Pristine Blood

I have decided to reduce the frequency of my blog entries to about once a month.  Thank you for those who told me what you would prefer.  I am glad some of you are waiting for this entry.  Here it is!

Monday 21 November I had maintenance chemo round 3.  The Avastin only takes about an hour but I was at the hospital from 12.30 to 5.30.  Had my blood test at 12.30; went to lunch; saw Dr Lisa at 3.00 (appointment 2.30); finally began chemo at 4.15.  Reminded me that I need to be patient.

The good news is that Dr Lisa said my blood is ‘pristine’!  The three indicators of liver function are all normal.  Only one of the oodles of indicators was 3 points above normal and this was a typical side effect of the oral chemo I now take. I am almost a week in to the two weeks of Xeloda tablets.  Then a week off and next chemo round begins 12 December. 

My annoying side effect continues to be the numbness in my fingers and toes.  To keep this in context, I remind myself that I have had relatively few problems compared with most people.  I saw Ingrid on Monday afternoon.  She was having her 40th chemo visit and is currently having chemo at the hospital once a week.  This is a lot of times in her two-year journey.  I notice that I seem a bit more tired with the tablets but, on the other hand, I have resumed my usual work routine.

This month I have facilitated the financial modules of the Company Directors course five times and am scheduled for two more in December.  On Wednesday I was working in Newcastle and took the opportunity to visit a cousin and her family on the Tuesday.  I am on the Gold Coast working in early December and am visiting friends while there.  I am also updating the financial modules of the Company Directors course this and next month.  Feels good to be doing this.  When I am feeling a bit tired I talk to myself to make sure I perform well at the courses.

The weekend of 12 and 13 November I finally finished the side garden – a six months effort.  It is now planted with vegetables.  Barbara and our youngest helped by doing the final earth refilling.  Various vegetable plots are now yielding produce.

Completed side garden, with netting to protect
vegetables from the voracious possums

Side garden looking toward back gate

One of my dad's 60 year old coach
screws used to hold up lattice wire

Reclaimed lawn that has yielded radishes and beans to date

The smallest vegetable patch

I have continued some social activities but at a slower pace.  I have felt like a bit more space – maybe partly due to working again.  This year we decided to permanently reduce our Thanksgiving and concentrate on family.  Thus, yesterday, Thursday night, November 24, Barbara and I celebrated Thanksgiving with family and in-laws.  Tonight we are celebrating Thanksgiving with Barbara’s small group ESFNG.  We appreciated our friends understanding of why we decided to reduce the size of the celebration.

Buttons has now been here almost five weeks.  Last night, for the first time, she slept in the laundry with Muggles.  Today (at least in the morning), I am keeping her in the laundry and outside to help her be more of an outdoor cat.  She has done very well adjusting to lots of people and meeting another cat for the first time.  It was fascinating watching her gradually discover the garden.  She had never been in one before.  First she spent some days tentatively walking on the paving blocks along the side of the house.  After about three days she jumped up into one of the wall gardens and loved it!  She has ‘cat grass’ in a pot.  So, when she first leapt into the garden she started sampling all the plants.  She now realises that only grass is for her.  Then she explored the rest of the backyard making it down to the back gate.  I don’t think she has been beyond that.  She has also discovered the small lizards.  A number have lost their tails and been killed in ‘cat and mouse’ play.  Muggles has been very tolerant but has let Buttons know that he was here before her!

Buttons leaving the laundry

Buttons in the backyard

Muggles remains king of his castle

Today it is only a month to Christmas.  My next writing will be the annual Christmas letter.  See you then.

Still Alive and Kicking! Reflecting on my Chemo Journey

In March I discovered I had bowel and inoperable liver cancer.  If I took no action I was told I had eight months to live.  So, here I am in my ‘death’ month, November; glad I agreed to the chemotherapy.

Yesterday, Dr Lisa, told me that only one of the three liver function measurements from my blood test was abnormal.  It was at 68, instead of the normal 60.  So, thankfully, my liver is working excellently.

In simple terms, as long as my liver functions well, I will have a healthy life.  I am feeling very well, with reasonable energy and only suffering from chemo side effects.  The main one that continues to bug me is the numbness in my fingers and toes.  This seems to have continued to escalate.  Dr Lisa says to be patient.  It will begin to subside soon, taking between two and twelve months to disappear.

For six months I received the main chemo treatment being three chemos over three days, every two weeks.  My tolerance was good with not many side effects and no serious problems – no trips to emergency like some I have talked with.  Just as well as I had planned my activities during the eleven days between treatments with no expectation that I would have to adjust.  So, imagine my surprise when treatment no. 11 was delayed a week!  It resulted in a three week instead of two week gap between treatments to fit in with my existing bookings.  Overall, I have been able to live pretty normally.

I will always remember the love you showered upon me when I advised by email and letter of my situation.  The dozens of emails, some phone calls and visits showed me how much I and my family are loved.  All your good wishes and prayers added to my optimism and confidence as I began my treatment.  Three of you who have also received chemo for your cancers helped me by ringing and sharing your stories.  I remember thinking and drafting my blog entry to advise how I wanted to be treated when I was finding some concerns expressed to me to great to bear.  Thank you for respecting my wishes.  Your good wishes and prayers are being answered and continue to sustain me.

So far there have been four CT scans.  The second showed a 30% reduction in the cancer in the liver, followed by another 9% in the third and then stable to the fourth.  The measurement is based on the two large lesions.  When we looked over the four sets of scans, the liver looks much clearer now.  It seems most of the little lesions, which looked like a milky cloud, have disappeared.  Dr Lisa says it is reasonable to describe the cancer as dormant.

Now I am in maintenance mode with Avastin chemo once every three weeks plus eight Xeloda® Capecitabine chemo tablets a day for two of the three weeks.  A CT scan will be taken every three months to monitor the cancer.  My hope is that the cancer remains dormant for a long, long, long time!

I am also grateful to my fellow Australians for making my journey much easier on my mind and pocket.  During my journey we have been aware of the debate and angst in the USA over public health benefits.  While Americans think education is a public good, they do not think the same of health.  Australia follows the European model where we regard health as a public good, like education.  I can assure you that this has provided me with enormous comfort.  I remember leaving Dr Lisa’s office with my daughter after my first consultation and stepping on to the footpath and being so aware that my fellow Australians were supporting me.  I understand that each round of the three chemos cost about $10,000.  I only had to pay a few hundred dollars.  This cost does not include the use of the public hospital day facilities.  The label on my Xeloda® tablets states they cost $1,383.92.  I am only charged $34.20.  Under our system, anyone is fully treated and, if unable to bear much financially, it is all for free.  Under our system, Barbara and my financial situation remains intact.

I am reminded of studying Mazlow’s Hierarchy of Needs, represented on a triangle, the needs go from physiological to safety to love/belonging to esteem to self-actualisation.  The lowest two – physiological and safety – are regarded as hygiene factors.  This means that humans need these in place in order to feel basically OK.  The three higher needs are motivators but people are unlikely to be motivated by these if the hygiene factors are not in place.  I see public goods such as education and health as part of the safety level.  It is interesting to note that the Nordic countries always rate highly on a ‘happiness’ index.  They are among highest taxed countries in the world, most generous in overseas aid on a per capita basis and big providers of the public good to all their citizens.  I think I would not be as happy as I am or feeling so well looked after, if Australia did not have a strong public health system.

Which brings me to the Sydney Cancer Centre at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital.  The care, service and attention I have received there over the last seven months has been excellent.  As Alison said to me at the beginning: it might be a world standard facility but they are stretched.  This is true.  I have seen the nurses very tired at the end of a long day.  But, patients are always well looked after by all staff.  We patients just need to be patient!

How am I feeling at the moment?  Frustrated by the continuing numbness in my fingers and toes!  Waiting for it to start to subside.  On another angle, it is remarkable to have a sense of numbness and feeling at the same time.  I have had some funny instances resulting from dropping items due to the numbness.  Two more serious ones occurred since my previous blog entries.  I was about three rungs up the stepladder that was leaning against the brick wall between us and the neighbours.  I was chipping cement rendering from the top of the wall.  The phone rang.  I scurried down.  Next thing I knew, I was sitting on my bottom on the pavers.  I have no recollection of falling or landing!  Shortly after I was holding a hand held sledge hammer.  Next thing, it was on the ground beside but not on my right foot!  Again, I had no sensation of the hammer slipping through my fingers.  Needless to say, I am taking more care now.  I have to use my eyes much more.  I cannot assume my hands and feet will automatically do things.

People are interested in my feelings.  Much of my blog is like a diary.  When I share the activities I am undertaking, these reflect my feelings.  These activities and places help provide a sense of happiness and meaning.  I have enjoyed seeing many friends and family members in many places over the last seven months.  I am so aware that the people in our lives are such an integral part to the meaning and enjoyment of life.

Where better to finish than to thank my close family for their love and support.  The news was a shock to us all, requiring time for adjustment.  I think now that things have settled down and we are ‘normal’.  My family has made it very clear how much they love me and want to be with me.  We have seen my brother three times this year.  Our eldest and his wife came home from Edinburgh and, with our daughter, are living with us permanently at the moment.

So in a time of challenge I feel very blessed, very well and well looked after.

The Mornington Peninsula

Barbara and I enjoyed a week’s holiday at the Nepean Country Club, Boneo, on the Mornington Peninsula in the last week in October.  Due to the good winter rains the peninsula countryside look like the rolling hills of Britain.

We drove down on Saturday 22 October, leaving at 5 am and arriving at 5 pm with breakfast at McDonalds Gundagai and lunch at a café in Seymour.  Dual carriageway is only missing at Tarcutta, Holbrook and a small town further south.  All but the Holbrook bypass should be open before Christmas.  In Economics class, during my final year at High School, in 1968, our teacher (who loved Mao) told us that if a dual carriageway was completed between Sydney and Melbourne, billions of health costs arising from motor accidents would be saved.  Now, 43 years later, this is nearly achieved.  Australia has been slow developing some important infrastructure items!

London Bridge Beach

Sunday we enjoyed the farmers’ markets at Red Hill buying some lovely products for the week’s feasting.  Later we drove along viewing some ocean beaches to Portsea, last town on the peninsula.  We drove back through Sorrento along Port Phillip Bay.  Monday was rainy and we hibernated, reading our books.  Tuesday we went on a resort run wine tasting excursion to nearby Cups Vineyard.  Later we searched for and found some delectable local cheeses and then meandered along the coastline of Western Port.  Wednesday was another resort excursion to the street markets at Mornington.  We drove via the beautiful Arthur’s Peak (named after the one in Edinburgh) and returned along the Port Phillip Bay picturesque shoreline.  Thursday we returned to Arthur’s Peak and did a circuit walk followed by a visit to historic Heronswood.  Friday we visited more beaches along the Bass Strait coast.  See our holiday photos at http://gallery.me.com/davidheyc#100152.

Point Leo

Flinders West Head

Cape Schanck

Arthurs Seat view to peninsula

Heronswood

St Andrews Beach

Saturday we drove to Melbourne to shop and visit friends.  We enjoyed dinner at friends Chris and Alison, their children and other friends Fiona and Angus.  We had stimulating conversation discussing world issues.  Sunday we drove home.

Other recent activities include dinner at the Rice Paper with a cousin and husband, an exhilarating Lennon McCartney Songbook concert, working on the raised garden, lunch with a long time professional colleague, facilitating for Company Directors and meeting with a new financial planner.

Oh ….. And we returned to everyone living at Club 55 – our children, one wife plus us – seven!  So, here we are in four bedrooms plus the second lounge room, with one bathroom and an extra toilet.  Just as well we all get along so well!

And there is more!  On the first Sunday we were away, Buttons moved in.  Buttons is a three year old, white and black cat; smaller and thinner than Muggles; always lived inside and is a scaredy cat.  Buttons is warming up to us and seems to bond with women faster.  Her previous owner could not have a cat in her new accommodation and, so, we volunteered to have her.  Today she is wandering around the house more, hissing at Muggles when they were in the same room (Muggles couldn’t care less) and letting me stroke her a few times.