Day Sixty Five - 2 days to go

Bit of a lie in this morning, as you do on a Saturday morning. Got up to turn the tele on and had a major dizzy spell, fell back on the bed! Weird.
Spot of cereal for breakfast and chilled on the sofa for a while. Had a gentle walk down to Polocini to meet Chris who'd took some of my recent hill climb photos and printed them out for me. Unfortunately the colour correction was a bit out when I did the edit, and they all had a rather blue tint. Still, it adds to the wintry feel of the day I guess :) He's offered to fix them so I've sent him the original files to have a play with. Cheers Chris.

Home for lunch and then spent the afternoon on the sofa again. Just as a matter of interest, I took my resting pulse. 61bpm. That's sat on the sofa surfing and catching up on tv. 61! FFS! My normal resting hr is around 45 - 50 at the most. I can feel my heart working a lot harder these days just to pump all that poison around my body. God forbid how you'd cope if you weren't fit on chemo. That would be a nightmare I guess.

Made tea again. Gonna surprise the family with what I've done with the burgers :) Inspired by Man V Food, I've added a little something to them. Hope they like :)

Good night xx

Day Sixty Four - 3 days to go

3 days, that is all, can't wait.

Felt a bit better today. Still resting, but had to drop Joh off at Ricks to get her car, stopped by Polocini for a coffee on the way home, spot of lunch, then chilling on the sofa for the afternoon.

Not much to report really.

Oh, nearly forgot, Alan came round to visit, which was nice. Always nice to have visitors, breaks up the day a little and a chance to catch up with the real world.

God night xx

Day Sixty Three - 4 days to go

Off to the Christie this dinnertime for a blood test and review. Simple enough. Dad took me as Joh had my car, and I'm glad he did. From waking up this morning it's been a struggle to do anything today. I've literally got no energy whatsoever. It was an effort to shower, make breakfast, eat it and then take my meds. After that, I just sat on the sofa waiting for Dad to turn up.

Christie was quite quick this time round, appointment was 12 for bloods, and I was seen at 12:05, but it didn't go so well. The very nice nurse struggled to find a vein in my right arm, so moved over to the left. It took two nurses to get blood out of that one. Ouch. And afterwards I felt very dizzy and had to stay in the bloods room for a while with elevated legs and a glass of water.
My Doctors appointment was at 1pm, and I was called in as soon as the clock struck 1, very good. Blood results were back already as well. Blood ok, but showing signs of liver problems, which is to be expected after the very heavy dose of chemo I've had over the last sixty three days. No more visits to the Christie now for 10 weeks, they'll see me next after my operation.

Home.

Thanks Dad, much appreciated today. Spot of lunch, then lay on the sofa all afternoon, just getting up occasionally to pee. Got to stay hydrated. All I'm drinking now is lemon juice.

Closing in on tea time, and I'd got chops out. Plan was to do mash, carrots and peas, but CBA, so it was chips and peas instead. Even that's been a struggle to do this evening. Made me feel a bit sick cooking tonight.

Oh well, nearly done, and hopefully things will start to improve next week.

Good night xx

Day Sixty Two - 5 days to go

What a busy day, I'll sleep well tonight.
Joh had a course to attend in Croydon today, so an early train meant dropping her at the station for 6am. But first dropping her car off at Ricks for an MOT and suspension repair. Then home and back to bed for a few hours.
Up at 9 for breakfast, meds and a shower. Dropped Isaac off at college, back to Ricks to drop Joh's keys off, then on to Stockport for some fat clothes. Primark, home of the XL comfort wear. Chinos, Jeans, 2 hoodies and tracky bottoms, bosh bosh all done. HMV for a peruse, nothing in, and finally WHSMITH for Cyclist and Rouleur magazines, and left my bank card in the machine. Chemo brain!

I then went to the car wash at the bottom of Romiley, and watched in wonder as 6 lads blitzed my car in about 15 mins, inside and out, clean as a whistle, thanks chaps.

On to Polocini for lunch. Lovely quiche, and the only coffee I can drink at the moment. It was at this point I realised I didn't have my card on me! Quick phone call to WHSMITH and they had it, phew! Told them to destroy it, and phoned the bank for a replacement. Sorted.

Home. Finally. Knackered.

So I spent the afternoon on the sofa editing my photos from the hill climb on sunday, here's a small example:

I do love a bit of saturated colour on black and white. 

Now just waiting for Joh to come home safe. Love you darling xx

Good night xx

Day Sixty One - 6 days to go

Less than a week of chemo left to go. Awesome. Just about feeling ok from this lot now, although my fatigue is still bad. Still breathless at the top of the stairs, still sitting down to pee occasionally, still struggle to do the basics.
Last two days have been ok though. Didn't get up to much yesterday, but today I had lunch with Paige over at the Joshua Bradley on the road to Hyde. Very nice it was too. A JB burger always goes down well.

Spent this afternoon sorting out my DVD collection. I dug out all my region one DVD's that wouldn't play on my BlueRay player, and was going to replace my faves with BlueRays, but the cost would of been daft, so instead I just bought a multiregion DVD player for £40 to play them all, result.
So I watched the Bourne Identity this morning, and Atlantis this afternoon, both region one discs. Sorted. Anyway, after putting all my region one discs back on the shelf, I was knackered. I mean, really, I'm just lifting DVD's around FFS! How can that wear you out. But it did, so back to the sofa for a lie down after that.

Oh well, nearly there.

Finally, my left arm is bloody killing me. The main vein has swollen up and is really tender to the touch, to the point that I can't put my arm down anywhere at the mo'. Bit bloody annoying, but that's the only thing bothering me at the moment, so it's not too bad.

Good night xx

Day Fifty Nine - 9 days to go

Today was the Polocini hill climb. I so wanted to be fit enough to do this, even if I crawled up and came dead set last, but alas, it was not to be. I'm still struggling getting up the stairs, and haven't been on the rollers since Thursday due to be so knackered. Instead, I figured I'd do a little filming and take some photos of the event, make a little film maybe? Bollocks, non of that, it took all my energy this morning to drive to the top of Werneth Low, park up and walk a quarter mile down the hill to a good spot and take some photos:

There are a few more of the riders here: Polocini hill climb on Flickr

The photo taking went well, but by the last few riders, I was honestly struggling. All was ok though as the last rider went by, and the photos were in the bag :) However, I'd underestimated how far down the hill I'd come. Bugger! That's quite a way back to the car. Oh well, nothing for it but to press on and get back. Phew! That was hard work, and I was glad of the rest stops saying hello to Richard, Alan and Chris on the way back. I figured the coffee shop would be rammed by now, and being light of head and knackered, I went straight back home. Good call.
Joh dragged me out later for lunch down to Polocini, which was as excellent as usual, and a bit quieter. Seems they'd been a little busy earlier :)

And so to home. And rest. Just a little drive later to pick up Isaac's girlfriend, and a lovely lamb chop tea, and meds and rest, again.

I do think these last few days of chemo may well turn out to be the hardest few days of my treatment so far. I don't seem to be getting used to the meds as before, I suppose I'm pretty much full of chemo with no way for my system to get used to it anymore. Oh well, nearly there.

Good night xx

Day Fifty Eight - 10 days to go

I've had my meds for today, so technically, 9 days to go. Blimey. Nearly there.

It's been an odd few days. I've really been knocked sideways again with the chemo, and haven't had any energy to do stuff that I was hoping to be getting into again. Never mind going on the rollers again, I'm struggling to get up the stairs. I took the dogs for a walk on Friday, and I walked about a mile in an hour. Luckily they like that as it gives them chance to have a good root around. I was wasted when I got back.

I'm not bothered though, everyday is different and I've learnt to take each day as it comes. Sometimes that means cancelling plans, sometimes I can do stuff.

I'm making an effort at the moment to stay hydrated. I've noticed my pee getting stronger and stronger, so to counter that, and help out my kidneys, I'm drinking like a fish, to the point where I'm not drinking any hot drinks now, just juice. Which means I'm going to the toilet more, which is sometimes a struggle getting upstairs, which means I'm out of breath when I get there. Oh sod it! Yes, I'm sitting on the toilet to pee! :)
I feel no shame :)

I'm looking forward to the Polocini hill climb tomorrow, wish I was riding it, but realistically no where near fit enough to do such a thing. So I'll turn up to watch and photograph, if I feel ok.

Good night xx