Another Wednesday and today marks the last day of Cycle 23 of the chemo therapy tablets. My impression is, according to the oncologist letter that arrived a couple of days ago, that I am tolerating the drugs pretty well. Apart from the abandoned cycle 16, where I am convinced I was ill with some form of virus that gave me angina like symptoms, I have managed to keep a constant average blood pressure, good SATS, a stable temperature and a good heart rate. So the arithmetic, apart from the cycle 16 hiccup, is good. So tomorrow I will embark on cycle 24 and hopefully cycle 25 before my next oncology review at the end of May. So the only thing to do is to keep going and trying to holds a balance between a monk like regime and over indulgence.
Before getting up I check my vitals and then my messages and social media. Nothing of note there so I get up and make breakfast. As its the end of a cycle day there is the blood pressure spread sheet to update and the cycle averages to be calculated and recorded. I take my morning meds and then prepare to go out. My partner and I go to two garden centres to get more slate and plants before I get into a T short to go to the GP surgery for my COVID booster.
When I arrive at the GP surgery I am greeted by a chirpy person and the practice nursey who jabs me regularly. The nurse laughs at the sight of me and said something to the effect of “another injection.” I am handed a piece a paper which I hand to the nurse who ushers me to a chair. I just about get my arse down on it and she is at me needle in hand and then I am done. So as I leave I mutter that I will see her in another fifteen days for my regular jab and head for the co-op. I get a paper and head for home, where I settle down to do the days crosswords while my partner continues to plant plants in the garden pots.
So the afternoon passes and my partner discovers that I have come home at which point I put garden things away and see what she has done. The garden is looking better than I was expecting it to as this time of year given the distress it suffered last year when so much disturbance was caused by the building work. A lot of things have come up and other things have survived. Nature has a way of confounding the odds.
Eventually its time to retreat to the sofa and check my emails and messages before starting to draft the blog. As I am doing that Amazon deliver some pea netting and crucially a new pair of sunglasses. My relatively new ones had disappeared and I could not find them for love nor money and in the end just bought a new pair given that the weather has been so sunny over the last few days. I wasted no time get them un packaged and on my face, I’m pleased with them and I am pleased to say they are Chinese without any tariffs applied to them, so up yours Trump, it will be a left hand drive Jaguar at a knock down price next.
The early evening meal is taken and I continue to draft the blog until its time to hut round for tonight’s football match, which I shall watch on my laptop leaving the TV free for my partner to find something entertaining. My plan is to have an easy day tomorrow and putter around in the garden and around the house till I pack to go away on Friday. I will of course need to train as when away I am unable to. I am trusting that tonight I shall not be bothered by my COVID jab and that all will be well. My usual night meds and finger splint rituals will kick in and sleep will follow. That’s the hope every night.
