Waiting for the stem cells ...

Well, can't say it's been the best 3-4 days ... I got the inevitable infection on Thursday and this time it was a bit worse than previous ones. I ended up staying in bed all day - something I've religiously avoided doing to date!! Normally won't even lie down on it for an afternoon nap or anything, in case anyone thinks I'm sick (!!!)

I've been OK since then, though a bit tired, and of course on 2 antibiotics + saline hooked up to the Baxter drip machine. But I think I'm also starting to get the side-effects of the neupagin (sp?) which is the drug they give me twice a day to stimulate stem cell production. Like night-sweats!! Oh well ... won't be having that for much longer.

Tomorrow (Monday) I get a special blood test to see if there are enough stem cells in my blood yet. I really hope so! The procedure has to be done over two days, so there'd be no chance of going home on Wednesday if the procedure can't start on Monday!! But of course, I have no control here ... sigh!! :)

Today Wendi came in and we spent hours with her telling me about the event with Maharaji, and friends back in the UK, Portugal everywhere! And talking about what we might do when I'm at home with her. Nothing too tiring, but probably to include some gardening, and cooking. Wendi is a wonderful cook - in fact she does a lot of catering for live-in yoga retreats in the Algarve, where she lives! And if I'm feeling OK/up to it, we may go down to Byron Bay for a couple of days too ... just have to see how I feel and what we both want to do!

We were going to go to Morocco next year but it'll have to be put back till the following year I'm afraid - definitely won't have enough money next year! But it'll be something to look forward to ...

Internet connections ...

Well, it's been a few days ... But I guess it was a bit of - same old chemo stuff last week! And then, my wonderful (check the sarcasm here!) 28K dial-up connection decided to stop working on Friday! Well, I have complained about the speed (???!?) but really I felt so disconnected with no internet at all! I managed to get on once on Friday night (having been trying off and on all day) and not at all on Saturday. And of course on Friday night I thought - oh, it's all OK now, just a telephone fault. So I never wrote down useful phone numbers I could use to ring up and ask what was happening if I couldn't get connected again, so I was cursing myself on Saturday!! Then today (Sunday) I went out for lunch and stuff with a friend and when I came back was going to watch a DVD but thought I'd give it one try ... and here I am. I have emailed loud 'what is going on' messages, and written down useful phone numbers to use tomorrow if necessary!!

Of course I'd been convinced I'd have all these really important emails waiting for me but there wasn't really anything in particular - just stuff from Amazon and even one from Purple Valley Yoga Goa - haven't heard from them for ages, and have never been there ... But it's nice to read about it!! :)

Today I started having the injections to encourage the production of stem cells - twice a day until there are enough to collect, which will probably start next Sunday or Monday. Apparently although they'd rather not do it on the weekend, the timing is driven by the quantity of stem cells in my blood, not their convenience!! Which is good!!

Yesterday my wonderful friend Wendi arrived from Portugal. She's going to the event with Maharaji next week (which I had thought I would be able to get to, until my dates slipped and I was shown I wasn't in control here!) and then will stay for the next period I'm out of hospital, which will be a long one (10 days or so). It was so wonderful to see her - she is staying in my house, with another friend from Byron (Bay) and has also collected my car. I'm not expecting to see her again till next weekend - it's over an hour's drive away and after a long day at the event it'd be crazy to try and drive in to see me. But we'll talk/text on the phone and she can regale me with the day's happenings ...

Back to 'school' tomorrow

That's what it's sort of like - having had a few days off at home, but knowing that tomorrow it's back to hospital for a couple of weeks, back to chemo, back to all that stuff!! But hey - I'm on the downward slope now - this will be the 4th of 6 treatment periods so each one brings me closer to THE END! (I hope!!)

This time I'll be having the stem cell collection in the 2nd week, so I guess that'll be something different! And I've got a website to make while I'm in there - people in hospital will probably think I'm mad! But as well as working at a university as a web developer, I have a freelance web development business - Greendoor Websites and currently have a website to make for an astrologer. The design has been done by a graphic designer friend, and I've got the photoshop files from her now, so I can have fun playing with that while the chemo drips into me!!

Have had a lovely few days at home. Mum has been here cooking and stuff. And friends have dropped in for lunch and/or to visit. I've even managed to do some summer clothes shopping!! This was all, of course, towards the end of the few days. The first 2-3 days I'm usually affected by the ghastly steroids - I suppose they take a while to get out of my system. But now I'm feeling pretty fit (well, relatively speaking!) so I suppose my body is ready to go back and be attacked by/work at processing the chemo again.

And ashtangi people - I have come to the realisation that in all probability I will not be doing yoga at all until the treatment ends (mid-end November). I just have to let go of that, and enjoy it vicariously through all the ashtangi.net blogs! So keep posting!!!!

btw - I've put 2-3 'hair' photos up on Flickr. No 'bald eagle' ones (unless pressed!) but one from about 10 months ago (ie. normal-length hair!) plus a beanie and a wig view! Everyone is saying the wig looks great and I should keep my hair that length when it grows back. But my hair isn't curly, so it's not going to look like that ... we shall have to see!!

The Chaser - hope the ABC vodcast servers are up to the traffic!

Note: I wrote this post and uploaded it, and then realised that because of the date some people might find anything that contained laughter and Osama bin Laden in the same paragraph offensive or inappropriate. A lot of Australians tend to laugh at things as a way of bringing them down to size, not being frightened of things we can't control. And these guys (The Chaser) take no prisoners. There's nothing they won't take on ... So, I'm sorry - just don't read this if you think it'll offend.

Don't know how many people overseas knew (or cared!) about the APEC meeting of 'world leaders' from the Asia Pacific region held in Sydney last week. I'm just glad I don't live in Sydney any more - it was locked down like somewhere from North Korea or Beijing!! Concrete barriers everywhere stopping anyone going anywhere near all these so-important people!

And then the outrageously funny guys from the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)'s 'The Chaser's War on Everything' managed to drive an official 'limousine-style' car (complete with Canadian flags, outrunners etc) right through all the checks up to the hotel where George Bush was supposed to be staying, and one of them got out dressed as Osama bin Laden and they all started walking up to the hotel. That was the first point anyone had a clue that all was not well!! Their official passes all included words like 'and give us lots of ice cream' etc etc!! The police were mortified, the majority of Australians cheering and in hysterical laughter! (Including my conservative-voting mother!) Apparently it was over the news all over the world ... :))

Of course they've all been charged with god knows what and threatened with jail, but I can't believe that anyone would allow that to happen. Anyway, tonight is the night the weekly show goes to air. The ABC podcast and vodcast a lot of their TV and radio shows. I can only imagine the hits their servers are going to take tonight as people (including me!) rush to download the vodcast of this episode onto our iPods!!! They must crash! Here's a link to the Chaser area of the ABC website ... http://abc.net.au/tv/chaser/war/ - enjoy!!

you just can't be good all the time!

This past week is the one where I hang around waiting for my white blood cell count to recover and hope I don't get an infection again while my immune system is pretty much non-existent. So on Thursday I noticed that my forehead felt a bit hot - probably a temperature, sigh! Then I thought - well, I've got some paracetemol here and that brings down a temperature so maybe if I just take that this will fix it(?!?!?!!!) So I did - always intending to tell the nurse when she came round to do the 'obs' (observations - blood pressure, oxygen level in blood and temperature).

She came, and couldn't figure out what my temperature was doing. I told her I'd taken some paracetemol and there was much shaking of heads and stuff and she went off to get the sister (not called that any more but still the head honcho nurse!) She promptly put a thermometer in my mouth and then proceeded to give me another big lecture -saying she knew I wouldn't be able to talk back with the thermometer there!! What I was doing of course was just masking the temperature. And now they'd have to wait till the paracetemol wore off before they could get a real handle on my infection situation, and probably start me on the antiobiotics. So - I had to apologise, but told her I just couldn't be good all the time!! And when the doctor came round the next morning, he wasn't too bothered about it, and thought what I'd said was quite amusing!!

It was all very good natured but I do realise I was being a complete idiot. I guess I've learnt my lesson now. I've never taken paracetemol here without asking them before - I probably got influenced by one of the nurses telling me then that I was good to ask as most people didn't. But that would have been for a headache, not to try and bring down a fever!!

So anyway, it was back on the drip machine (which was what I was really trying to avoid) plus antibiotics, and that's where I am now. But this time I haven't been freaked out about it like last time - I guess I'm just getting more accepting of stuff! And I'm still hoping I'll get to go home on Tuesday as my white blood cells are on the way up ... we shall see! This time it'll just be till the following Monday, but the next time my friend Wendi is coming over from Portugal to visit me (as well as to go to an event with Maharaji, which I would also have gone to if my treatment dates hadn't slipped!). And I'll have 10 or so days with her which will be wonderful!!

Yummy vegetarian recipes blog

Someone sent me the link to this site - Dinner Daily

She's a woman from Melbourne (Australia) who writes up a list of dinner recipes for the coming week, plus shopping list, plus photos! They look/sound really yummy to me, and having the shopping list is great!!

I've been amusing myself this week (in hospital) by buying clothes on eBay! On Saturday I was allowed out (all current chemo having finished, and white blood cells still in abundance, although not for long!) and walked down into the centre of Brisbane to have a look at the shops. Haven't done that for ages. It was fun, but the clothes are all soo expensive - there's obviously been a big upmarket push there! I only managed to stop myself buying a teeshirt for $129 because I realised I had nothing at home that I could wear with it!!! So I got a taxi back (well, it is up a big hill!) and went ebay shopping ... I've got some really nice clothes on ebay in the past - hopefully the 3 things I won will be the same! However, I can tell everyone that it's not easy doing anything like this on a 28K dialup connection. Still haven't managed to pay for the last pair of pants yet ... !