Faits Divers

Faits divers = This & that; In brief

Actually, the weather is perfectly lousy, but I live in hope.

I am not allergic to my cats. I am allergic to chemo: runny nose, leaking eyes. If only I had stock in Kleenex.

I've started up my book blog, again. (See sidebar) I missed it.

Blood tests have never bothered me; they're just a pin prick. About three weeks ago, I had one that hurt. I blamed the nurse. Then, the following weeks they hurt, too, and I've been bleeding more. This week I yelped. A year and half of constant pin pricks has taken its toll. However, the hospital staff tell me that the patch that I don't wear prior to chemo to deaden the pain (because it doesn't hurt) will work on my arms. We shall see when I have the scan.

* * *

O.K., I've had the scan. Patch worked like a charm; I didn't feel a thing. I am slowly learning to read the scanner reports, but even with a dictionary, I don't really have the education for this. Anyway, results as I interpret them:

Tumour on the ovaries is is pretty much unchanged.

The pulmonary (?) microtumours, which the reports seem to mention as the mood takes them and don't seem to worry the doctors (so I haven't mentioned them, either) are still, or again, there.

The small tumour on my liver, which no one has mentioned before, but I see reported for the first time last May, has shrunk.

I swear the last time the oncologist told me there was nothing but the tumour on the ovaries, so I have to ask, again. The radiologist said he thought I'd be going back for chemo, but I have an appointment with the oncologist in Lyon on April 19th. He will decide.

I also visited my GP last night to refill my regular prescription. She asked how I was walking and I said, "Badly." Evidently, this is also the Taxol. She said I should practice walking properly to stimulate the nerves in my feet. She thought walking in sand would be good. So I told her we were going to Spain. She thought it was a joke.

But it isn't! We leave on Monday and will be gone until the 16th when we'll return to repack and go to Lyon overnight on the 18th.

Our friends near Benidorm are celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary today with a party in England. On the 10th they are having another "small" party in Spain. (They bought out the restaurant.) The 10th happens to be our 28th anniversary (everyone in England gets married in April for tax reasons), so we're going to the party.

Nick's brother and sister-in-law are joining us for a few days, too. And we intend to stop in Figueres for two nights and see the Dali museum on the way down. On the way back, we're going to spend a couple of nights in the nice little hotel in pretty little Sant Feliu de Gùixols just for the hell of it.

We are taking the dogs. The neighbours will put up with the cats.

Happy Holidays! Talk to you at the end of the month.

The Good News and the Bad News

The good news is that the oncologist is a lot better at reading scans than we are. Having had the disk output loaded into the hospital computer, he compared the results with my last scan. We thought the tumour had shrunk a little. In fact, it seems to have shrunk by about half. It's stil attached to my bladder, though, and "If we operate now, we'd have to take out the bladder." "I can wait," I said. So back to chemo on Wednesday.

More good news: Everything else is cleared up including the tumour on the peritoneum. Woo hoo!

Neutral news: I didn't clear up how two tumours became one, but I'll ask my other oncologist on Wednesday.

Bad news: My feet are going to fall off. With more chemo I will have more skin peeling, more pins and needles and more sore red toes. He said this wasn't "grave." O.K.

Even more good news: We stopped for lunch and did a little grocery shopping north of Valence (the departmental prefecture). They had beef for animals for 2.50€ a kilo. That's 1.14€ per pound. The cheapest I can find it in Avignon these days is 3.70€ per kilo (1.68€ per pound). Another woo hoo.

We had a leisurely drive to Lyon yesterday, a pleasant evening and excellent dinner with friends, good news at the hospital, and a leisurely drive home.

Christmas Chemo

We got up at the crack of dawn to get to the hospital by 9 this morning. My red blood counts are O.K. now, so I'm off the EPO, but getting another injection for my white blood count. It's always something, isn't it?

I went armed with a bag of Christmas sweeties and the nurses were very appreciative, but I still had to wait half an hour for a bed after I'd seen the doctor.

The doctor wants me off all my medication except what I normally take (thyroid and anti-depressant). She says she's appalled at the number of prescriptions I have. I said I was appalled, too, and I wasn't taking anything any more except I was still weaning myself off the last variation of cortisone.

I told her about the cats and how I think the blockage I feel in my throat and chest (that no one can find) are really an allergic reaction, and I want to start on an anti-histamine, she snapped, "Later"! O.K. Perhaps, if there is something there, it will show when I get the CT scan on the 8th of January. The scan will include the thorax. (I guess she does listen to me.)

No one seemed to notice I have a cold, even though I'm croaking rather than talking, when I can speak at all. We did notice that I have gained 2 kilos. Crap! I'm not even eating, compared to my usual voracious appetite.

We wish you the joys of the season.

The people: Nick & Margot
The dogs: Van-Ly & Nala

The cats: FloJo, Harry & Miosa