POETS day!

Well it's Friday afternoon and we have a glass of wine in hand and are watching a cruise ship getting ready to leave the harbour full of excited people either on, or just starting out on their holiday. It wasn't a great day for them in Sydney, grey, windy and overcast, nevertheless it is a great city.

Another week of radiation over and Alan still has his hair so far - in fact longer than he ever usually wears it!  He's still doing very well, starting to get a little more tired in the afternoons but still managing to walk home from the hospital which takes about 40 minutes.

He made some scones today! I think we'll be role changing when we get home - I'll be doing the DIY and grass cutting and Alan will be in the kitchen although Vision Australia gave him a few tips on how he could find his tools (lol) they didn't say he'd be able to use them though!  I might need some lessons on the chain saw Karen!

I saw Stella's post on Facebook so know that we've had some much needed rain at home and hope that it filled everyone's tanks.

We have another busy weekend planned (are there any others?) so I'll update you when I can. 

Here we are again

I said I'd give you a review on the Thai food - awesome - lamb pancakes! Unbelievable! It was Thai Fusion fused with Indian roti bread, I think. Delish! 

Today was a long day with a visit to Vision Australia before the radiation.  We had a 2 hour session and believe it or not, turns out Alan could read with 20/20 vision on the charts. But.........come to actually reading a newspaper or the iPad not so good.  Also, no vision at all on the left hand side.  They are coming to visit and have some aids to help him with the computer, iPad, iPhone etc.  and a folding white stick mainly for other people who may be crossing on the left side, lol.

Other than that, we saw the radiation specialist today, who is very happy with the way things are going so far. His blood platelets are good and they've reduced the steroids again.  We had a couple of big walks today, fortunately the weather was kind to us apart from this morning when it was pouring down.  No matter, we were dry and warm because our son in law gave us a lift to our appointment! We are very blessed to have such a great support team down here.

I haven't posted any photographs in a while but promise to do one tomorrow - maybe of the two of us! Even though I hate my photograph taken. Alan says I should do a selfie of us both - can you really do that? Hope I'm not boring you all with my ramblings, but for all who are following, thank you.

Week 2

Sorry I haven't blogged for a couple of days but I had a bit of a meltdown when I was writing - it's all good though - I suppose it will happen from time to time.  We found rather a lot of fluid on Alan's head on Monday  after radiation and I freaked out a bit.  Anyway, I dragged him back down to ask the nurse about it, 2 nurses and a Doctor later, they said they didn't think it was anything to worry about! We see his oncology specialist tomorrow so I will ask her to explain properly what's happening and why.

It's a bit of a change to blog a bit of negativity as has doing so well. Sometimes I think the blog is more like Julie & Julia as it's been mostly about food!

Since the reduction in the steroid dose, he has stopped craving so much chocolate and lollies but still has a healthy appetite and is really enjoying his food (not so much of a surprise, of course).

We are still managing to walk every day and as soon as the rain clears up are planning longer and more difficult walks to keep up the muscle tone and leg strength.  We made apple crumble the other day - crumble topping courtesy of Alan!!!  I'll make a cook of him yet - he wants to try bread next - lol.

Tonight we are going out for Thai food so I'll give you a review tomorrow!

Tuckered out!

Another busy day with lots of walking.  Helen and Scott brought Mia (our great grandaughter) over to see us and take us to the "Secret Garden" and then for lunch.  Alan manged to get to the garden without too much effort until we were faced with about 45 steps!  Luckily, at the top, there were a couple of seats which were immediately sat on lol.  Mia had brought a friend with her so they were running around as girls do and of course I had to go with them - it was exhausting!  Nevertheless, I somehow managed but am now feeling a little weary.

I think I said on Friday that we were looking forward to a weekend of rest - ha,ha.  Somehow I don't think we know the meaning of the word.  It's another beautiful day in Sydney so how can we be couch potatoes (Alan only looks like one in the photo!)

I'm managing to get a little bit of cooking done in between eating out - thank goodness as I'm getting withdrawal symptoms.  Fish cakes and mushy peas on the menu tonight, followed by apple crumble and ice cream - have to go now, Alan's hungry!!!!

Weekend Off!

We are having our first weekend off from radiation treatment and this is what we woke up to this morning - amazing!

The weather changed and we decided to take a ferry to Balmain heading to the Cat and Fiddle Pub only to find that the kitchen was being renovated and they had a very limited menu!  No matter, we'd had to walk so far to get there and it had started to rain so we decided to stay and hope for the best (there was no way Alan was going anywhere without refuelling!). 150 Lashes and a Porky Pie kept him insanely happy and able to attempt the long walk back to the ferry.  We had a short interlude at the frozen yoghurt shop and a rest while Jill and Alistair picked up the Macarons from Zumbos!

We took the ferry, going the long way on our own Harbour Cruise, needless to say the Macarons didn't make it across the water, eaten with relish on our way home!

Another day of our journey - sounds like more of a holiday than what we are really going through, but we need to make the most of it.  Alan is going extremely well, gets tired easily, but keeps going.  I am so proud of him. We'll have another fun filled day to report tomorrow.

Day 3

It was a beautiful day in Sydney today and the first day we didn't get wet going for treatment! Anyway when you've got the big C who cares about a bit of water!

We saw a professor today who seems happy with the progress, although it's early days. He is going so well that she said he could half the steroid dose - could mean that he won't have such a craving for sweet things and I won't have to slap his hand so much as he reaches for the lolly jar! Lol

We had another big day heading off to Macquarie Shopping Centre to buy a pair of walking shoes - all this walking needs more supportive footwear and he's used to wearing work boots most of the time.  Got them straight away in the first shop, thank goodness.  Then on to woollies to pick up (of all things) dried peas and lentils to make mushy peas and pease pudding! Just popped up out of left field!

Back on the train and the walk to Kirribilli (how come I'm not losing any weight?), a quick shandy on the verandah before lunch, then the long anticipated wait for Friday night fish and chips. Yum (maybe why I'm not losing the weight!)

We have a two day break from Radiation but keep up the Chemo tablets over the weekend so we are looking forward to a bit of a rest.

Day 2 of treatment

Second day and a bit exhausting! Could have been because we stopped off at North Sydney to visit Hungry Jacks for onion rings - it's worse than being pregnant!

However, starting from next week, community transport are kindly going to pick us up each day.  We will continue to walk home to keep up the much needed exercise mainly to keep Alan's legs strong as one of the drugs causes the thigh muscles to weaken, but also to counteract all the cups of coffee we seem to be stopping for on the excuse of a rest!

Another bit of good news is that Vision Australia have fast tracked our appointment for assessment so we will be able to learn about the aids available to assist with reading and the computer.  When they spoke to Alan on the phone they asked if he could make a cup of tea, he replied yes.  They then asked  if he over filled the cup, he replied yes I must have put in too much milk!

We had an early Fathers Day treat last night with a trip to China Republic with Jill and Alistair for Peking Duck and have another one to look forward to with David and Jenny - can't wait for that one as David is working on perfecting sour dough bread and grilled scampi in his Pizza oven - watch this space.

Our grandchildren are spoiling us rotten with gifts of lollies for Alan and wine for me both gratefully received.  Thank you.

We are overwhelmed with everyone's good wishes and thank you again for caring.