Two girls eating icecream in oncology

Tuesday was the first day in the oncology day centre when we have heard someone chucking up during their chemo. It was a little bit gross. I think it was her first day and she wasn't going so well.

I did end up getting my chemo because my blood results were okay, so that was good news. A doctor came to see me, but I can't remember his name. He asked me some randomish questions and listened to my chest with a stethoscope and decided all was well for chemo.

I tried something new this round to prevent getting a sinus reaction from the cyclophosphamide. After the last round, I wondered whether eating something during the treatment might help and indeed it did. I slowly munched on a Teddy Bear biscuit and the reaction was greatly reduced. It would have been nice if I'd worked that out SIX rounds ago!

Some time ago I mentioned I had stripy nails. I have attempted to take a photo:


I'm not too sure what has caused it - we've kind of got two theories. Either the nails don't really grow for part of the round because those cells get killed too or it is due to the changes in potassium and magnesium that occur. Or we're completely wrong.

My face is getting a steroid puff and I'm not too happy about it. I think I'm starting to look a bit like Darth Vader at the end of Episode 6: Return of the Jedi. Fat cheeks and a bald head. I need to find myself some funky black headwear/breathing apparatus.

Today when we went into the day centre we took the girls. They haven't seen the place till now and I'm not actually sure if they are allowed in but we thought it might be good for Maesie to see where I go, see what happens and meet some of the lovely nurses so that she might not worry about it as much. We weren't in for long and the girls had icecream and it was all fine and dandy. It didn't take long at all so we took the girls to Glover playground for a while and they had a good time, followed by a quick stop at Adelaide Fresh Fruiterer's on Prospect Road, a lovely little fruit and veg shop which is too far from my house.

I was talking to the nurse yesterday and she said that some of the nodes that have been measured and included in the total surface area count are within the normal size range for nodes. What they can't tell from the CT scan is whether or not the nodes contain active disease - that info comes from a PET scan where they inject radioactive glucose and then you have to lie still for ages and only rapidly dividing cells, the cancerous ones, show up in the picture. I had one at the start, but I'm not sure if I'll have another one - so I don't know how they'll determine if all the active disease is gone.