My lovely sister's BIG BIRTHDAY

Susan celebrated her significant birthday yesterday.  Her Oncologist had done his best to rearrange her chemo date so she had a chance of being nausea-free on her birthday, but it wasn't possible, due to a fortnight crammed to the gills with Bank Holidays (Good Friday, Easter Monday, Royal Wedding, Spring Bank Holiday ...)

So ... if she couldn't have a birthday celebration without chemo, she decided she wouldn't have chemo without a birthday celebration.

I bought her a big cake, parceled up some napkins, paper plates, forks & a knife & she took her birthday into the chemo unit & had a party there!!

Those of you who know me on Facebook may have seen the photos & will already know how successful this was.  I was afraid that some people may be offended at the prospect of "frivolity" in such a sensitive place, but no one was.  The staff & patients all shared her cake & wished her a very happy birthday.

She has asked me to thank everyone who has been so kind, empathetic & supportive since her diagnosis 18 months ago & particularly to thank those cc friends who posted birthday greetings on my Facebook Wall.

THANK YOU for making my lovely sister's BIG BIRTHDAY such a rip-roaring success.

BIG Birthday!!

Happy BIIIIRTHHHHHDAYYYYY to my lovely sister!!! :-D

Happy Easter!!

We had a lovely Easter, blessed with glorious weather & good friends. Thank you all. My sister (I'll give her a name now, for those who don't know - Susan) got lots of eggy things & I got none - serves me right for telling everyone I want to lose a bit of weight!! Still, she's a generous soul & shared some of hers with me - other bits I managed to nick when she wasn't looking, but please don't tell her that ;-)

North Mid A&E didn't find any infection on our last visit & sent her home, but when we saw the Onc at Guy's Hospital a few days later, he put her on more antibiotics, ordered an ultrasound scan & told her it was probably good ol' Krebsiella Pneumoniae again :-(

She had the ultrasound 10 days ago & the diagnostic medical sonographer (as Yahoo Answers tells me is the correct title of the technician who performs ultrasounds) said her ducts showed increased dilation on the left side of her liver, which could be the result of (a) stent movement (b) tumour growth or (c) tumour shrinkage, causing other organs to shift & prevent bile drainage.

He said she has a good blood supply to the liver & not much fluid in the abdomen, both of which are reassuring signs.

When Sue went for Chemo last week (Cycle 6; Day 1), a doc came to see her & told her not to listen to anyone other than an Onc, as the dilation shown by the ultrasound was actually exactly the same as last time ...

The bloods taken at A&E showed a bilirubin reading of 66 - clear jaundice level - but her pre-Chemo bloods showed Billy has dropped to 10 (which is far lower than mine & I'm supposed to be relatively normal!!)

Since last week's Chemo she's had a rough time & is feeling the effects of the prolonged toxicity. They drip more poison through her veins tomorrow - another 5 hours' worth, poor thing - & the added "insult" is that tomorrow's her birthday!! The Onc was brilliant & tried to change the day to Thursday, to give her a chance of having a nausea- free birthday, but with all the Bank Holidays over last week, this week & next week, there's no room in the Chemo Unit for her on any other day than her designated one. So we'll join her at the Unit tomorrow & we'll all celebrate her BIG birthday (yes - it does end with a zero!!) there :-D

Back in A&E

North Mid A&E is becoming rather too familiar to us lately. She's been doing pretty damn well, over all, but her temperature shot from 37 to 39 degrees within the space of half an hour this evening - so ... here we are again.

She finished Chemo Course 2; Cycle 5; Day 8 on Thursday (well, it was Day 9 actually, but her bloods got lost between the blood unit & the testing lab on the Wednesday, so they'd had to postpone treatment for a day). Oddly, it was after Cycle 5; Day 8 of Course 1 (February last year) that she had her first "episode", culminating in a dash to the North Mid, accompanied by wailing sirens (theirs) & projectile vomiting (hers).

We've been moved to an Examination Room & she's having her bloods taken (they seem to have found a vein at last; it's never as easy as they think it will be). She looks very pale & rather waxy, but her temp does seem to be coming down.

(My phone battery is running low - will conserve it & update later ...)

HA!! I've found a spare power socket in a corner & am sneakily "appropriating" NHS electricity to charge my little "lifeline to the outside world" :-D

... Back Soon ...