Saturday, the first of day of July and the first full day of my holiday in Westward Ho! I wake up quite early and check my emails and messages as usual. My blood results are in. I plot them on my results sheet, a copy of which I was careful to bring with me. The crucial measure is the PSA and the good news is that it has decreased quite markedly given the limited time I have been taking the new chemo drug.
As for the rest of the results they are pretty much in line with my usual profile. My kidney function is slightly up, which is one I always look at given my history of the Jamaican collapse drama in 2019. I have enough Enzalutamide to see me through till the 7th of July, after that I will have to wait until I get back from holiday to start another cycle of it. In the meantime I continue to fight where I can.
I make tea for my partner and take it to her in bed and share the results. I take a a set of vitals and we both move onto have breakfast. We laze for a bit and then we go shopping for food. We do both local food shops to get what we want but cannot locate any zero percent beer. In the last shop we try we find a stack of it and so I am able to stock up. I crave something other than lemon squash, which is what I have been drinking since I gave up coffee because I did not want to aggravate any effect my new medication would have on my blood pressure. I do not drink tea and avoid carbonated drinks (except 0% beer) so I crave new flavours to drink at times when I am thirsty. Next door in the bakers we buy a cream tea in a box and then return to the apartment to unload and play a hand of the card game we are learning. My partner soundly beats me.
We have a cream tea as a late lunch and then go for a walk along the seas edge to the “haunted house” that stands on the edge of the cliff at one end of the resort. I am back in time to watch the second half of the England women’s football friendly against Portugal. Its a draw, during which my partner falls asleep. I start to draft the blog and then take my vitals again. I have noticed after the walk that there is blood in my urine. I suspect that this is a result of the walk. It is possible that walking, like cross training aggravates the situation that we know is worse from the MRI scan I had to assess me for radio therapy. The reason I did not get radiotherapy was because the prostate cancer is too close to the bladder and showing signs of affecting it. I think therefore I am becoming more susceptible to passing blood. I stay well hydrated and flushed and intend to take these two weeks of holiday easy.
The early evening is noisy as the waves roll in at high tide, the apartment door is open as I type and my partner reads the paper on our patio overlooking the sea and the ice cream van.
The evening is all Tacos and Crime on TV washed down with 0% beer. I slowly become spoonless but find myself fighting off hot flushes, the continuing side effects of my 28 day medication. I take my night meds and draft the blog before wearily going to bed. Its been a good first day of holiday. Tomorrow I need to paddle in the waves.
