Moving Around

Ugandans talk of ‘moving around’ rather than travelling, driving, cycling, walking.  Today I am talking about moving around to and from and in the Chris O’Brien Lifehouse.

Barbara and I had a very enjoyable consultation with my oncologist Dr Kate Mahon and registrar Blossom.  I had already seen Kate at the café earlier.  My blood test shows that the marker that measures the cancer tumours is at 1.7, well within the normal range of zero to 3.0.  Back in August when I started this third round of six months of chemo the reading was 20.0.  Last consultation it was 3.  Now it is 1.7.  This is more than a 90% reduction.  Wonderful!

No wonder Kate and Blossom thought I looked well.  Last night I was up for three hours due to jetlag from returning home from Kamuli, Uganda late Saturday night.  Rather than watching TV, I did BezCan work.  The BezCan Project contributes to my wellbeing by providing an outward focus.  I was certainly busy during my two week seventh visit to Uganda.  I averaged three or more meetings a day and last Thursday, my final day in Kamuli, I had 7 meetings two of which were for 2 hours.  I also wrote many reports and issued two BezCan newsletters.  I relaxed by playing Solitaire.  My best day was in the first week where I won 11 games!

Early this morning I had a pleasant walk from Club 55 to the Lifehouse: along Ross Street, into the University of Sydney, up to the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital and along Missenden Road.  Through this third round of six months of chemo I am finding the walk home the difficult.  I feel weak when I leave the hospital.  I take care walking home.  This afternoon I am motivated to work on BezCan and DHC Blog matters rather than my usual TV watching.

Today I am sharing photos of this morning’s walk and being within The Chris O’Brien Lifehouse.

7am waiting to cross Parramatta Road and enter Sydney University

Walking along the Sydney Uni entry road

Passing the veterinary buildings

Looking at the new grandstand being erected at No 2 Oval

Back of the new grandstand

Walking between buildings

Walking toward the new Charles Perkins Centre with St John College in view

Passing the back of the Charles Perkins Centre

Walking between RPA Hospital and McCafe

Walking along Missenden Road

The Chris O'Brien Lifehouse in view

Arriving at the Chris O'Brien Lifehouse

Moving around inside the Chris O'Brien Lifehouse

The entry foyer

One of the many quality toilets

Looking into the blood testing unit where my blood was taken this morning

Looking into the cafe off the entry foyer

Patients, carers and staff enjoy the cafe

Looking into the atrium

Looking up to the roof of the atrium

Beginning my treatment in one of 44 treatment cubicles in the chemo suite

Why Do I Have It So Good?

My favourite regular article in the monthly Company Director magazine of the Australian Institute of Company Directors is The Futurist by Phil Ruthven AM FAICD, Chairman, IBISWORLD. His article in the November 2015 edition is entitled Becoming a smart country.  Australia has the sixth highest standard of living ‘of 230 nations and dependencies, and the highest with a population of over 10 million’ – better than the USA, Britain, Germany, France, Canada, India – wow!  This graph from the article shows how our standard of living has grown from 1780 to 2010.

Australia is a mixture of being a ‘lucky country’ well endowed with minerals and metals and smart country.  I am the beneficiary of a health system usually ranked as number 4 or 5 in the world.  I recently read an article where our education system has been ranked best in the world in 2015 by one worldwide review.  A challenge for we Australians is to maintain our situation.  This is more likely under our new prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, than the previous one, Tony Abbott.