Second Chemo

I know some of my friends and relatives around the world are waiting for my next bit of news.
So here goes....
I went to the second session but they said that as it was a Friday there would be no-one there on the Saturday to give me the boost with the hypodermic I had last time. We took the stuff home and one of our nurses plugged me with it on Saturday. Each following session will go the same way - dash home and get a fix.,
I was rather run down, but the journey alone could do that and I decided in the end that the only real difference from the first round was the tenderness in my mouth. If I am careful with drinks and food so that it is warm rather than hot when I eat it I should get by. It may be that later chemotherapy sessions will cause other problems or more sensitivity in the mouth. I have been advised to prepare a mouth wash and use it immediately after the next session.
I went out for a drive with Mark and Penny day before yesterday. That was my first time out of the house since session two. We saw 26 different birds and it was rather misty so next trip we may see more.
Today Hnefi got out of his field. Everyone went out to try to wrestle him back in. I was pushed up in the wheelchair and first of all I made a fuss of Hiedi. Next I approached Hnefi with the head collar and some apple. He let me put the head collar on and walked back with Mark. Poor old Heidi thought she was being deserted and we had to follow her round the ruin to get her in her collar. She finally understood and then Sruart led her.
The two of them are now back in their lower paddock. This leaves the upper paddock for the dogs to exercise in. There are so many lambs and besting birds about that this is one of the few places they have a degree of freedom.
There is a lot of bustle in the kitchen. We will have Margaret and Christina here at lunch time so that makes eight of us. Normal roast beef and roast spuds and parsnips.
Until today I have kept away from people as the therapy gives the immune system a smack. Living dangerously today.
One more week for Mark and family. They have moved a lot of furniture from the house, started building a windbreak at the north side of the back gardern and retrieved the trailer so that we can use it if required. He brought plants in pots from the old house and there are more to come. We will talk to people with vans (two have already volunteered) and then clear the house. I use the royal we nowadays, It means someone else will do it but I will shout at them.
Anyway it is a busy day so I'm off for lunch and then a siesta.
Thanks for you comments and kind thoughts.
 

1st. Chemo

Had to go to Aberdeen for my first chemotherapy. They said I was borderline when I got there but decided to give me a couple of blood transfusions so that they could go ahead with the chemotherapy. It seemed a long time in the ward, about 8 hours all together. They asked me to go back the next day to get an injection to help boost my immune system. I was then able to go back to Shetland with a few additional tablets to take.
They have given me a red book to show all the things that I must look out for. These appear in green amber and red in answer to questions down the page. If the answer is red I have to phone the hot line. Presumably they send out a helicopter for me. Is that safer than wrapping up warm and hoping for the best?
There are aches and pains today, partly from being marooned in the car on Yell. partly from walking too far after the blood transfusions and partly from the hard bed on the Aberdeen ferry.
The worst thing at present is the taste of water. Because of the tablets I suppose, they include antibiotics. I am doing my best to maintain my appetite. I may have to resort to curries and chillies to ensure I taste the food.
A three week course of new tablets will keep me going until the next visit to Aberdeen. I wonder
whether to sail or fly next time. I will try to establish which will be least traumatic.
The thing is that all the things I am warned about will be likely to be met with later in the course rather than earlier. Infection could be more likely on the plane than the boat. Hair loss doesn;t matter it could happen anytime anyway.
I will decide in a week or so depending on how I feel.
I was surprised to be feeling washed out after the meal tonight. I expected to feel full of energy.
Anyway nothing drastic has happened so far. So here's to the next time.

Onward & Upward

I  am less feverish, seem to have thrown off the infection and no longer talk to the clock. In fact I don't remember doing this so maybe it was Janet having a dream.
Anyway they are willing to see me in Aberdeen next week and my chemo may start then.
One of the nurses came today to look at my bedsores and take  an arm full of blood.
If Aberdeen like the blood they will go ahead. If my local expert in Lerwick is unhappy with it he will give me a blood transfusion.
Meanwhile the daga of the lack of telephone continues. A little man came yesterday to say he would connect the telephone wire bt people did not like him digging on their land so we would need to dig the cable in. Janet told him she did not mind him digging on her land and why did he carry a spade. Had it got the ferry times written on it? She then started to tell him the story of our telephone. He realised that there were only a limited number of ferries each day and if he waited for the end of the story he and his spade could be marooned overnight on Fetlar.
He agreed to dig in the cable. When it was done he said she needed a man with a screwdriver to do the technical bits. He only had a spade.
She let him go, hotfoot and warm handed to the ferry.
The second mattress for the bed arrives courtesy of Kate tomorrow.
We will then be able to return the one we borrowed for Janet.
There  is a Russian grandmaster talking about the women chess championship in Siberia so I will go and listen to him now. He has a terrific accent.

Early Easter News

Things ain't what they used to be.
Margaret and Janet got back from Aberdeen after Margaret's chemotherapy. She must not have contact with me because her treatment means her immune system is less effective and I contracted an infection while they were away.
Although she had nurses coming in she collapsed one day and it was decided that she should go back to hospital to be safe.
Meanwhile I had nurses coming in to see me. They told Aberdeen that I was infected.
Aberdeen says that I need to be fitter before I become ill enough to have chemotherapy.
Meanwhile BT and Outreach are trying to find the meaning of the word liaise. BT took our old number when they should not have done. They then took days to give it back but it was a different number without the facility to leave messages. They did not tell us we had the phone back nor that it was a different number. We picked it up one morning and thought we had everything back to normal. Next the builder sent his daughter to see us to say he could not get through. We rang him and he sais his mobile showed a different number. We phoned BT and told us they could give back our original number but it would delay the installation of that number in the new house. We decided to bite the bullet. They did not come to put in the phone on the appointed day.
We rang them./ They swore blind that the little man was on his merry way. We asked which ferry. They checked and said the job was booked to be done but they had not allocated an engineer to do it.
They told us not to worry it would be done forthwith or some such time. They sent us an  email saying that they were unable to contact us. Hardly surprising as they had not given the line the facility to accept messages. They gave us a new date by which they would have arranged something. (This email address does not accept messages.) They did not give name email or telephone number where someone could be reached. Next we got another email saying that something would be arranged by a later date. During this time Margaret was in and out of hospital and back in again.
We are not holding our breath. We are working out ways we might send smoke signals.
If I became a Trappist monk I would nt need the phone.
The trouble is we do need to phone nurses, doctors, MacMillan nurses and Occupational Therapists.
We also get calls from Specialists in Aberdeen and Lerwick and their secretaries. We also need to arrange accommodation in Aberdeen before we get there for treatment.
Stop Press.
I have just received a letter from Aberdeen.
The new date for treatment is 22nd. April 2014. Then 14th. May, 4th. June, 25th. July and 6th. August.
These dates will be kept if I supply an arm full of blood before each visit , subject to it being mine and fairly healthy.
Also, if I start picking up more infections they may have to put me in hospital and drip antibiotics into me.
So I may be ready for next football season.
I think my treatment in Aberdeen has been synchronised with Margaret's but I'm not sure. If it has then we will all go by plane. This could be a bigger risk of infection than the boat but Janet will have to run after us to make sure we don't wander off whichever way we go.
I am creaking and so on now so will leave the stage.
Barbara is feeding and watering the ponies and me as well as packing books for the move. Janet has started the rally drive to Lerwick to see Margaret. Michael is not far short of the Aberdeen ferry.
Now watch this space.

Some results

My consultant in Aberdeen rang last week. He says that the lung cancer is responding to the treatment but the bone cancer is not. I thought that we could now rule out Malignant Melanoma as the source of any cancer. He did not agree. He called it a good working hypothesis.
He is to get me into Aberdeen in a short while and has prescribed steroids to pump me up beforehand.
We are still moving things from Stakkafletts to the new house at Springfield. There seems to be a never ending supply of bags and boxes with things that have no clear home in the new house.
At least the ponies are happy to see us when we go there.
We feed them every day and they wait for us to see that we are doing things as they want.
Tomorrow will have to be a lighter day. We will sort out the horses, take a few light things and look at the sighting scope on the big telescope, then put it in the garage. We will take the hand held sat nav to add some sophistication to the set up.
We may also put the tripod for the other telescope in the garage to tempt the stargazers to set that one up too.
The sound has gone on my computer so I may now have to learn sign language to use Skype.
We did a tour of the island today to see the sights. There was a redshank ensconced on the Loch of Funzie (Finnie remember).
I think today must have been heavier because I feel like having a rest now and I have only just had a siesta.
No golden plover, lapwings or red necked phalaropes yet. Plenty to look forward too.
Now I'm on steroids I might have a walk on the beach to see whether there is anyone there for me to kick sand over.
I will add more when they have chemofied me. 

Going, going........

We have now got three beds set up in the new house. Of course the telephone did not arrive on time and after last weeks promises that they would definitely talk to us this week and get it done we are not surprised to have had no word and still to be unconnected.
The TV and internet were probably not as bad. We left it to the two grandchildren and their partners to set it up at Springfield but they had TV and internet facilities elsewhere so Oscar and Emma left to watch that.
Barnaby set up the old bookcase from the Glebe and unloaded tons of books. He also organised the chest of drawers and the bed in the spare bedroom. He then set up a table in our bedroom and he, Janet and I watched or sort of helped Becky, the nurse set up my hospital bed and inflatable matress. The two of them, bed and mattress are plugged into the wall and hum when I go to bed. They also have a slight steady movement to stop bed sores. I may be sleeping there in a couple of weeks.
I got the chance to get on the bed eventually but was not allowed to treat it as a trampoline. Becky thought I should have a second mattress because power cuts lead to gradual collapse of the mattress onto the bed. I thought she wanted to see what effect a pea would have if she put it underneath, but no.
I went to the consultant in Lerwick last week. I asked about the anaemia and he said they would monitor my blood. If figures show it is worsening I will get a blood transfusion. They do not recommend iron tablets as this could lead to a build up of iron and the body would have to deposit it somewhere. I thought of finding my kneecaps getting rusty and dropping off so agreed with him.
He cannot be definite about the effect of the hormone therapy but will probably know this week and let me know. The main thing is the lung cancer. If it does not respond we will suspect the it is driven by Malignant Melanoma rather than the prostate gland. They may then try other treatment, chemotherapy or radiotherapy but we will know this week. That may not be very effective against M.M. but the positive view is that it may not be necessary.
The medical people respond quickly to things at present. Janet had to take her sister to Lerwick the other day for a check. Following the checks they called her in suddenly yesterday. Today they are off to Aberdeen Hospital (ARI) for more tests, checks and possibly treatment before coming back.
While Janet is away the nurse will stay longer with me when she visits. She comes every other day now including week-ends. One of the ladies at SOLI will also check me out and the lady who looks after the old people here will also come in to check on me regularly. That is Frances. I expect she wants to see if I am aging.
Barbara, my sister-in-law will arrive on Thursday. She will be able to drive our car while she is here so will help move more bits and pieces from Stakkafletts.
The second astronomical telescope has now been removed from the loft here and taken to Springfield. The next thing will be the fishing rods and their supports. I'll get one of our neighbours to do this later.
Barbara will help me move the two telescopes to the garage for use in the near future and next year when we start sky watching again. I have tried to get all the interested parties here interested in setting the big telescope up. Some of them watched but I do not think they will try it alone.
I have received comments from readers of this blog. It is possible to add them using the facility at the bottom of each entry.
I expect to have constant internet access at both house until the final day here. So I will see and read the comments. I may then comment on the comments. Then people could comment on my comments on the comments. Then the whole blog thing will run itself. You will not know I'm not here until some time after I am gone. But my present estimate is that I will be here for at least a year. The medical profession may also be worried that this is true. I can remind consultants and such that I am a statistic. They will certainly concentrate then.
Those comments may be smart but in fact I have had a consultant in Lerwick go out of his way to help and it appears that he was not popular with Aberdeen consultants who had their hypodermics at the ready. My District nurses are very good. The MacMillan's nurse has gone out of her way to help and the OT has arranged so much we will have to throw furniture away to fit all the goodies into the new house.
No more sightings of the red kite since last week.We have had redshank in numbers on the field behind us at Stakkafletts and there seem to be tufted duck in Papil Water behind Springfield. All the geese seem to be in that area too. If we set up a telescope on the back porch at the new house we should catch the long-tailed ducks soon.
I can't write much more as I will have to read it before signing off.
Once Janet leaves today I will comb my hair and prepare for scrabble with senior citizens. They are very good and tolerate me. Of course they may not understand my accent.

Moving Soon??

We went to the house the other day to set the sighting scope on the Dobsonian telescope.  I had a spot of bother and took it off completely so that I could start from scratch on another day.
We went again on a bright sunny day and saw about 40 greylag geese in the field below the house. Then I realised there were as many again on the water.
Suddenly they all started fluttering about and I saw a large bird above them. I thought it must be a buzzard but it flew closer and I realised it was a red kite. It had evidently been around for about three days.
I sat on the back veranda in the wheel chair. They had fitted the glass panels and there was a gravel path coming round the house to the steps leading up. The front of the house was drying out and they had started putting down hard-core.
They also agreed to put a shelf in the entrance hall and a rail under it for hanging coats.
The various hand rails that re being supplied by Occupational Therapy should be put in by someone other than our builders so we agreed to that.
We have got to the point where we know the date we move in but not whether the removal men can deliver on time. The hospital beds are included in this little problem. We have asked for the chair to be delivered but have no guarantee of a date for this. Otherwise everything is going very well.
The ponies have somehow managed to move themselves again. We will have to arrange for them to be moved back to one of our bits of land.
 There is another when? for this activity.
All the potential visitors will be given jobs when they arrive. We have not told any of them yet that they might have to bring tents if the moving arrangements have not been finalised.
I see the Woodland Trust have 3 million trees to plant. Problem is we would need 3 million visitors to help plant them - not that we  would get all of them. We will do something but perhaps on a smaller scale.
Janet has been advised about the under floor heating and has two remote controls for opening the garage doors. We can spend  an afternoon  sitting in the car opening and closing the door.
Today I played a couple of games of chess on a 10 by 10 square board.
There are three extra pieces to contend with and certain complications inherent in the use of one of them. It makes a change but is quite tiring.
There are oystercatchers, curlew and the odd wimbril about. I have yet to see or hear the golden plover. It can't be long now.
I have put on almost all the weight I lost before Christmas so I shall start being careful about what I eat.
I have discovered that I can take a little wine for my health's sake.