Thursday, February 3, 2011

Two chemos down, two to go.

Just a short posting to say that since the last posting I have felt relatively well, but the 2nd chemo session at The Christie yesterday was even longer than the 1st one (didn’t finish till 10.30pm) – partly because the blood samples weren’t taken till 9am (half an hour after my appointment) and it took 3 hours to analyse them and make up the chemicals for the drips.  Then there were delays in the treatment room and I wasn’t called up till 2.30pm (good job I’d brought a good supply of food).  The nurse struggled to find a good enough vein for the cannula.  After 2 attempts, he called a senior nurse who managed to find one straight away (so I have 3 bruises rather than only 1), and then the drips were started around 3pm.  Visitors all arrived on time to entertain me, but I was a bit too tired to fully appreciate them (did enjoy Drew’s holiday photos of Ramblers holiday in Turkey though).

Today has been a good day (as per the 1st chemo session) so I’m preparing to be hit hard tomorrow and for the next few days.

However, my problems have been as nothing compared with what Karen and Peter have had to cope with.  On Monday morning, Karen was de-icing the windscreen of her car, parked in Northampton outside the house of the friend she stays with when down there, when a car crashed into it (narrowly missing her legs).  The car being driven by someone who hadn’t properly de-iced their windscreen and didn’t see Karen’s parked car!!  Eventually police cleared all away, but Karen had to spend the rest of the day negotiating with insurance company and getting car taken away and a courtesy car arranged.  This turned out to be a huge car and an automatic which she didn’t feel comfortable driving.  Then the garage decided that her car was actually drivable and so the courtesy car was taken back.  But, her car had to be left in Northampton to be fixed and so Karen had to come back to Manchester by train on Wednesday.  There are some other complicating factors with the car (including the MOT being due and her need to get it to Heathrow (and park there) while she is away in 2 weeks time) but it would take too long to describe it all.  As if that wasn’t enough, Jenny (Peter’s partner) heard that her mother (who lives in Johannesburg) has had a serious stroke and so she is going to fly over tomorrow and Peter is going with her for support.  A slight positive bit to add to that is that Jenny has put Karen on her car insurance so that she has something to drive here while Jenny and Peter are away.  

So is this family jinxed or what?  Peter says crises are like buses – nothing for ages and then 3 or 4 come at once!



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