Lunch, a bookshop and a new friend

Although it seems quite contradictory, today (as the first day of round 4) has been a very good day. I enjoyed a ride into the city with a friend and walked - or rather strolled/meandered - through the grounds of Adelaide Uni in the cool of the morning remembering good times past to arrive punctually at the oncology day centre. I claimed a chair, made myself a green tea and got a couple of biscuits, nodded 'Hi' to testicle man and his wife who were in the bay near the kitchen, chatted with my nurse-o-the-day and got started with my IV cancer-killers.

Everything ran smoothly with the exception of my cyclo reaction which was less today due to an antihistamine at the start and a slower pumping rate however it still burnt my face off and was unpleasant. I finished around 12:20 which meant I missed the lunch wagon. Ordinarily this would not not impress me but today it was fine because I was heading out to meet friends for lunch. We dined at a nice little place off Rundle St and enjoyed a good chat and a few laughs. After we parted ways I had around an hour to kill so I headed to Mary Martin bookshop and whilst browsing, dreamed of enough money to purchase many books, followed by dreams of either enough money to purchase much shelving and/or a bigger house to hold aforementioned books. I left empty handed, picked up a Fringe guide from the pub across the road and went back to East Wing, Level 7.

Back in the same corner chair (you can observe more from the corner :) ), the lady on my right and the man on my left were still getting pumped with who knows what. I don't think they'd been out for lunch. The guy, I shall call him Joe Blogs (only to protect his privacy, I do know his name and in fact his hospital record number. I tell you, I can't help but hear and remember. It is my superpower) was old enough to be my dad, but not my grandpa, I didn't quite catch his birthdate. It was his first day and his wife and daughter were with him and while the nurse bombarded them with all the info about what drugs he had and what they were for and when to take them and to get a thermometer etc etc they were both busily writing it all down. I'm not sure why the duplicate was required but I guess better safe than sorry. I usually don't butt into conversations but they were talking about the white cell booster and whether they could work out to do it themselves or whether they'd come into the hospital. I piped up and said it was easy, fairly pain free and hard to get wrong. We then had a little chat. Turns out he has B-cell lymphoma. I haven't had a chance to look that up yet but I will. His skin was kind of pasty and greeny-yellow. It was kind of weird. Anyway, I hope he goes okay and that his first couple of days are better than mine were.

I finished my mesna, met my mum on North Tce (not a chance meeting, it was my arranged ride home) and chatted to her on the way back to Gawler, arriving home in time for evening chaos, which perhaps only rated a 3 on the chaos scale tonight.

This evening I have watered the front yard, watched Good News Week, laughed at Ross Noble and toasted some muesli. It is now very late and I should have been in bed a long time ago however Maesie is awake and has been calling out every now and then for the past hour or so.

So it's been a good day. As I type however, Elsie is hollering so the night might not match the day for enjoyment. Such is life I guess.