DONE AND DUSTED

When this week started  - on Tuesday for us Brits, I seemed to face a mountain I could not climb.  Six appointments in four days.  Well, I did it.  The Good Lord saw me through.  It is behind me now.  Last treatment for this week completed and home again.  That is the end of the second week of radiotherapy - 7 treatments received, 14 more to go so I am a third the way through the course.  Mind you, I simply cannot tell you how tired I feel.  My body feels like a lead weight that I can hardly drag around.  Some of it is the sheer physical effort of getting there, some of it is now the tiredness from radiotherapy.  I hate feeling like this.  Even my brain seems to have slowed and got muddled.  Yesterday when discussing the situation over here I kept calling Tony Blair Tony Bush or George Blair.  Mental and physical exhaustion. It was to be expected but I am not happy about it.

Every afternoon I take myself to bed and sleep for about three hours.  Thankfully I now have a two day break before it all kicks off again on Monday.

Some of you have been through radiotherapy, many of you have not so I managed to take a couple of pictures of the contraption I have to lie on so you can see for yourselves.

This first one shows the room in general and you will see electrodes hanging down from the ceiling like the strings of a jellyfish and one of the two computer monitors that keeps track of everything.

This second one shows the table I have to lie on and the radiotherapy machine behind it. There is an arm coming out from the big green circle with something that looks like a big bowl on the end of it.  When I am on the table and all calculations have been double checked, the table is raised and turned so that it lies on the flat board under that large arm.  The the big bowl descends and then rotates onto its side and the radiotherapy comes from there.  Then the whole thingswings around to the other side and the treatment is repeated.  You can see the table I have to lie on. Believe me when I tell you  it is very hard on the back, especially the upper back.

Lastly a closer view of the table.  You can see the hard plastic headrest and the cuffs where I have to place my left arm up alongside my head.  Obviously you have to stay perfectly still, you cannot sneeze, scratch your nose or even move the other arm which is down by the side of you.  Any slight movement can mean the radiotherapy can be off the mark. When all is ready, the radiographers leave the room a buzzer sounds and a red light comes on to show treatment is in progress.  This happens three of four times with the radiographers coming in between each "zapping" to re-check again all the calculations and the table position as the table has to be swung around. 

I am grateful to the staff for allowing me to take these photos to share with you.  Neither of them wanted to be in the picture, both hate having their photos taken even by family. Many people do. 

On the way home I did manage to stop at a little garden centre where they have a shop.  It is more of a big garden shed but they have all sorts in there, candles, plant pots, all sorts of decorative objects, garden ornaments and lovely wooden bowls and figures made by a local craftsman.  I did have to hold tightly onto Becky because my legs felt like jelly.  However, I did manage it and they had a sale on.  I got a lovely photo frame for under £2, a decorative small glass bowl for burning a candle in for £1 and a very pretty topiary tree made out of dried flowers which I now have in the middle of my mantlepiece.  It looks so nice and I felt that I was entitled to treat myself.

The dogs and Leo do not know what is going on with my disappearing every morning, the dogs in particular were so used to my be being indoors all the time.  However, they are being very good.  Leo is in for a little shock late this afternoon.  He has an appointment at the vets for his jab.  He is not going to be ahappy little kitten! I can hardly wait to see his reaction when he ventures into the garden for the first time although that will not be for a while yet.  He is bound to fall in the pond at some stage but to try and stop this happening  I might dip his feet in it, cats do not like that and he will realise that he should keep clear.

Well, that is all my news. I would like to thank Kathy (Yada, Yada, Yada) for the lovely card that arrived from California this morning, the picture on the front made me smile and the message she had written was lovely. Big hugs to you my dear friend.

We have a pile of washing in the machine but it is going to rain so we will have to decorate the house with it.  All the housework is way behind so I am glad we do not get a lot of visitors.  Still, all that can wait.   Treatment comes first.  Housework will always be there.

I am going to spend a very quiet weekend, sleeping quite a bit, listening to my talking books and doing as little as possible to build up my strength for next week.

I wish each and every one of you a lovely weekend.  Take care everyone and God bless you.

*P.S. Just wanted to say that Julie has now been sponsored for  £246 - can we make it £300?  in the Race For Life that she will be competing in at the end of June.  Way to go Jules!!!  If anyone would still like to sponsor then please visit  this link -  Race for Life - help us make more people survive

Love