Saturday, 17th May

Yesterday was our first day getting chemo treatment at the chemotherapy and haematology clinic.  I set the alarm for 5am so that I could get Jimmy and myself up and dressed and make sure there was time for him to have breakfast so that he can take his meds.  We slept on the couches again on Thursday night and my phone was plugged in some way from me so when the alarm went off at 5am I got up, dismissed it and climbed back under the blanket telling Jimmy he had 5 minutes and then he had to get up.  The next thing I knew it was 6:45am.  Amazing what you can do when you have to!  We were in the car with the kids and driving to school at 7:30am and walked into the chemo clinic at 8:57am.  We had to be there at 9am to leave by lunch time.  The traffic into town was busy but moved along at a constant pace, the trip took an hour and 10 minutes.  I had taken the wheel chair with because we go in the entrance and then up in the lift to the next floor and then it's quite a walk to the clinic but Jimmy said he wanted to walk.  We took it very slow and he did very well.

The whole time we were there, there was only Jimmy and one other patient so it went quite smoothly.  I think we'll stick to the routine of getting there at 9am though, as when it is busy I can see things taking quite a bit longer.  So the first thing they do is draw bloods for a TBC - total blood count.  (I'm getting quite good at all this terminology.)  This gets sent next door to Groote Schuur Hospital where UCTPAH have their own lab and it takes about 15 minutes to get the results.  If the blood counts are good (I think red and white) then we get the go ahead for chemotherapy, which Jimmy's were.  The next thing then is they contact the doctor who sends through a script to the pharmacy at the hospital and they mix up the drugs.  This takes about an hour although I am sure, once again,  it will take longer if the clinic is busier.  And then they come with 4 BIG  syringes, and squirt these into the line going into the vein in his arm.  I now also know that he is on 3 different types of chemo, 2 intravenous ones and an oral tablet.  He also gets a syringe of cortisone and one with sterilised water which is used to flush out something.  I think I have explained before that the oral chemo is taken once a day for 5 days on the first day of each cycle and they also explained that one treatment in a cycle will be done with a drip as there is a bag of something that he needs, so this treatment will take longer.  So, 20 minutes later and chemo was done.  Then we wait for a script for all his pills, nausea etc and go to the pharmacy and wait for these.  We got home at 12h30.  I was very chuffed with this but of course five and a half hours for Jimmy is a long time and he was exhausted.

Yesterday evening the girls left to go live with Mike, heart breaking to say the least.  I tried to be strong in front of them and happily wave them goodbye as they start a new chapter in their lives but I failed miserably.  It was a very empty feeling standing in the driveway and waving goodbye as they went down the road.

I collected the script for Jimmy's sleeping tablets in the afternoon.  We slept on the couches again last night and although not a brilliant night's sleep, much better than in a long time.  Yay to the sleeping tablets!!  The pills wouldn't go through medical aid as we have already reached our limit.  R11 000,00 since the 15th of April on blood tests and pain killers.  This doesn't include the chemotherapy for 4 months as this goes through as a involuntary prescribed minimum benefit, the cost of which is R383 428,32.  I wonder how much the stem cell transplant is going to cost? Which brings me to the adjustable beds....the cheapest one I can find is at Tagelberg Furnishers - R32 000.00!  I think we should try out the bed in the caravan and maybe move into that lol.

Our guest bedroom is slowly turning into a pharmacy

I showered Jimmy this morning and have some wonderful news.  Usually he can only just lift the front of his foot off the ground and then put the weight back on this and lift the back of his foot up so I can get his jocks and tracksuit pants on.  This morning he held onto the handbasin while I knelt down in front of him, and he managed to lift his foot completely off the ground.  Colleen also dropped off a zimmer frame yesterday afternoon <3  and he is like Speedy Gonzales with this thing around the house.  He even goes to the toilet on his own now, on condition that I leave the toilet seat up (gggrrrrr) and flush the toilet for him after as he can't manage to bend to lift the seat or flush the toilet.  He doesn't seem as tired as he was and has a much happier demeanour so I am now sure it was that oral chemo tablet that made him feel so crappy. I'm also sure the chemo is starting to kick in and kicking the shit out of those cancer cells.  I actually can't believe that we have chemo on Tuesday and then we are already in our first week off and nearly at the end of the first cycle.

Some other good news is that we have heard from BA with regard to our tickets to Zimbabwe in October which we had paid for and they are prepared to refund all the ones in the name of Smith, but not the Devoti (my girls) or our friend's tickets.  But it looks like they will transfer them into our name so we can refund Rohan and Patsy and use the tickets for a break sometime between now and April next year.  A very welcome thought.  I can see us sitting on a deck somewhere in the bush watching Hippo spray their pooh all over the place haha.  It is also sounding very positive that they will refund the accommodation payments and the house boat, so we are holding thumbs.

We working today as there is some more rain coming on Tuesday and Wednesday so Jimmy came for a drive with me this morning and sat in the nice warm car in the sun, while I did a site visit with Stan.

My blessings today are that Jimmy is feeling much better and even chatty.  Thank you Wayne for the visit with Jonty and Keira and congrats to FHHS 1st Hockey girls for beating Brackenfell 1-0.  Rumour has it Loren, that you did well in defending a goal!