Post We Must. . .

. . . or we get nagged.

I'm sleeping on the sofa because. . .

Nick is down with the flu or the gastro, he's not sure which. This is his third day in bed. Tomorrow I call the doctor. He doesn't want to drag her out today and, besides, the pharmacy is closed.

I'm feeling marginally better, although I have no desire to do anything except rest and read. This is good for my new blog, 25 Words or Less on Books (see sidebar), but not so great for walkies.

Van-Ly is mad at me because she's used to having breakfast at 7:30 and I don't get up until (mumble, mumble, mumble). The sofa is pretty comfortable for sleeping.

The cats are on a modified hunger strike. If they can't have breakfast on time, they don't want it.

Nala doesn't mind late meals; she just sleeps, wakes up to eat, sleeps. Her eyes are a mess, again, filling with gunk faster than I can clean them. I fear she needs another operation. And walkies.

Altogether, a bummed out household.

Will Work for Platelets

Lose Some, Win Some

Rats! A 3 hour round-trip journey and 3 hours wasted in the hospital, yesterday. Platelets are too low, again. The three hours in the hospital were for another blood test, in the hopes that the platelets had reasserted themselves. They hadn't.
For some reason, they want them to come back by themselves, so my new chemo appointment is for a week from Friday.

I've been interviewed for our local paper about Obama's election. By e-mail. The paper comes out Thursday, so we'll see if I become famous for 15 minutes.

P.S. Blood results just arrived. Platelets are down to 63. CA-125 continues to fall: 66.20 from 66.60 last week.

Colds, Blood Tests & HIV

Turns out I have a cold. Not too bad a one, but it wears me out. I was thrown off by the fever Sunday night. The last fever I remember having was when I had a mega case of the flu at age 15 or so, which means that if I've had any more recently, they couldn't have amounted to much.

Blood results came back. White stuff is doing O.K.; red stuff needs to get its act together. Protein C Reactive is up (right; I'm sick) and CA-125 is down to 66.60!

My new chemo appointment is for Monday and I have to have more blood drawn on Friday. As well as -- get this:

When I had the transfusion, I was given a paper to tell me that, while the odds were against it, it was possible to be infected from the blood. Nothing very specific.

Yesterday, I received a letter and a prescription in the post. The letter explains that, since I had a transfusion, the prescription is for another blood test to check for antibodies. (We still have not mentioned HIV.)

First rate service, don't you think? Or are follow-up blood tests normal everywhere after transfusions?

Another Postponement

No chemo today. I seem to have la grippe. Better today than yesterday, but not good enough. New appointment is for next Monday.

The Rain in Spain. . .

. . . is falling everywhere, but who cares? It's a vacation.

We stopped just north of Barcelona in a bar/hostel with immaculate rooms and a charming owner who speaks French and loves dogs. Catch me giving the dogs packs of ham meant for the customers.

Then, two days with friends near Benidorm, helping to empty their fridge before they depart for South America for three months. And we figure they won't be needing all their DVDs until they come back, either.

Next, Almeria and six days with Nick's brother and sister-in-law. Carole automatically gave the leftovers to the dogs. Chili? They ate it. Leftover paella? They ate it. I'm not sure they wanted to come home.

Then we did the whole thing in reverse, adding a stop for lunch with a friend near Perpignan.

If this seems a boring account, it's true that we did nothing much. Loved seeing everyone and enjoying their hospitality. Ate, drank and rested. No computer, no telephone. It was the perfect vacation.

And we got out just before the snows came.

This Sporting Life

Christmas Eve was a beautiful day and there is so much snow, we advanced our ski day. For those not familiar with the glories of the sport: For reasons which, until this moment, it has never occurred to me to wonder about, ski lift entrances are on a mound. It turned out that, by the time I climbed the three steps worth of mound to the first lift, I was too exhausted to ski. Maybe it's easier to be sporty two days before a chemo session than two days after one.

After I explained the situation and bared part of my skull for her, the nice woman at the ticket counter refunded my money, which amazed me. So Nick skied his new skis and I spent a nice afternoon reading in the sun. I told him it's a good thing I'm not still 30; I'd have sulked. Instead, we both had a loverly day.

On Christmas, we turned down all invitations in order to stay at home and enjoy ourselves. We opened our presents -- and Nick had bought me a Wii! So on Christmas afternoon, I was a bowling fool in a Cubs cap. (A gift from a Chicago friend. No pictures until I have it altered.)

While I was being chemically enhanced on Monday, Nick went shopping for a turkey leg/thigh and brussel sprouts for our Christmas dinner. Since I forgot about potatoes, we had polenta and, for dessert, pumpkin pie. And, with coffee, Yuppie chocolate (with curry?) that arrived with the Cubs caps. Tasted much better than it sounds.

Then we watched The Dark Knight, one of Nick's presents. (The French don't understand that The Great Escape is a British tradition.)

And now it's Boxing Day in some parts of the world and we are boxing up for our vacation. The weather report from Spain is dismal, but we've packed the Wii.

Hasta la vista! About mid-January.