Its Thursday, oncology review day. I am awake quite early and check my emails, messages and bank accounts. Once dressed its time for breakfast and to get organised for my 1 o’clock oncology review by phone. I update my excel spreadsheet for my vitals and get it to calculate my average blood pressure for this cycle of Chemo. 128 over 78 is a good average healthy blood pressure. I am satisfied with that. I take trip to the village shop and buy a paper, pastries and get cash from the ATM. Back home I do the crosswords and puzzles over a coffee and pastry out on the sunny patio.
My review time gets closer and my partner makes me a light lunch before the call comes through. He who made a pact with the devil rings on the landline at just past 1 o’clock. He tells me what I already know about my blood results, I fill in with my stat for the day, namely my PSA has fallen 74% since the 30th of May. We are both chuffed. I note that those things not in the normal range in my blood results are heading in the right direction. I tell him what my average blood pressure has been over his cycle, which seems to please him. He tells me that he will get the pharmacy to ring me when they have my next cycle and that he will ring me again in 4 weeks If everything is still tickety boo then he will prescribe my three cycles in one go and we will have a review after 12 weeks. By my reckoning that will take me close to Christmas, so there is a plan till the end of 2023. Roll on 2024.
All of this takes about two minutes maximum and then I am on the end of a dead phone. This must have been the faster consultation on record. I start to draft the blog, type up yesterdays poem and add it to my “All I Have” folder and then prepare to go to the Curve tonight to see Cirque, a singing musical and circus entertainment. Of course the issue is what to wear, but I will figure it out. Before the garden guy will arrive to tart up the garden, drink coffee and chat. So an uncharacteristically busy evening ahead of me and I still have my partners mother’s watch to mend.
The evening at the Curve theatre watching Cirque was great fun as I have never sat in the front row before next to the cold sparks generator and smoke machines. Smoke so thick at one point I have no idea what the guy with the anchor was doing. All in all it was good fun and included an ice cream. Because my partner had had the foresight to pay for the parking at reception we were able to get out of the car park quickly at the end. A smooth drive home, where we sat on the patio, dank fruit juice and ate Maltesers while reflecting on the show. I finished drafting the blog, took my meds, which are the last of this cycle. I collect my next cycle of drugs next Tuesday and the oncologist will review in four weeks time. If the next review goes well he will let me have three months worth, or three cycles to take up until Christmas. For now though it is time to sleep for tomorrow brings more world cup football but more importantly I shall be having lunch with a friend and old colleague who is in the country for a few days from Bermuda.
