Friday, its chemo day and I am brought hot water by my partner she prepares to go to the gym for her aqua class. I decide to accompany her and dress quickly. I take my meds and then I am off to the gym lounge. My partner goes off to the pool and I sit in the lounge with a bacon roll and a Lucozade sport reading Angela Carter’s The Bloody Chamber. Its a 1979 book that created a stir when it was first published as it was thought by some to have been soft pornography made out of old children’s fairy tales.

I find the book is a sad comment on the nature of men and women but I think it reflects what as going on in gender politics at the time of it being written. My partner emerges from her aqua class and we drive home to prepare for the Uber trip to the Chemo. The Uber arrives and we pile in and chat as we get driven round the back streets of Leicester to the children’s A&E drop off point. Its the easiest way to get to the oncology centre by walking through the hospital, trying to park by oncology is just not possible unless you are an ambulance. So we march to the oncology unit and I hand in my “dance card” and I raid the vending machine for a bottle of water and a couple of Twix.

We are greeted by some familiar faces in the waiting area and we begin to chat. We ask about the travel insurance that people are using and discover that there is a company that does cancer travel insurance very compassionately and at reasonable prices. It is even possible to get an annual contact. After some more useful chat I get called in about half an hour after the appointment time. Its a bout par for the course. The nurse introduces herself and sets about stinking the cannula in my hand. Interestingly choosing to use a different vein to usual.

I have my now regular pre-chemo preventative meds and wait for thirty minutes to get them in to my system. I missed completely that the team had plugged my chemo bag in as it was transparent, my chemo bag is usually black or yellow to protect it from UV light, to which it is sensitive. After a while I called the nurse over to ask why my chemo was not starting as I thought I was getting saline. She showed me the label on the bag and I was of course embarrassed and had to explain my misunderstanding. Apparently different pharmacists make up the chemo and use different bags. All went well after this and in another thirty minutes I was out and on my way for a much needed pee.

My partner and I Ubered home and as it was getting late we opted for a fish and chip tea, World Indoor Athletics followed by some TV drama stuff until it was time to take my meds and go to bed. I can could feel my stomach beginning to react to all the drugs it had received and so I delayed actually gong to bed until it felt a bit more settled.

Saturday I wake up with all my post chemo symptoms but I have enough about me to message my son in Stockholm who is getting married today to his partner. Their children, my grandchildren, will be attending the wedding of their parents. Its a usual thing in the family. My father and his siblings attended their parents wedding, my children attended mine, my other grandchildren will attend their parents wedding in due course. Clearly there is a family trait in there somewhere. I make breakfast, take my meds and and start to prepare for the Poetry Stanza zoom meeting in the afternoon. There are a couple of late poems to download and read through. I watch the mid day televised football match and then I sit down to the computer in the office and log on to the poetry stanza.

We agree that if we do not stop for a break we should be able to get through all the poems in two hours and so we set off. It goes well, there are good poems this month, there always are, but this months seemed to flow well. My non cancerous poem was received well and I had useful feedback so that I can make a couple of tweaks to make the reading easier. I read the final poem, which I really wanted to do as it was a poem that had stuck with me as soon a I read it With the stanza over I returned to the sofa and watched sport keeping an eye on my messages to tell me that all had gone well at my sons wedding. In no time at all I had pictures of the happy couple.

My evening was spent watching athletics and then episodes of a new drama series. The chemo drugs were still playing fast and loose with my gut so I stayed up late and waited for things to settle before finally gong to bed. It gave me a chance to finish the Bloody Chamber and to start my re-read of the Wasp Factory.

Sunday and I wake relatively early to find my partner reading as usual before getting up. I make her a cup of tea having opened up the garden raised boxes and emptied Daisy the dishwasher. We decide to have breakfast out and get ready for a drive to he nearest good garden centre restaurant. I take my morning meds and drive to the garden centre. There I have the Lady Gardeners breakfast and a ginger beer. My partner and I chat and get up to speed with plans and thoughts. I am impressed by the bloke on the next table who is downing breakfast with orange juice and prosecco. My chemo has kicked in and the only taste I have in my mouth is one of flannel and a hint of ginger. On our way out we buy more packs of bedding plants as there are still empty pots and space in the beds to be filled until the home sown plants are ready to go out after the last frosts. Once home its time to catch up with the blog drafting and soem of the things I have on my “to do” list. One of those is to seek permission from the author of the poem that I am so taken by to put it on my poetry website with soem comments by me. I shall then lapse into watching the football league cup final between Manchester City and Arsenal. I am feeling quite good at the moment and it is helped by the fact that I do not have to face my 28 day jab this Monday but have a full weeks respite before I need to face that again. I am still feeling fatigued and need to rest but I am feeling hopeful, after all my latest oncology review report says I am dealing with the chemo rechallenge “remarkably well”. I’ll take that for now. Eventually Tesco deliver my order later than expected leaving me to take my night meds and going off to bed to start another week.