Wednesday, 4th February

Day 62 - Stem Cell Transplant

Jimmy did not have such a good day today.  He is still much better than he has been but he wasn't as good as yesterday.  He said that he just didn't feel right today.  He tried 3 mouthfuls of lunch and vomited again.  He has lost 3 kg since Sunday and they are concerned about this because he can't keep food down so worried he is going to lose more.  At 2pm he spiked a temperature out of the blue and he didn't want to get up or sit in the lazy boy today.  He dropped the back of the bed and turned onto his side and went to sleep.  It's the first time he has actually gone to sleep, like he wanted to.  Usually he just fades in and out of sleep in whatever position he is sitting or lying.  I hope we don't have another bug coming and I just so wish he can keep some food down. 

We experienced another hectic night with the fires last night.  After such a hot day yesterday and not a breath of wind it picked up suddenly at midnight and within 10 minutes Chapman's Peak was ablaze in front of my eyes.  The fire ran down the side of the mountain.  Most of Noordhoek below Chapman's Peak and back had to be evacuated at 2pm.  It was like watching the peak hour traffic as all the cars were driving out along Beach Road and then past the common.  They all parked on the Noordhoek sports fields and slept in their cars for the remainder of the night.  I saw a photo this morning of all the cars parked there and it looked like one of those storage facilities where new cars go to be stored as they come off the production line.  As I stood on my veranda I could see houses burning down and after Sunday night's fiasco here in my own street, which was not half as bad, I knew just how all the residents were feeling.  I felt so helpless.

Then after 2pm sometime we had another flare up on the mountain side in our street.  I took a walk up to the fire engine and went to check that it wasn't too serious.  The fire department was here in no time and they managed to sort it out.  At 4:15am I got into bed and fell asleep to be woken up by Emma phoning at 5:15am to find out if I was okay.  There was a huge fire on the Clovelly mountain side and she was concerned it had come back over the mountain my way again.  I actually fell asleep with my phone in my hand and woke up an hour later and this was my sum total of sleep last night.  The fire was still blazing at 6am but it didn't take the helicopters long to put it out.  I could still hear people with electric saws cutting down trees which had started at about 3am.

For those who do not live in CT, I have been focusing on the fire in my neighbourhood but there have been fires even worse than this all over the South Peninsula.  It has been absolutely devasting.

Loren and Emma are here with me tonight and I am looking forward to a good night's sleep with some company in the house.  I haven't had more than 6 hours of sleep since Sunday night altogether.  I tried to have a quick nap while I was sitting with Jimmy today but each time I close my eyes I can still hear helicopters in my head and see smoke.  A bit weird!  I mentioned to the girls this evening that I am so glad the fire smell is out the house and they both laughed and said my nose has become immune.

Thanks very much to Patsy, Colleen and Andrea who popped around yesterday morning to come and check on me and this morning Antony joined me for coffee, in my pyjamas, to come and make sure I didn't need any help.

Everything is very quiet tonight and I cannot see any smouldering spirals of smoke anywhere so I think we are over the worst.

This is what Ou Kaapseweg looks like now.  This used to be the most
beautiful spectacle of Protea bushes and wild flowers
 

A view of Chapman's Peak for Hout Bay Harbour

Fire above Monkey Valley on the slopes of Chapman's Peak.  This is the
area that flare up again at midnight last night.

My brother Stan and Michelle are brilliant photographers.  This is one of
Stan's photos

Hopefully tomorrow I don't have anymore fire news to tell you but rather some good positive news about Jimmy.

Tuesday, 3rd March

Day 61 - Stem Cell Transplant

Today was Jimmy's 43rd day in isolation in hospital and yesterday was the first day that I did not go through to see him.  I didn't really have time to think about it yesterday because it was one of the most hectic days of my life.  I couldn't really give Jimmy much thought but when I arrived there this morning I realised just how much I missed seeing him. 

Now that he has been off morphine since Saturday or Sunday he is so much more alert.  I was telling him all about the fire and packing etc and he was asking me lots of questions.  He looked at all the photos too.  He got up just after I arrived and went to the loo and then had a shower.  He showered himself, I just held the sprayer for him and the only other thing that I had to help him with was drying his legs as he is not strong enough to support himself and bend over and then I just helped him step into his shorts.  He sat up in the lazy boy for most the time that I was there too.

He is trying very hard to eat but not managing very well.  He has no appetite and everything tastes funny and salty and every now and then he still vomits.  He has lost 2 kg since Sunday and had diarrhea today.  But other than this he is doing well.  His mouth is looking very good too. When I left this evening he said 'can't I just come with you'.  I am happy that he is feeling that much better that he actually wants to come home now because this means that he will try harder to overcome the last hurdles.

Jimmy asked Prof this morning when he thinks he can come home but Prof did not want to commit,

Today was the hottest day in Cape Town in 100 years.  It was 42 degrees at midday and in fact we were the hottest city in the world today.  It got to 43.5 degrees while I was driving home from the hospital early evening.

On the fire front....

We still had a couple of hot spots on the mountain side behind our house last night but this was being closely monitored throughout the night.  These has been a thick haze of smoke hanging over us for most of the day today.  The house still stinks like fire.  So much so that I could not fall asleep last night.  At 3 am I was still awake and had been for almost 24 hours.  It had been so noisy here all day with helicopters that the noise of them was still ringing in my ears.  There is also ash settling all over everything and suspect it is going to be like this for a while.  Each time I heard emergency vehicles passing the house I didn't know if the fire had started up again and once I did fall asleep I kept waking up to the smell of smoke and didn't know whether this was old smoke or new smoke.  I was tired because I couldn't fall asleep but I didn't want to sleep in case I didn't wake up if the fire did start again.  Some friends and I had been discussing that I need to watch out for things like snakes and spiders coming off the mountain in search of water and last night when I got into bed there was a scorpion on the bed next to my pillow!  The fire burned throughout the night on Chapman's Peak which is on the opposite side of our house.  First thing this morning the helicopters were back water bombing the mountain side and then they left here to go over to the Tokai Forest side where there has been a raging fire all day.  The fire engines left the Chapman's Peak area just before sunset this evening and at about 8:30pm I could see that some were back and seeing to the hot spots.

Driving over Ou Kaapseweg this morning was so eerie.  There is almost no green vegetation left, this all used to be beautiful Protea bushes where ever the eye could see.  It feels like you are driving through the end of the world.  It is so desolate.  We are expecting a little rain tomorrow morning so hopefully this will put the last of the fires out.  Tonight the fire from the Kalk Bay side has come around and burning above Clovelly.  They flew in 300 fire fighters from the Eastern Cape today to come and help fight the fires and expect that it will take a few days to get them all out and more than a week before the areas will be safe with no chance of any hot spots flaring up again.

There has been some amazing photography since Sunday, so I thought I would share some of these photos with you.

These are photos of the fire on Boyes Drive

 

 

And these photos are of the fire on the mountain side on our street