Last session (?)

Last session over. Immediately I left Oncology with a weird sense of liberation. No more hours spent on Monday, just sitting there as the chemicals slowly drip into my blood stream. My days would be free again!

That sense of exhilaration soon wore off as I realised I never have been committed to anything on Tuesday. I’m usually just too drained to do anything much. There’s no change there. Even next week I’ll still be going to the hospital on Monday, only this time it will be to Orthotics about my knee braces. The district nurse will still have to come on Friday as I’ve still got my PICC line in. That will remain in place until it’s decided whether I need more chemo. I won’t find that out until next week. Really when I think about it I’ve still got a lot more trips to the hospital to do whether I have more chemo or the op. No liberation at all.

While I was sitting there & the chemicals dripped in, the Fox got off to Dermatology. He was impressed by the doctor he saw. He’s now hoping the medication she has prescribed does the job. His eczema is definitely infected - that’s why it is bleeding now. So we’re now just hoping that things improve. He’s to go back in 6 weeks’ time. I’m just hoping he doesn’t end up with an appointment in Lancaster while I’m in Kendal having an op.

Meanwhile the rain keeps coming down & we just keep trying to live a normal life. Is there such a thing?

Appointments

Hopefully today will be my last session of chemo. It will be a relief.

Over the weekend I got yet another letter from the hospital. This time it was the Breast Clinic with an appointment half an hour after my next appointment with the oncologist. I thought I’d best ring to see if I could have the appointments changed a little so I had a better chance of getting from one to the other on time, or at least pre-warn the second department that I might be late.

These days at the RLI (Royal Lancaster Infirmary) most appointments are made via the Appointments Service based at Kendal. The number on top of the letter from the Breast Clinic turned out to be this number.

I explained the situation. The lady who answered could see the difficulty. However, when she took a look the first thing she found was that the Breast Clinic appointment was marked as urgent. If she cancelled the appointment that had already be made she would not be able to make another for several weeks. Her suggestion was that I kept to the appointments already made but advise the first appointment that I had the second one so that department could either expedite my seeing the specialist or at least let the other department know I was nearby but temporarily held up. Certainly I think the second appointment is the more urgent in that I’m expecting to be told details of the proposed op. But maybe it isn’t. Maybe they’ve come to the conclusion I need more chemo of a different combination of drugs before the op. I don’t know. They’re certainly both for the cancer.

As I was on the phone to the central appointments service, I thought I might as well see what was happening with the Fox’s appointment for Dermatology. He’s in a right state. Blisters are appearing all over. Some are bursting, leaking pus, even blood. He was supposed to get an appointment next week but we haven’t heard a thing yet so we suspect this might be another case of waiting for months before we hear anything.

My lady duly had a look. Sure enough he wasn’t on the immediate list for an appointment. However, when I explained the situation, she discovered an appointment had been cancelled for today if he could make it. I assured her he could, especially as the appointment was while I was having my chemo. It not only gets him seen & hopefully more comfortable sooner, it also gives him something to do while I sit there waiting for the drugs to slowly drip into me.

So it seems it’s a busy day ahead. But everything seems to be turning out well today. Long may it continue. I couldn’t help thanking her as usually I find this telephone service extremely frustrating & I end up feeling like tearing my hair out – not that there’s much of that to tear out right now. Instead, for once, I feel satisfied, a job well done.

Green

Last night I had a chat with an old friend from Arnside days i.e. pre-2000. She & her husband have recently bought a property in France. Her husband loves a project &, now he’s retired, he has plenty of time to take something on. The property they bought is little more than a shell of a building but that won’t stop him. He built a two storey extension to their house in Arnside when their sons were growing older & they needed more space.

 

La Rochelle

It turned out the property is near La Rochelle. Memories came flooding back. I couldn’t help commenting if we’d ever moved to France, of all the areas we’ve visited I think that would have been the place I would have chosen to live. The city is fabulous. The seafood so fresh. The air clean. The people friendly.

Not far away, around Coulon, you get to the Green Venice, an area with no roads, just water. Here teenagers aspire to their own boat rather than a car. It is so peaceful. Even cattle are transferred from one field to another by boat.

Green Venice

Moving cattle, Green Venice

I felt greener by the minute. In my case green with envy. We had hoped at one time to move to France when we retired. Then between my health problems & the government moving my retirement age to 65 going 66, it just became impractical. The Fox is now nearly 70 & just feels too old to cope with such a drastic change of lifestyle now. Instead, we’ve settled for Morecambe, which has many good things going for it. But that doesn’t stop us wanting to at least visit France again & feeling nostalgic about the country, its people & culture.