Chemo day

and I can't wait.  It has been two weeks and, quite frankly, the swelling and pain gets almost unbearable  by the last weekend.  I am not sure whether that is because I know I will get relief from the next three days of chemo/steroid regime and just have hang on in there with my stiff upper lip or because I find myself so frustrated by my inability to "carry on" with every day tasks.

For example, I have learnt to stir my tea with my left hand and even wipe my bottom - sorry Dad - as movement in my right arm is very restricted.  I can do things front and forward at waist height but find, for example, tucking my vest into my trousers nigh on impossible.

My good friend and fellow activist, MF, was having a frustrating and ranty-making afternoon yesterday.  I woke up to a text from her and immediately messaged to say she could ring for a moan.   It was that kind of day, having Skyped with Nelly at 7 am for a chat - bliss. Her reply was that she was better now having "taken it out on the kitchen with bleach and wirey thing".  Can you believe I actually had a pang of envy at that moment?  I know that Alex and Bundy and Mrs Crispy will be slightly wide-eyed at that statement, being the Queens of bleach, kitchens and wirey things but I did have a momentary yearning for a good old scrub up.  It passed pretty quickly, so I think it may just have been one of those "I want to learn to fly helicopters" moments. Phew.  Not sure that I want to spend my last few weeks smelling of bleach, to be honest....

I try to save my right arm energies for the intrawebz activities.  Typing is hard but it is not so bad as chopping vegetables.  It also means that I can carry on communicating and keeping people in touch.  At the moment, the forum is all abuzz with our interaction with the wonderful Bryan Lask, who is dropping me emails from Australasia and our members are really enjoying interacting with him, asking him questions and being given answers.  I, as the conduit, feel like an overproud mother hen - not only that Bryan is genuinely interested, reading everything and keen to help and promote better treatment - but also that my boys and girls are SO not being bowed but challenging and talking and agreeing and not agreeing with him - just as it should be.

Finally, my friend, Colleen, is supposed to be doing a quilt for me.  She is a little distracted by babysitting her grand puppy.  In her position, I would be doing exactly what she is doing - having your ears cleaned by Laika looks like much more fun than sitting sewing....