Happy Days

Apologies for not checking in for a few days. Fear not, I am still breathing.

I decided, if you remember, to live life again last week. Enough of waiting. Enough of holding my breath and waiting for side effects to happen.

Life goes on; life can be lived.

Thus, I have spent the last few days going out, seeing friends and living life.

First off Drummond and BRMC. Fun, fun, fun. I am so glad I decided to drag my sorry ass into town and play. Band were great, company was greater and a merry time was had by all.

I am not sure if House and Nurseys would be impressed with me not going to sleep at all on Thursday night, getting the 6.15am out of Paddington and going straight to work for 14 hours, but that is what I did. And I felt absolutely fine, happily going to bed at midnight on Friday and sleeping for a glorious 8 hours...

...and I didn't partake in one alcoholic beverage or anything stronger for the whole evening. A model chemotherapy patient (apart from the not-going-to-bed-for 2 days straight).

Yesterday was racing at Newbury. Best Friend, god-daughter and Boss' daughter and I dressed up and hit the paddocks. Glorious weather, half decent racing and the Queen put in an appearance to boot. Nice yellow hat, your Majesty.

I had a cheeky little Pimms and lemonade. Well, it felt like summer had arrived and that is my summer drink of choice. I am sure I didn't do my system any harm...I am aware my liver and kidneys have taken rather a punishing amount of cytotoxic chemicals the last few weeks and I truly don't want to give them any reason to scream at me...but it was a lemonade-infused weak one.

My betting system let me down badly for the first few races. I have never professed to being a good decent napster. However, both Best Friend and I won 2 races using said system (nice name/pretty colours)...both horses being outsiders, beating hot favourites...and duly won enough to cover all costs for the day plus a slap up burger, chips and milkshakes at a local American diner on the way home. The children enjoyed that bit more than seeing the Queen-in-yellow-hat. Truth be told, so did I.

Highpoint of the day: my Best Friend admitting to a childish schoolgirl crush on Frankie Dettori. Embarrassing at the best of times.

Lowpoint of the day: Best Friend shouting 'hello' at Frankie Dettori as he walked to the paddock as if she was a childish schoolgirl with a crush. She went very red, and it wasn't just because she had caught the sun....

Happy days.

I am, apparently, midway through my 'nadir'. This is the phase within the chemo cycle where my bone marrow has stopped producing those white blood cells and I am at my most vulnerable to picking up an infection and not being able to fight it off. I decided an afternoon in the sunshine, open air and having a smiley good time was probably a whole lot more healthy than sitting at home on my own and brooding that chemo has stopped me living.

One positive point regarding Colin; remember I said I felt as if someone had kicked me in the tit last week? I mentioned this to a Nursey who rang to check up on me on Friday. She said that that is postentially good news. She said it indicates that the chemo drugs may well be working their special chemo magic on Colin...thus he is grumbling. I take that as a positive sign as she certainly did...moreoever, she is delighted that I have not suffered any side effects from my first chemo cycle. It is, she said, a wonderful indication that you have a strong constitution and can go on to the remaining cycles with confidence that you won't suffer too badly.

I hope she is right. I still expect to suffer and anything less is a bonus. So far, that hedging-of-bets has paid off bigtime.