Friday 8th April

We are playing the waiting game again.....

Jimmy last saw Prof for his monthly check-up on 2nd of March and unfortunately we forgot to make his next monthly appointment.  Prof Novitzky has also been overseas for 2 weeks so now we are waiting to hear when they can fit Jimmy in.  At this last appointment they did bloods for the M-spike count to see if Jimmy's cancer numbers are still between 0 and 5 which they class as remission and we haven't had these results due to Prof being away.  We have also had no news on the motivation Prof was doing for Jimmy to start maintenance.  And lastly Jimmy has been complaining of stiff legs, knees and back which has gotten worse over the last few days.  At first I thought he was coming down with flu because this is how he usually starts it but it has been too long now.  We spoke to Sister Olivia yesterday and she told us that Jimmy's platelet counts have come up to a whopping 250 (normal is 150 - 400) and she suspects that they may have come up too much too quickly so he is going to stop the NPlate injections till Prof is back and they can access the situation.  It's wonderful news that his platelets have come up so nicely.  Jimmy is now also off Cortisone all together so they will also be monitoring his platelets now to see if they remain stable or start dropping again without Cortisone.  So in spite of the waiting it is good news all round.

We spent a lovely time camping at one of our favourite spots in Bonnievale over the Easter period. We had all the children with us for a few days except of course for Loren but it was good to have some family time together.  Unfortunately the weather wasn't the best.  We usually laze for hours in the river on our pool noodles and this time it was quite a bit colder so we only ventured down to the river bank once to sit in the warm sun.  We had 2 very windy days when I was thankful that we have a caravan.  The families camping in tents had a hard time with the wind and after some heavy downpours many of them were drying bedding and mattresses.  'Glamping' is just so much better ;)

A big congratulations to Megan and Cosmin who got engaged.  They are still on vacation between contracts so Megan was here for a bit and is now over in Romania spending a month with Cosmin and his family.  It is the Romanian custom to have a celebration but they haven't set a date for this yet.  Megs will be home at the end of the month for 2 weeks again before they meet up and join the Norwegian Cruise Line Escape which is the biggest and newest ship in the fleet.  They will be based in the USA and do various voyages from Miami up the East and West coat of the Caribbean.

And then on an extremely sad note, we have had some devastating news.  Jimmy's mom, Isabel, has been diagnosed with cancer.  We went with them yesterday for Isabel's appointment with a whole panel of specialist and she also started her first round of Chemo.  Her chemo is administered intravenously and she will have treatment once every 3 weeks over 6 cycles.  I will not go into details of her cancer as Ewen and Isabel are very private people and I would like to honour this but it is a very aggressive cancer which has metastasised.  We pray that Isabel doesn't have to suffer and that the side effects of the chemo are not too harsh.  We are blessed to have them living in their cottage on our property so we are nice and close but I am struggling to come to terms with the fact that we have been dealt two cancer blows in one household.

As I have said many times cancer is a journey likened to travelling a dirt road of which there will be many trips.   Isabel's diagnoses is another route on what is our journey, that we have not travelled before.

Sunday 13th March

I have been meaning to update the blog for a while now and now that I am I can't believe it's a month and a half since I last did.  By now, as I'm sure you are all aware, no news is good news.

The NPlate injections are going very well.  Jimmy is having them once a week on a Friday and has a full blood count done while he is there.  I don't know what the numbers are for this last Friday as Jimmy was away but the previous Friday's counts showed his platelets at 184 which was brilliant news.  They have with each passing week continued to climb and we are over the moon about this.  Normal range is 150 - 400 which means he is at long last in the normal range.  184 Is the highest they have been to date.  Jimmy also had his monthly appointment with Prof on the 2nd of March, the first one I did not go with him to.  I sent a list of questions which Jimmy was very good about working through.  Prof is happy with the results of the NPlate and has now officially started the motivation to the medical for Jimmy to start maintenance. 

On the 28th of March Loren left for the USA to start her year of Au pairing.  She flew to New York where they stayed in the res at St John's University for 4 nights doing various courses run by the Au Pair agency.  They finished this off with a tour of New York which she thoroughly enjoyed.  Her host mother, Danielle, has been absolutely amazing and gone out of her way to make Loren feel welcome and at home. When Loren arrived at St Johns there was a big hamper waiting for her on her bed full of lovely goodies which Danielle had purchased for her including a flask, a long sleeve T-shirt, a hoody and a carry bag.  As well as some vouchers for Starbucks coffee and she also paid the $50 for Loren's ticket to do the New York tour.  It snowed while she was in New York so we got lots of photos of Loren in the snow as well as a selfie with the Statue of Liberty in the background and Time Square etc.  On the Friday morning she travelled by bus from Oakdale to Stephens City, Virginia where she joined her host family.  I haven't had much contact with her since arriving apart from WhatsApp messages while she has settled in and started working but yesterday we had a 1 hour skype catch up.  It made me very happy to see that everything is going well and she loves the family that she is working for.  The twins that she looks after are 2 years old and really cute, she says they have warmed to her really quickly.  Loren went on to explain how much of her money she is going to send home to save and how much she is going to put aside to spend.  She has applied for her social security number and as soon as she received this she can get her USA driver's licence, a bank account and also join the local gym which she is looking forward to.  I almost feel like she has already grown up in the 2 weeks since she left.  I really miss her as she involved me a lot in her day to day life and when she wasn't here we spoke 2 or 3 times a day.  This has left a bit of an empty hole in my life but knowing she is happy makes me happy and it's not forever.

On the steps at St Johns University

Loren experiencing snow

In the meantime Megan has also arrived home for a 2 month vacation.  Loren and Megan were lucky enough to spend a week together here before Loren left so at least they got to see each other.  Megan is filling that hole that Loren has left to a certain degree at the moment but it is going to be terribly quiet once Megan leaves again.  Both Megan and Cosmin got positions back in CEI on the newest of the Norwegian Cruise Line ships, the Escape, for their next contract at the end of April so Megan is going over to Romania for 3 weeks to join Cosmin and meet his family and then she will be home for 10 days before she leaves for the new contract.

We enjoyed a family meal out on the day Megan arrived home....the only time

we will all be together for the next 2 years.

Megan and Loren.....sisters re-united

Megan and Emma....sisters re-united

We are all very proud of Emma who took part in her first Cape Town Cycle Tour last weekend.  After not being very well for 2 weeks and me worrying that Emma was going to do overdo things by taking part, Emma did very well to finish in 5 and half hours.

Emma stopping for a banana and some Energade where

we were waiting for her in Noordhoek.

I am proud to report that I have started running again.  I was running 5km a day when Jimmy was diagnosed in April 2014 and this all went by the wayside.  When I was eventually able to start again and really felt like it was something that I had to do for myself I felt too bad exercising while Jimmy was so weak, confined to home and couldn't partake in any of the sports he used to play.  It's hard to believe how unfit I have become in the 2 years of doing no exercise but I am now in my 3rd week of running 3 times a week and improving all the time.....and it feels really good.  The stiff muscles are also feeling better :)