16 April 2016 Of lungs and 'Mr Amazing'

Oh the difference a day can make.
As stated in the previous blog, I have just had a CT scan, and I was quite pleased to not hear anything back from the oncologist for a few days, believing this to be good news for myself. 
However on Thursday afternoon we had a call from him, saying "Lorraine do you feel breathless?" Well, strangely enough I have had some breathlessness (most noticeable when I am talking a lot, and that's a form of exercise I don't intend to give up!). So when I replied that I do a bit, he said, "You need to get to the hospital today!" Well I talked him into making it the following morning, and that's where further xrays indicated pleural effusion which required draining. So off I went for a relatively painless procedure where they drained off 1.3 litres of fluid from my left lung (not 2.3 litres as I was previously told). There's only meant to be several teaspoons of fluid in the membranes around each lung apparently. Anyway after another xray, the hospital doctor was so excited at the difference that he dragged Brian and I off to the nurses station so he could show the 'before and after' pictures on the screen to us! I will need another xray in a few weeks to see if there are signs of fluid building up again. Hopefully not, but meanwhile, happily I am now back home again.

The other disappointing news from the oncologist is that the immunotherapy treatment is not doing its job - some spots on the lungs have disappeared but other areas have increased (eg the tumour in the kidney itself). It's even possible that the lung fluid is a rare side-effect of the immunotherapy. So this treatment has now ceased and I will find out next week more about what the next treatment option will be. 

In the middle of all this, Brian and I have had to make some decisions about needing extra help for the 'bigger' gardening jobs. It's a hard thing to do, as 2 or 3 years ago we would have had no hesitation in doing these jobs ourselves, so we've just had to swallow our pride and start scouring the papers for possible gardening assistance. One ad caught my eye, and so a short time later saw me dialling "Mr Amazing" Handiman. Within an hour an early model Holden commodore bearing interesting signs like "Caution, Right Hand Drive Vehicle" and signs and stickers like "American Police Car" stopped outside the house and out hopped a bright-pink-haired middle-aged man. We discovered however that Mr Amazing actually has the less flamboyant name of "Brendan" and any initial reservations we may have had quickly disappeared. He said he could start the very next day so while I was languishing in hospital, he arrived and my goodness - Mr Amazing he is indeed! 

Within 2 1/2 hours, Mr Amazing had removed over 15 metres of old rotting sleepers, cut them up and taken them to the tip, put in the new sleepers, and was sitting in the kitchen with Brian enjoying a cuppa! 

So we are looking forward to his return on Monday to continue the garden reno. We also discovered that his pink hair is due to his fund-raising and awareness for cancer research, so all in all, he has turned out to be a real 'find'.