Thursday, 19th March

After having so much information on a daily basis to share with you all I don't know what I am going to have to say pretty soon as Jimmy gets stronger each day.  Which brings to mind how true the saying ' no news is good new' is.

Jimmy had his post discharge check-up with Prof yesterday as well as his Zobone which is basically calcium to strengthen his bones.  Prof is very happy with Jimmy's progress.  He did a physical too and all seems in order.  He said that we must continue to take his temperature daily which I had been doing but not the last 2 days so we started this again this morning.

Because his  counts have come up so nicely from the bloods they did on Monday the clinic did not think it was necessary to do them again yesterday.  Prof informed us that there is no need to come in for weekly blood tests and we made an appointment for Jimmy to have his bone marrow biopsy on Tuesday the 21st of April.  This is a month earlier than we thought.  The clinic will contact me in the next few days to let us know when we must go in to have Jimmy's Hickman removed.  This needs to be done as soon as possible as it is a risk area for infection and the clinic nurses confirmed that his veins are still there, just enough, for any other procedures so no use in keeping the Hickman.  So apart from this appointment we don't even need to return to the hospital until his bone marrow biopsy appointment.

We did discuss with Prof what the next steps are after bone marrow biopsy results but there are too many things to consider depending on too many possible results so Jimmy and I have decided to not even go there for now.  The important thing now is to get Jimmy's strength up and for him to put on some weight but this will all come in time.  Prof is happy for Jimmy to return to work after the bone marrow biopsy.  He did say that Jimmy will have to understand that after being home for a year even starting work again is going to be exhausting for the first bit, without even considering the effects of the chemo on his system.  He also explained that one of the side effects of the chemo is a lack in concentration and he can't predict with each patient when this will be normal again.  But Jimmy is super excited at the prospect of going back to work in a month and I am sure he understands that it will be better for himself to ease into it for the first week or two rather than overdo things and end up at home for a month again due to exhaustion or an infection.  I mentioned on a couple of occasions in the blog that the chemo continues to work for a few months post stem cell transplant and this is why there is this waiting period before the bone marrow biopsy is done.  I was however not completely correct in this explanation.  Prof explained to us yesterday that the heavy dose of chemo that Jimmy had prior to stem cell transplant has in fact done its job.  "A message has gone out to all the cancer cells that they will die but not all the cancer cells know this yet so the delay is actually due to the time it takes the cancer cells to die".  I always find it interesting how the staff explain these things as they are usually from a completely different angle.

For the month ahead of us we are taking each day as it comes.  Understandably Jimmy was tired yesterday after the hospital visit but much better again this morning.  He has already fired up his laptop and downloaded 1700 emails and been in contact with his staff at the branch as well as head office.

Megan's flight lands at 17:25 today and I am so excited....I can't stop smiling.  I have missed her so much these 8 months and although she is just here for a visit it's going to be wonderful to catch up.  It will also be good for her to see Jimmy as it has been very hard for her worrying about him and not being here to see first hand how things are going.

Emma is taking part in the Variety Concert at school this week and sings a solo song.  I am so proud of her as I couldn't even stand up in front of a group of people and talk, let alone sing a song.  I'm looking forward to watching on Friday night.

Loren scored a goal in indoor hockey this week so I am super chuffed with her.  She is looking so forward to their matric outing which they are going on next week to do some white water rafting up on the Orange River for a few days.  Jimmy and I spent 4 days over New Year's doing this a couple of years back and it is absolutely exhilarating. 

Life is good.....