This Week I….

Hi, welcome to another Sunday on which I have MASSIVELY overdone it and am very, very tired. I’ve had one nap and I’m thinking maybe another might be due after I’ve written this.

It’s good to have plans.

Before nap fest begins, this week I…..

Went to the Pub

I started the week with a bang, after a week off steroids and almost feeling normal on Sunday night we went to the pub and we didn’t take the pugs with us. Gasp.

It was like a proper grown up night out and I didn’t have to say “what are you eating?” once.

Spent 2 1/2 hours in the hospital

On Tuesday I was back up to the hospital to get my first Velcade injection of the third cycle of my chemo, and an infusion of the bone strengthener Zometa. Then I collect the rest of my drugs and go home.

Easy right?

My appointment was at 11:30 and by 11:50 I’d had the Zometa infusion and some of my drugs had already arrived so I confidently sent a text to Mr LLL letting him know I’d probably be out in about 15 minutes.

Then they decided that the pregnancy test I’d had on Thursday was too old so I couldn’t have the thalidomide and I needed more bloods taken, despite my reassurances that nothing had occurred since last Thursday that could be an issue 😉

Then they discovered that the rest of my Velcade injections weren’t ready so pharmacy had to make them up.

By 2pm everything had eventually arrived and I finally got out of the hospital. I had to cancel my planned swim and go and get some work done instead.

AND the hospital wi fi was down the whole time so I couldn’t even sit and waste time scrolling through Instagram.

Couldn’t get out of the pool

That swim I cancelled on Tuesday therefore happened on Wednesday. I went down in the morning and there were a couple of children having swimming lessons in the lane I normally use so the lifeguard asked me to use the middle lane.

I sat on the edge of the pool, lowered myself in, did my 15 minutes old lady swimming without getting my hair wet and then realised I was trapped in the middle lane with no steps to get out and I was too broken to jump.

I tried to lift the floating lane divider, and it wouldn’t lift. So I asked the life guard if someone could unhook it so I could get to the steps.

While I was asking and he was using his little walkie talkie to call for help another woman casually walked across the pool to the centre of the divider, lifted it up and walked under it.

It was at this point I realised I was a total idiot and of course if I try to lift it RIGHT AT THE END, where it is ATTACHED TO THE WALL, that is not going to work, right?

So I sheepishly cancelled my call for help, lifted the divider and scurried away.

Got a bit damp

This week it got a bit rainy.

On Wednesday night we took the dogs for a walk and a lightish rain was falling so we went to the woods under the trees.

“Are you sure you don’t want a jacket?” said Mr LLL as we left.

“OH no” I breezily replied, it was still warm and we were going under trees.

So just as we reached about the furthest point from the car the heavens opened.

There was thunder and lightning. There was HAIL. It actually hurt. To be honest I’m not sure how helpful a jacket would have been.

We raced back to the car where Peppa, who normally waits to be lifted in like a little Princess suddenly developed the ability to leap right onto the seat like a gazelle as soon as the door was opened.

We were very soggy.

Had a very important hospital appointment

In which I was given permission to have my eyebrows tattooed on.

Actually that wasn’t the most important part of the phone call. The most important part was that the Paraprotein that they measure in my blood to check if the treatment is working has dropped again this cycle from 5.8 to 3.1. We’re aiming for zero so this is very good news.

However, I did sneak a look at my results during my epic 2 1/2 hour Tuesday wait so I already knew it unofficially. Shhh.

So yeah, I can have my eyebrows tattooed so that if/when they all fall out when I have big scary chemo and the stem cell transplant I’ll still have eyebrows. Which is very important actually.

Had more visitors

In a wealth of excitement this weekend we had another load of friends come to visit from down south.

I managed to brave some beer (quite a lot actually) even though it was steroids week, though I don’t plan on making a habit of that because I feel blooming awful now!

Friday we went to the pub and got trapped by the rain so just had to keep drinking beer till it stopped. Obvs.

On Saturday we has a picnic by the river, then in the evening I finally got to go to Junkyard Market which is a big outdoor street food market that arrived in Norwich during lockdown and is now a permanent feature.

It was a little bit stressful as it was probably the most people I’ve seen in one place in over 18 months, and very few people, including staff, were wearing masks.

I did get to eat this really good biscoff and bacon burger though, so it was worth it.

Also, while we were out we spied on the pugs with the spy camera and at 11pm they were sat like this staring at the door to make us feel incredibly guilty.

And that was another week in my life of burgers, beer and naps.

How was your week?