party, and blood levels, and easter

In the order of the blog title ...

1. I'm having a party! Yes, shy, retiring me is getting out there and having a party! I figured I've got so much to celebrate after the past few months, and decided to combine it with my birthday next month. And for the invitation, I found this photo of me taken more years ago than I like to remember! It was in India in the 70s ... :) Just a few birthdays ago, as it says!!

So the party is going to be held in the back yard of this lovely cafe in Brisbane - they are doing the catering and all. I just have to invite the people, extract a contribution from them (!) and do the music!! No doubt pictures from it will appear here afterwards! It's pretty exciting! All part of my new year's resolution to be open to new opportunities!


2. And next: I had a blood test yesterday and when I rang my doctor for the results I was fully expecting to be told they'd fallen and I needed to have another injection to stimulate the white blood cell production. But the injection I had last month seems to have jump-started my bone marrow! My haemaglobin had gone up to 82 (from 50) and my neutrophils are now 3.1 (up from 1.something)!! I was thrilled and my doctor is really pleased too!

3. And I had such a lovely time in NSW (new south wales) at Easter! My brother-in-law and nephews came to my Mum's on Good Friday and took us out to lunch. That evening she had arranged for some people to come round for drinks (my mother being an indefatigable entertainer!). Then on Saturday we went to Sydney, had yum cha in Chinatown (with Jo and Emma), and then saw the Elton John musical - Billy Elliott. Based on the film ... Just fantastic! Apparently it's going from Sydney to New York - so all you NY-ers who are into muscials - go and see it! It's still on in London apparently, too. And finally on Sunday we had a quieter day - phew!

Got home on Monday afternoon, just in time to receive 5 chooks coming to stay for a few months while their owners go overseas! Fresh eggs again - yum!

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!!