Travelling Well

My journey between chemotherapy round 3 and round 4 has been amazingly good.  I still find it hard to believe.  I am feeling very well!

Chemo side-affects

Thursday (after the chemo) was my lowest day again.  The tingling fingers sensation occurred on several more occasions for about three days.  Lost my voice to a degree (as had happened on other occasions) like I had laryngitis and the asthma continued to be a bit troublesome.  However, between Thursday and Saturday my voice returned to normal strength (for first time since starting treatment) and my asthma returned to normal, which means it doesn’t bother me.  In fact I changed from Seretide back to the milder Tilade.  (I take one puff in morning and one at night.  When the asthma was more troublesome I sometimes took medication four times in day, including Ventolin.)  My energy levels rebounded very quickly so that by Saturday 6 May I felt more energetic than I have since Christmas.

Gardening

Between Saturday (6 May) and today, Sunday (9 days) I spent an average of two hours on seven of those days working in the garden: chopping down two palm trees, removing two stumps, moving soil, demolishing most of a raised garden brick wall and cleaning cement and mortar from a number of bricks so as they can be reused.  In addition, I am walking further including walking to Leichhardt and back on Saturday and to Pyrmont today.  I (and Barbara) am still amazed that I have felt so well.  I only had one short afternoon sleep and that was yesterday.  I did no more gardening work today as my body was telling me it needed a break.

Individual journeys

I have become more and more aware how each cancer sufferer has their own very individual journey.  I am fortunate and very grateful that my journey is so positive so far and acknowledge the love, positive thoughts and prayers of my family and friends.  Many of you have shared journeys of other cancer sufferers that have been healed or had significant remissions.  But it is important for us to remember that this is not so for everyone.  And I want to share one such story.

In my ‘travelling well’ entry of 17 April, I mentioned our friends Lee and Michael visiting for dinner and Lee sharing the story of her journey with her brother, Malcolm as he was travelling with untreatable cancer of the oesophagus.  Malcolm died last Tuesday and the funeral service is being held Monday 16 May, the first day of my chemo round 4.

My understanding is that Malcolm, feeling unwell, having difficulty eating and with pains in parts of his body went to more than one doctor seeking help.  The doctors thought he was well and told him so.  It was some time before further investigation was made and the cancer of the oesophagus was found.  By that time it had spread so far through the oesophagus it was inoperable.  He was offered chemotherapy but advised it would not do that much and so declined.  Thus he was looking at making his final journey on this earth.  Naturally the medical profession aimed for it to be with a minimum of pain but there were a few instances where problems occurred and needed to be addressed.

As Malcolm progressed from a robust, healthy looking individual to a skeleton he lived mainly in the downstairs at his parents home and occasionally at the hospice.  His family and certain close friends tended to him and prayed with him.  He looked forward, not backward, based on his beliefs.  He did not blame anyone for his situation.  He faced his situation positively and with his strong Christian faith.  He planned his funeral in great detail.  He was inspirational to those around him. 

Now his family and friends are grieving and for his parents it must be especially sad because we as parents expect our children to outlive us.  One of my treasured memories is of walking with my Aunty Phyl on the last six weeks of her life.  She was 95, aware she was dying, and ready to move on.  She was amazingly open and we had conversations about her coming death, her funeral, our lives and her legacy to her family and friends.  It is very special when you can have such a close walk with a person facing death so openly.  I think that Lee and others around Malcolm will have such memories to reflect upon, which will enrich their memories of Malcolm.

Like Lee and Michael’s sons, Nathan, Joshua and Isaac said, I am glad that ‘Mal is free of pain and with The Lord now’.  I think Malcolm lived well; Malcolm died well.  It is not a matter of right or wrong, good or bad, winning or losing the fight against cancer; for each of us it is about how we choose to live our journey.  Each person’s journey with cancer is an individual journey.

Socialising

Again, Barbara and I or just I have socialised with family and friends:

• Thursday lunch at Pam and Allan’s
• Friday the Liz, Chris, Lorraine and Geoff coming for dinner
• Monday afternoon David joining us for afternoon tea
• Tuesday midday, Palace Cinema, Leichhardt, watching ‘Mrs Carey’s Concert’ documentary, deservedly awarded 4.5 stars by some reviewers – story of MLC school staging a concert in the Sydney Opera House every two years – a must see movie http://mrscareysconcert.com
• Tuesday, Jillian joins us for a delicious dinner
• Wednesday lunch at Katharine and Phil’s with Judy coming too
• Thursday lunching at Clovers, Booth Street, Annandale with our neighbours Joy and Graeme
• Friday late morning tea with friend Barb at Bellevue House, Blackwattle Bay, Glebe, by the harbour
• Saturday afternoon tea with Steve on Norton Street in Leichhardt
• Sunday breakfast with Allen, Dianne and John (working colleagues of many years standing) at Savichees www.savichees.com.au bottom of Harris Street in Pyrmont

61st birthday and Mothers’ Day

Sunday, 8 May, I turned 61 and Barbara celebrated Mothers’ Day.  It was very special.

My brother flew over from South Australia joining us for the day.

Most of us played yahtzee www.yahtzeeonline.org , my brother and I played 12 games of backgammon http://backgammon.org (winning six each, he had led 5 to 1) and most (especially the men) played a new game, Perudo www.perudo.com.

Our children provided lunch that consisted of entrée of cheese and champagne, main course of roast lamb and vegetables (cooked Jamie Oliver style) and dessert (afternoon tea time) of lemon tarts topped with creamy soft meringue.  Mine had a candle in it!

My birthday and Barbara’s Mothers’ Day present from our offspring is that we will be having professional family portraits taken.  I had only thought about this a few days before as they had a portrait done of the four of them in 2004.  I was looking at hanging one of those portraits in the dining room and was thinking it would be wonderful to have a new one.  Now we will – the perfect present!