Coming to terms with Friday

Sharon and Lauren went to Cambridge for a haircut. I stayed at home as Luckydog isstaying for the weekend.

Put a new rear wiper on Lauren's Clio. Not a fabulous piece of Renault design as the old one had an alloy centre that had corroded onto the motor spindle, but a bit of dremeling and some ingenuity got it apart.

Had a nap after lunch and then prepared tea for us and Karen and Kevin. K+K turned up about 5:15, we ate about 5:45 and then went down to The Mill to see The Blockheads. 35 years of touring as a band, in their late 50s and early 60s but still full of energy and the best jazz/funk band I know. They played all the hits and some of their recent compositions.

Feel an even stronger affinity with them now than ever before. The original drummer, Charley Charles, died of cancer. Sharon and I came back from our honeymoon to go to the benefit gig at The Roundhouse. And of course, the legendary Ian Dury died of cancer. I am going to beat it though and go to more Blockheads gigs. Even if I do have to stay on the chemo 'til Christmas.
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Sh*t Happened

Well I was all psyched up for this being round 5 of the chemo and it all being over in 6 weeks.  Then I went to see the consultant this afternoon.  It was Professor Hassan, the expert.  He said that clinical trials indicate that rabdomysarcoma is best got rid of with lots of maintenance chemotherapy.  When we started he wasn't sure if a man of my age would cope with this as all the clinical trials and experience is with children and young men.  Remember, I am one in a million and he has never seen this type of cancer in a man of my age.  I have been so resilient that 'we' have decided that I will have a series of maintenance doses.  Basically this means that I will continue with chemo until the new year with two nights in hospital every 3 weeks. 

One dose would be due on December 24th, but he has said we can skip this one.  Radiotherapy will then commence in the new year some time.  I have to say, I am devastated.  I have been planning everything around it all being over in 6 weeks and now I have the rest of the year to look forward to.

I say 'we' decided.  It was a bit like the PICC line discussion, when a leading world authority says it is the best way forward, I wasn't about to disagree.  It has risks, it can have adverse impact on my heart and my bone marrow, but he reckons I am coping with that.  The heart scans show that the treatment so far has had no impact on my heart, my blood tests show that my blood recovers between treatments, so here we go.

The blog will continue for much longer than originally planned.  I will come to terms with it, but at the moment I just want to cry, and have been. 

Good day today

Had a lie in and a slow start. Was desperate to get out in the good weather before 3 days at Hotel Churchill next week. Was going to walk around Burton Dasset Hills but then I remembered something about it being Stratford upon Avon music festival this week and there being buskers in town. So I had a mooch round Stratford upon Avon and coffee and a cake in Costa. Probably walked too far, but hey ho.

Got home, called to see mum and Chris from the rally school turned up for a cup of tea. We chatted in the kitchen whilst I cooked stroganoff for tea. Planning to retire to the sofa for the rest of the day.
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Regular Readers

A few pictures here that go back to some previous posts.  They are from my day out with Rob, Jude, Sam and Bella in the Land Rover and I am wearing my new hat that my brother bought me.

Today I popped up to Kenilworth to the new Goodfoot office for a coffee and a catch up with Jeremy.  I then popped into Kenilworth library for a look at the definitive map.  It didn't have any routes on it I haven't already found though.  On the way back, on the M40, the Polo exhaust fell off its rear mountings again.  Fortunately my safety wire from the previous fix meant that I kept the rubbers on and it didn't fall off completely.  Managed to botch it up and then called in at Simon and Pete's workshop to borrow a trolley jack and put it right back on.  Lasted all the way home and it is still on at the moment.  Planning to take it and put it on the ramp at Andy's tomorrow.  That way if it needs major  welding I am in the right place.

All in all a good day, but I am a bit tired now.  Off to bed.

Good day

Sat on the sofa enjoying a cheap french brandy and some dark chocolate. Went out this morning to do the food shopping and have been around the house for the rest of the day. Sharon went out for lunch with an old friend and they both came back home for a cup of tea. Ed rang me and filled in all the details from The Jersey Rally that I had to miss last weekend. All in all a pleasant day, kept going throughout. Must be week 3.
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Good day

Sat on the sofa enjoying a cheap french brandy and some dark chocolate. Went out this morning to do the food shopping and have been around the house for the rest of the day. Sharon went out for lunch with an old friend and they both came back home for a cup of tea. Ed rang me and filled in all the details from The Jersey Rally that I had to miss last weekend. All in all a pleasant day, kept going throughout. Must be week 3.
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Just when you think it's getting better

Was up late waiting for Sharon to come home safely then up earlyish this morning, so maybe I was just tired.   We popped into town to go to The Royal Photographic Society International Print Exhibition and then to pop into Waterstone's to pick up some more reading material.  Exhibition was fabulous, would like to have seen the prints better lit, but considering the number of prints and the size of the space they did pretty well.  Bought JackKerouac's On The Road and Dave Gorman's Game.

Got home and had to sleep on the sofa for an hour.  So maybe I am not doing as well as I thought.  Frustrating really, want to get on and do things but when I do I wear myself out.   Off out to the workshop with Si in the morning to see if we can adjust the Polobanger suspension to make it sit a bit more level and improve the lift off oversteer.