Friday, 27th March

My life feels a little incomplete without my dose of daily blogging and I suspect some of you are feeling the same as over the last few days I have had a couple of messages asking how things are going and 'we miss reading your blog'.  I would love to chat here everyday but unfortunately there isn't enough news to share.

Jimmy had his appointment at UCTPAH this morning in the chemo clinic to have his Hickman line removed.  They did this under local anaesthetic.  We need to go back next Friday to have the stitches removed.  He never complained about the Hickman but I am sure he will be more comfortable without the 2 tubes hanging out of his chest.

They did his bloods again today and there is not much of a change from the results when he had his appointment with Prof almost 2 weeks ago.  I was kind of hoping they would have come up a little more but then again it is good news that they have not dropped.  Jimmy has been extremely tired since Tuesday, more so than he was last week and this has been a bit of a worry for me.  He has been getting up after 11:00am in the mornings and even then it's not because he is lazing in bed and watching cricket, he is actually sleeping till this time.  Once up he has breakfast and pills and then takes a shower and then he settles himself in his chair in the lounge and sleeps some more.  Without even putting the TV on to watch the cricket!  He does wake up a little in between but then just nods off as quickly again and this last till about 2:00pm.  I discussed this with Dr Fine this morning and she said that it is quite normal as he has been through quite a lot.

Jimmy tried going for a walk on Monday morning but he is not strong enough for this yet.  The problem also being that we have a lot of hills in our neighbourhood.  I suggested driving down to a flatter area or even down to Fish Hoek beach and taking a stroll along  Jagers Walk but he didn't show much enthusiasm.  On Wednesday he said he thought he would try setting the treadmill on a slow pace and doing some walking from Thursday morning, which I thought was a good idea as he can build on this each week by increasing either the speed or the distance, but this also did not materialise.  I think he feels completely exhausted most of the time.

I also enquired today whether or not they had the results back of his Myeloma bloods which were taken but they expect these back on Monday.  We are looking forward to these results as this will give us some indication of where we stand as these results will be compared to his count prior to his stem cell transplant.

So basically we are still just taking each day as it comes.  The good news is that he is now off all his nausea medication and not feeling nauseous at all and he also doesn't have any back pain.

Megan arrived home last Thursday and it has been fabulous having her here.  We have spent a lot of special time together talking for hours about everything.  She has matured so much in the 8 months that she has been away.  NCL Jade have given her another contract and she needs to be back on the ship on the 30th of May.  I am very proud of her as she also got another promotion so goes back in a more senior position.  She really spoilt us all with beautiful gifts.

I finished my second crochet blanket on Wednesday evening and it didn't take Jimmy very long to start using it.  The first one I made I called my chemo blanket and this was my transplant blanket.  I had an excellent idea from Kate that the next one should by my remission blanket.  I had planned on making 2 of these as a matching set to snuggle up with during the winter months while watching TV so I had better get started or it won't be done before winter.

The mornings and evenings are definitely getting a bit cooler in the Cape now and it is also getting darker slightly earlier in the evenings now too.  Easter weekend is always renown for rain and then the weather usually takes a turn quite soon after this so I suspect we might be enjoying our last few weekends of warmer weather.