The man in black

The few days after chemo are always worrying and the worry is heightened when we pass on to another protocol. Friday's chemo was Tracey's first dose of docetaxel. for those of you interested the full range of possible side effects of this noxious drug can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Docetaxel . This drug is a nasty piece of work. All of Tracey's recent trials and tribulations can be found in her blog, but alongside the the new chemo she is also now injecting herself everyday with a blood thinning agent to rid herself of a blood clot at the entry site of the PICC line. The diarrhoea caused by docetaxel complements the constipation caused by the cocktail of anti-sickness drugs. I shall try never to complain about a cold again!

The strange thing is that this has been a bit of a slow burner, first day and a bit Tracey was a bit hyper due to the steroids, so she was continually talking (no change there). But now we have had a bit of a crash, chemo foggy head, hands and feet hurting and a cold head. She is watching Downton Abbey at the moment, don't expect a blog for a day or two. We have been warned that the white blood cell count drops earlier with this so the next few days are a worry.

The good news is that Bren is back and I had a very passable Cornish rib eye steak for tea, I had bacon and egg baps for breakfast and have been filled up with tea in between. The bad news for Tracey is that I have lost my separate bed and am now back snoring in my bedroom. Fortunately she is feeling so tired that she will be off to sleep well before I get upstairs.

I had a funny few days holiday, we knew that we would be in the hospital on the Wednesday and Friday but were hoping to get out on Thursday. As it turned out we were in on all three days and couldn't get out, but that doesn't matter, it was worth it to get a step forward with the treatment. At least we know there is a clot on the PICC line and that something is being done about it. And we are 2 thirds through chemo.

Elsewhere life continues, Vaughan missed rugby training today as he had the end of the pain from his twisted ankle, the poor love. For a rough tough rugby player he can be delicate. Livi continues to use my(our) car. I have hardly seen it for a week, I expect I will get it back next time it needs fuel. Adam went to a fancy dress party. We spent all week wondering what he should go as, it was a Halloween party with a TV/film theme. We had a great deal of trouble finding a character for him. No superhero Adam, Woodie from Toy Story? In the end we settled on a man in black, he could be either Tommy Lee Jones or Will Smith. See what you think. 



Come on girls!

Finally today is Halloween, lots of small children begging for chocolates and their parents egging them on. What ever happened to "penny for the guy mister" followed by a swift "sod off". It's so much easier to exchange verbal abuse with a teenager. Anyway as the only one in the house still interested I bought all the chocolates and made our brilliant display. Lets just say that I couldn't find a pumpkin and I had no candles. But we had loads of poor children and their parents coming to the door. It must have been my display.

Whooooooooooo!

Yes I know, it's just terrifying. It's amazing the effect you can get with two cardboard boxes and a couple of led's. "Cheap" was the word Livi used to describe it, I think she was right. (She also said "Oh my god you didn't put that outside the house did you?" I think I may have destroyed all her remaining street credibility. Mission accomplished!) 

So there we are another few days gone, 54 shopping days to Christmas and North Petherton carnival on Saturday. Yes I am suffering from rising excitement at the thought of Britain's biggest and best illuminated carnival and a day back amongst my own people "oooh arrr".

Chris x