Monday, jab Monday but not until 2:20pm. I take my time getting up, I am still feeling incredibly fatigued. My partner has gone to visit her mother in hospital and returns in time for lunch. I ask her to drive me to the GP surgery to get my injection, I feel I need the support. There is a small crowd in the waiting room and are soon joined by an ambulance team who disappear into one of the doctors surgeries. Clearly some one is more ill than they thought. I get called in by the locum nurse. She is a chatty person whom asks all about the injection and how long I have been having them. There is something jittery about her but I think I am more nervous that she is unfamiliar with the injection as it has to be made up.

Eventually the jab is ready and she askes me which side it is going in. It is the right side, the side that gets sorest. The needle goes in and the 80mls gets pushed into my lower right abdomen. A cotton wool ball is taped over the puncture and I am free to go. As my partner drives me home we note the ambulance is still parked in the carpark blocking everyone else in.

I get home and my partner and I watch “The Other Bennet Sister” to its conclusion. No radical ending just a usual falling in love marriage status quo ending. A bit of a disappointment really. I am not sure that being married and being a governess to an older child was that revolutionary. Tea followed and then I settled in for an evening of TV as I could feel my injection site getting more and more sore. I take my night medications and get to bed. I get more and more sore and my gut is off as well so at 2 o’clock in the morning I am juggling water and soluble paracetamol. All I crave is a block of sleep.

Tuesday and I do not get my block of sleep. The result of this is that I nap and view bits and pieces on the phone. Eventually I get up close to noon. I am frustrated at my fatigue and soreness and try to get going. I cook a pile of pasta and add a splosh of red wine to the sauce. I take my meds while watching the news, mostly doom and gloom and a lot of supposition. I start to draft the blog while snooker is on in the background. I realise that as I become “confined” so does my blog, it is the mundanity of the battle, where day to day survival is fought out. I have ten days to gather myself before the next cycle of chemo rechallenge starts so I need to get going on some sort of recovery plan. Tonight I shall watch England play Japan and see whether England can actually compete with a reasonably good team. With luck I shall be okay to wander down to the GP surgery tomorrow to have my pre oncology review bloods done. With it being Easter bank holiday finding a slot where my bloods would be acceptable was a nightmare, I have messages from the oncology unit setting dates and facilities for those with chemo over the Bank Holiday, thank fully I fall just outside their dates. Its just life admin I guess.

I notice that I am beginning to show “growth ridges” on my nails. There seems to be a delay in their appearance but it does seem that over time I get one for each cycle of chemo. Its just one of those little oddities that comes with the territory.