30/09/19

Not much to write about over the weekend. More Macmillan booklets arrived for us to read. Essex CC say my Blue Badge may take up to four weeks to be delivered, heaven knows why. I ordered a wallet/folder thing to keep it in from Amazon (Prime), and that arrived inside twenty-four hours!

For various complicated reasons, I'm now using TWO seven-day pill-boxes, four compartments a day each. The weekly Sunday Organisation Of The Pills takes up most of the morning... And when the chemo starts I'm going to have to add two different antibiotics, at least one anti-viral, and maybe some sort of anti-nausea / anti-emetic as well... As one who has lived on the principle of the fewer pills the better, and that if you have more than three different ones regularly they're as likely as not to cancel each other out, - well, I've had a sudden conversion to a different philosophy.

On the principle of living as normal a life as possible, Friday evening was at Saffron Hall for one of their Jazz in the Foyer nights (they've agreed I can use one of their disabled spaces even though the badge hasn't arrived yet), and Saturday and Sunday afternoons and evenings have been spent at the Herts Jazz Festival which has for the first time re-located to the Rhodes Arts Centre in Bishop's Stortford, which brings it within my range. Drummer Clark Tracey who runs it (son of renowned British pianist Stan Tracey) was very helpful in arranging a reserved parking space for me - parking at the Rhodes is limited and there are no alternatives within a walking distance I can manage.

Tomorrow - or later today as it's 01:39 as I write - radiotherapy #3 followed by another appointment with Dr.Ch, when we should get the rest of the results of the biopsy and maybe some idea of the effects of the radiotherapy so far. As I understand it, the radiotherapy machine has a built-in CT scanner so there should be images available from the first couple of sessions. And there are more blood test numbers to look at. There are always more blood tests. Every time I have bloods, they look at my elbows and say "Oh, what wonderful veins you have!" before sticking a needle into one of them. I always used to assume this was part of the routine "relax the patient" drill they're taught at nursing school, but I'm starting to wonder. My veins may well be exceptionally splendid, but they're also full of healed pinholes. Last time one of them wanted to put a canula in she looked at the back of my hand and said "Ooh, nice veins there, should we go in there?" but another nurse over-ruled and said "No, go for the elbow"...
I'm also hoping to get  a start date for the chemotherapy. I know there's going to be a rest period between radiotherapy and chemotherapy, but I'm also keen to get on to the next stage of treatment.