of my stomach makes it work.  I will go back to the hospital Wednesday afternoon to have it removed.

On each of Tuesday and Wednesday I will take one of these anti-nausea tablets and I have other tablets to help with that too.

So far John Tully’s prayer of minimising the bad effects and maximising the good effects seems to be occurring. 

Keeping Perspective II

Two of you have specifically responded to my blog Keeping Perspective entry.  I do appreciate being helped to keep my situation in a realistic perspective.  When I am feeling lower (like now), I am reminded that I am one among many and many of my fellow human beings have lives of much greater suffering.

Here are the two perspectives:

• A newsletter from a project in Kampala, Uganda that includes a number of stories in its two pages that shows the harsh difficulties that people face and the liberation received by some.  You can go to their website at: <www.comeuganda.org.au>.  You might find it very slow or too hard to access the newsletters, but the home page link given here comes up quickly.
• Two different cases of cancer and their outcomes.  ‘A very nasty metastatic Sarcoma cancer for 10 years now and has endured 6 or 7 different lots of Chemotherapy so lost and regrown all her hair many times(not all Chemo makes your hair fall out).  She has also had radiotherapy, special diets, meditation, and operations for bowel obstructions.  She is only 51 and has had 10 very good years except for a few days here and there feeling sick from Chemo which she says is worth it’.  The cancer has now returned and she has retired.  One lot of chemo causing a supposedly inoperable brain tumour to disappear.  Without the proof of the biopsy they would have doubted the diagnosis.

Bathurst, Saturday 2 April

Saturday we travelled from Glebe to Bathurst and back to visit friends, arriving for lunch and leaving about 7.30 pm.  It was the one part of the South Australia trip we kept.

We arrived to a delicious cheese and tapas lunch, talked a lot; slept for over an hour in the ‘grannie flat’; went to Relay for Cancer rally at the show ground the two children played in a band while people began their walking around the showground following the official opening; talked some more and had an early dinner.

The dinner was special – spicy lamb with potato and salad and Anne’s famous sponge cake followed by photos with these friends wearing their DHC 60th birthday T-shirts.

Our two families are so intertwined we think of ourselves as an extended and close family.  Each generation is about 15 years apart from the other.  In the 1990’s Brien strongly advised Barbara and I to live life while we could – take the travelling opportunities, visit with friends and family, because you do not know what the future holds.  We are glad we followed Brien’s advice.

On the way home I felt very tired and wanted to say to Barbara, ‘let’s stay at that motel’, but I knew I would be much happier waking up in my own bed.  When I got into bed I was shivery.  We put an extra blanket on and Barbara prayed for me to settle down and sleep, which I did.  It was a good night’s sleep.

Black Humour II

Reading your words of encouragement, display of love and telling me what I mean to you has been like hearing what is said about people at their funerals. 

I am so glad that I decided to be open, because, due to the seriousness of my situation, you have wanted to tell me how you feel.  Your kind and generous words have boosted my morale enormously.

Becoming a 'Bionic Man'

Friday morning 1 April, my youngest took me (on April Fool’s Day) to Concord Hospital.  We arrived at 8.30 am.  By 9.10 am I had been readied for surgery with a catheter inserted in my right arm, a visit from the doctor to explain what was going to occur and the risks and nurses explaining other matters.

I only had to remove my shirt and put on a hospital patient gown.  I walked into the operating theatre, got up on the operating table and nurses and radiologists started putting stuff on me including ECG and blood pressure monitoring, sanitising the upper chest area where the incision was to be made and placing cloth around it so that it also covered my face (I was glad I would not see what was happening), giving me oxygen, positioning the CT scan, feeding in the sedative, especially the local anaesthetic.  The doctor checked my innards in my upper chest with the CT scanner and marked my upper chest ready for the operation.

When he started operating he asked me to talk – so I talked about our European holiday.  The talking helps the patient remain alert, relaxes the body and makes it easier and more accurate for inserting the port-o-cath.  After a while he asked me to be quiet and continued the operation.

One short piece of information on the internet describes the port-o-cath describes it as ‘a device that is used to make administration of chemotherapy easier. It can also reduce the risk of certain chemotherapy related complications. This device is placed under the skin, in upper part of the chest. It has a small reservoir that is connected to a major vein inside the chest. This device facilitates administration of chemotherapy into the venous system.’

After the operation I was wheeled on a bed to be X-rayed.  (I did offer to walk as I felt good.  They declined the offer.)  The X-ray was done so that the doctor could check that the operation had been successful.

I was then wheeled back to the general area, where I consumed three plain cheese sandwiches and three cups of tea.  Will sent an SMS to his siblings to let them know things had gone well.  The lead nurse checked that I was OK.  I was allowed off my bed and sat with my son and showed him how to do cryptic crosswords using the simple one in the Daily Telegraph newspaper.  Once the doctor gave the ‘all clear’, we walked to the car park and headed off.  We visited Barbara at the Op Shop on the way home to show her I was OK.  Once home, I had two glasses of orange juice and some leftover Thai food on rice followed by a cup of tea.  And now I am finishing this entry and about ready to launch my blog.

So, thank you all for your loving support, prayers and positive thoughts.