Monday 11th to Sunday 17th February 2008
I have another quiet Monday with a surprise phone call from Cliff Holman. We go back over 40 years to initial police training and he had been in touch before Christmas when he had heard of my predicament of last year. It is really good to get calls like this. It does wonders for my morale. My friend Colin also rings me. He has been out of hospital a week now and is feeling a lot better, even managing a walk to the village yesterday - about a half mile each way. That is really good news.
Tuesday is a big day and I have given it a section of its own. We have lunch at Jeremy’s with Keith and Wendy on Wednesday - superb as ever. Keith has to start six weeks + daily radiotherapy treatment next week and they are moving house on the Wednesday as well. We hope all goes well. Yet more 40+ year old friends. Buoyed up by the good news from Dr Mark Jackson, I resolve to start getting myself a bit fitter, so I have my first leg stretching walk on
Thursday. I do just short of two miles on a bright, but cold, day, with a nasty east wind. I feel better for it, but wake up in the night with cramp in the lower shin and then in my feet. Aaaagh! Linda and Paul come down today for the weekend. I have decided to go up to the Princess Royal Hospital at Haywards Heath for the blood tests I have on the weeks I do not go to the clinic at Brighton. If I time it right the wait in the bloods room is so much shorter. So in the morning I have my check and call the Day Unit for the results later on. They are - Wbc: 4.2; Neut: 2.4; Lymph: 1.3; Hbn: 12.6; and PLT: 113. I am surprised that my neutrophils are as high as 2.4, since my last GCSF was seven days ago. I will hold on for my GCSF for a few days. This could be promising for the eventual return to some kind of “normality” in my immune system.
All four of us set off about 7.15am on Friday for a day trip to Calais. I have a neck and shoulder massage during the crossing! We eat well at Le Detroit as usual and then do a big shop at Sainsbury and Auchan. The day goes very well. We have a mooching around kind of Saturday with a pub lunch at the Royal Oak. I have also resolved to stop the afternoon sleep sessions I have been used to these past few months. If I am going back to work, it’s no good wanting to have a kip all afternoon! Thinking my breathlessness and tiredness was due to my Bronchiectasis and that it would be a feature of my life from here on, I had allowed myself to get into a bit of a rut. I have not had an afternoon sleep since Tuesday! It’s all mind over matter. Never underestimate the power of positive thinking! I should have remembered - after all it is my motto!
We have a quiet Sunday, including a brisk two mile walk and I give myself my GCSF injection. Anna, Nick and Eva arrive late evening from Mull. They are having a couple of weeks or so break driving down through France and into Spain. I still have my “head cold” or whatever it is, with my head full of catarrh, a buzzing in my ears and reduced hearing especially in the left ear. This has now been going on for over two weeks. I am in no discomfort except for the buzzing and the poor hearing. However I still have the sensitive skin issue that started back in October and I am still using Doublebase daily to ease the itchiness I feel on my head, neck, shoulders and waist areas. Needless to say I am still successfully evacuating lots of gunge from my lungs every day.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
Hello Roland,
You sure sound like you are active and getting around good which always helps the spirits. Heads colds are a problem to get rid of with this CLL but we have to deal with them and hope they don't lead to further problems. Thank you so much for leaving a message on my blog it is always a pleasure getting them. You pointed out I did not have a profile of myself which I thank you for pointing out. So I am going to add one to My Story. But here is a short idea of who I am. Being an old man (ha) of 57 years and married for 36 years to Judy a very lovely and supportive wife. We have 2 kids Keith and Jennifer that are 30/32 years old. As you can tell by the photos on my site that we live in Wisconsin and we have had a bad year for snow of course not bad if you like snow. Ha Ha I spent 20 years in the Air Force and coincidently as a Security Police Officer and retired in 1989 After 20 years I felt I needed to do other work so my first and current job is in a local plastic factory. They call me a Guillotine operator, now don't get the French guillotine idea. (Ha Ha) I run a machine that cuts the plastic like a guillotine, it is not hard work but as least it keeps us busy. Well now that this entry has been a short novel I will close for now. I hope this finds you and your family well. Please forgive any spelling or grammarical errors as I must have not listened to my teachers many many years ago. Take Care Pete
Post a Comment