Monday, 27th October

Another week has flown by...

We spent another weekend away camping, this time we stayed at Gaansbaai.  A lovely, no frills caravan park right on the beach front with nice grassed sites and lovely clean ablutions.  The wind was a bit hectic but from what I have heard it was just as bad at home.  My Mom and Dad joined us for the whole weekend and I can honestly say we came home feeling very rested and relaxed.  Thanks to my parents for a lovely weekend and to my darling husband for great company.

Our site right on the beach front at sunset



Jimmy and I were chatting over the weekend and I brought up how sometimes things are done for no real reason and then they make sense later on.  We went on holiday with Stan and Michelle at the beginning of January when we camped at Camdeboo National Park and Karroo National Park.  While we were there, Jimmy got a bee in his bonnet and decided that we wanted to sell our Bushwakka trailer and buy a 4x4 caravan.  We walked around the park and saw a really nice one, asked the owners if we could have a look at the layout etc and how they found it.  We got back from holiday and advertised the trailer which we sold and bought the caravan.  The strange thing is that if we hadn't sold the Bushwakka we would never be able to go camping now like we are with Jimmy being sick as there is no way I could set up camp by myself.  Jimmy would also not manage climbing up the ladder to where our bed was above the trailer.  I would never have been able to hitch up or unhitch the trailer by myself either.  And the nice thing about camping is that even though Jimmy's counts are low and his immunity is compromised we can go away for a few days and we are never near a crowd of people.  Even having breakfast in a B&B would be a problem if someone else in the dinning room is sick.  Unfortunately I think this will be the last time we can go away until next year as once the whole stem cell transplant process starts Jimmy will either be confined to home or in hospital.  But you never know.....maybe we are lucky and can just pop down to Imhoff Caravan Park in Kommetjie for a weekend at some stage.

We had quite a busy week at home having the alarm system seen to, the irrigation system repaired and all our trees trimmed.  I also spent some more time in the garden.  I've got my work cut out for me this week as there are 2 bakkie loads of wood chips in the driveway waiting to be spread in the garden beds.

We had some distressing news on Friday.  As you know Ilhaam sent off Prof Novitzky's motivation for Jimmy's stem cell transplant on Monday last week.  Well, on Friday she phoned to say that it had been turned down.  This was a huge shock and when I asked her if this was out of the ordinary she said that it was the first case of one being turned down since she has been Prof's PA. She re-assured me and said we must not panic.  The reason given was very medical and she did not know what it meant but has passed it on to Prof.  She says that Prof would never have motivated for stem cell transplant if he thought there was the slightest possibility that it would be turned down and that he will deal with it.  She seems to think that it is something that Prof would have to explain and further motivate.  So now we sit and wait again.  We don't know when he will be finished so that Ilhaam can re-submit and whenever this is we will probably have to wait a week for an answer.  It really is cutting things fine for having Jimmy home for Christmas.

We should, sometime this week, get Jimmy's last M protein reading back and I am keeping everything crossed that these have come down, even if just by a teeny weeny bit.