1 March - a new month begins

Another week has come and gone and I thought nothing much had happened until I took a look at the calendar.

While it has on the whole been a quiet week, there have been some lovely interludes and special time spent with visiting friends. I appreciate these visits very much!

Early last week I met with Graeme, the movement guru at Portland District Health (can’t remember his title). He’s a very personable young man and is coordinating the exercise program I will be doing at the Cancer Rehab Group (which starts tomorrow) and the swimming program I will be commencing shortly. Before starting the programs, I needed to have a physical assessment so they can have some ‘before and after’ data but he told me that really they can’t get me to do about 95% of the assessment because of my inability to be on my feet! I reckon the assessment should be easy – just put ‘before’ – very poor muscle tone and fitness levels, because that’s what it sure feels like to me after being off my feet for several months. Hopefully the ‘after’ data will show an improvement.

Brian has taken me for some lovely drives over the past week – off to beautiful Bridgewater Beach for a coffee and just to sit and marvel at the spectacular coastline, and you can’t ever tire of that.

We also checked out the two cruise ships that came into Portland on two consecutive days – P&O’s Pacific Pearl and Pacific Jewel. There was a lot of action around Portland and plenty to tempt the tourist dollar, with market stalls and tours around the town and region. Many people simply strolled around the town in the perfect summery weather and it was good to see so many people about. Both cruise ships return to Portland within the next fortnight (with different people on board of course).

Meanwhile I am still feeling well, with no noticeable side effects from the cancer tablet. I’m getting pretty slick at scooting around at home in the wheelchair and have only driven over my foot twice now. I also had an amazing discovery in my kitchen this week – I discovered a kitchen drawer that I never knew existed!! As I was sitting in front of the stove my foot accidentally pulled at the panel under the oven and low and behold out it came to reveal a low, wide, flat drawer with oven trays inside!! I can’t believe I’ve lived in the house for two years and not known about it before!

Meanwhile this week it has been Brian who has not felt well. The pain and discomfort he sometimes experiences (not dissimilar to a UTI) has been particularly frustrating for him, and forced him to spend quite a lot of time lying flat to try to manage the pain. We hope and pray for some improvement, and this week he will go to Geelong for some tests before further treatment. Bring it on.

22 February 2015

After 2 weeks on the cancer drug, I am happy to report that I am still not experiencing side effects, and my blood tests this week showed everything to be normal too. My oncologist said he has 3 patients on this drug at the moment and none are experiencing side effects, and the drug is proving to be effective for the other two people (too early to tell for me). My only inconvenience is keeping on top of the pain in the left hip – which can vary a bit during the day or night.

It has on the whole been a quiet week but with a few special highlights to brighten up the day.

It was a great joy to have a dozen staff members from St John’s school pop around after school on Wednesday for a laugh and a chat - catching up on all the local ‘school goss’ in the process. Being unable to support the school in a hands-on way has been difficult for me, so I especially valued this visit.

Earlier in the week Brian headed over to Mt Gambier to pick up our new car, so we are now the proud owners of a silver Mitsubishi Outlander Aspire. It’s lovely and comfortable inside with more bells and whistles than we’ll ever learn to use (though Brian is working on that). But more importantly, I can get into it easier than our older Hyundai Terracan (which had raised suspension). So we’ve had a few drives around the area to test it out. 

Yesterday, just to get out of the house for a bit we went to the Portland botanical gardens and enjoyed meandering around the ancient trees and enjoying some of the roses and dahlias. A pleasant outing.

An unimpressive photo of our new car, looking out the lounge window.

An outing to the Portland Botanical Gardens

It's hard work pushing a chair around!

A snapshot of the past 6 weeks

'The' pope-mobile - means of transport to get from the ward, out-of-doors and to the Andrew Love Cancer Centre for radiotherapy.

 

With Simon and Caitlin - nothing like a family visit to brighten the day!

Escape from Geelong hospital - with sister Jeanie, Imogen (and Pete)

Escape from Geelong hospital FOOD! Not a crumb was left!

More sister act - this time with Marlene

Lovely family visits - with Adrian, Brian, Simon and Caitlin

View from Portland hospital window - always something to watch

Glad we were paying the lower amount for one months supply of this drug

15 February 2015

I’ve been taking the ‘targeted-therapy’ drug Pazopanib for 8 days now.

It has to be taken on an empty stomach so I take it at around 7am, and by the time I get around to my shower and morning routines (all of which take quite a bit longer than they used to) it is time to have breakfast (at least an hour after the medication).

The list of possible side effects from taking this drug is long, and includes such things as nausea, headaches, nose bleeds, fatigue, high blood pressure, diarrhoea, painful joints, liver problems, changes to the colour of skin or hair (interesting?), increased risk of infections… and the list goes on. It even includes changes in the way your brain works – I figure that if I can’t get all the crosswords out I now have a good excuse.

But guess what! I am experiencing none of the obvious discomforts from this drug and am able to eat and function normally. This is a huge blessing as it is obviously very important to eat healthily during this sort of treatment, let alone feel relatively normal.

I’ll have blood tests and a further check with the oncologist this coming week, but all seems to be going well.

Meanwhile the days tend to drift into each other. I try to give myself a focused activity each day – which might be as simple as sorting through files on the computer, or helping with meal preparation and the other day I actually made some biscuits (it’s surprising what you can load up on your lap while sitting in the wheelchair. You get to see what’s in the back of the lower kitchen cupboards too.)

I happened to mention to one of the visiting support nurses that I feel the need to do some exercise, as I am losing a lot of muscle tone with my limited movement. Well that comment has sparked a flurry of action, and I will shortly be taken for a special exercise program at the local indoor pool (that’s if the elastic hasn’t perished on my bathers – if I can even find them!) I will be able to enter the pool safely in a wheelchair, going down a ramp, and the exercise should be ideal as it doesn’t involve any weight-bearing, and as the OT said, “you can’t fall in water” (a fall is currently my greatest risk because of the risk of fracture or dislocation to the hip). As well as the water exercise, I will be joining a new Cancer Rehab program which includes individually tailored exercises in a hospital gym, plus guest speakers etc.

So it seems like my days will be a bit busier, and I’d better be careful what I wish for in the future!