Up again

Round 3 is well over now and I'm enjoying the window period immensely. Apparantely as a result of the cortisone, I have a more than healthy appetite and look as fat as a tick and robust as ever. No sign of skinny paleness or anything unnerving. I do feel a bit of a fraud and the funniest comment yet was, "Do you feel as if you're inthe wrong opera?" and then, 'Could you at least open the door in your dressing gown?' The generous Nussbaums Kosher Butchery, who delivered the elixir of chicken soup as a gift, would have been suprised to see me bounding out in my takkies.

We all enjoyed a happy visit from the Cox' from Durban and look forward to the arrival of Nicola (snr) and Anna Bashall from the UK next week.

Tim has had a dreadful two weeks. The pressure on him from all fronts is bordering unbearable.
The children are doing well but the odd flash point indicates a strong underlying tension.

Sue Cooke's daughter in law, Vessie, just happens to be a very clever post doctoral member of the Harvard Medical School. She works with the doctors who are developing a new drug for Melanoma cancer called Ipiluminab. It is the only fledgling break through in 40 years. She has generously taken on my case and I am hoping to initiate the process of getting authorisation to use this drug so that, should I need it, we won't have to waste time, which is plainly of the essence. Trials have shown up to one year of extension of life. As long as it's good qulaity of life, I'm in the market for whatever is going and have promised to do my best.

Not too bad

Each round of chemo seems to present with different challenges. This one, (I cautiously), write does not seem significantly worse than the last and I am calmer and more accepting of the necessity to do very little. The homeopathic meds seem to be holding the nausea better and the deep sleep afforded by the sleeping pills makes a huge difference. I'm in the second phase of nausea and side effects now and hope it will lift by Wednesday. I also need to be careful of colds etc around days 10 to 14 i.e. next weekend when the white blood cells will be low. Having recovered swiftly inbetween treatments before, I'm hoping for the same agian.

The Iscador, a mistletoe extract, arrived from the UK this morning after much effort from the UK Bashalls and one of Tim's partners. It is a fascinating product which sounds promising.

The family is busy and not particularly unsettled now. Nicola is at White River looking at an interesting Micro Finance project which follows on from her experience in Bangladesh. James heads off to his lovely student life of tutorials, 21st parties and hockey tomorrow. Ali has his head down to write his first set of exams in a year, having carefully sidestepped them last year by going to India. Tim is exhausted after the gruelling chemo week but is recovering quietly and making a good effort to keep fit.

There's lots of living to be done.

Round 3, day 2

I was so strong after the lovely break at Nottens that I decided to whip down to Cape Town for a couple of days to sort out the house. We need to get it all empty and ship shape for the O'Mahoneys to move in at the end of August. There were a lot of decisions to be made as the contents are being redirected to 5 venues!

Nicola immediately and generously offered to accompany me and plough through the long list of tasks. I would never have managed without her and her amazingly clear thinking brain, she kept me on track when I was so easily distracted and her sense of humour got us through some tricky moments . We were powerfully supported by dear friends who were generous and tireless in their help and commitment to completing dull tasks and distracting us when fragile and worn out.

Saturday was one of the days that makes Cape Town one of the best cities in the world. We had a perfect walk along the path from Muizie to Kalk Bay and then a delicious breakfast at our favourite Knead. We returned to have the lovely O'Mahoney family and, happily, the closest neighbours for tea. The delight about the house and raptuous welcome by the children of similar ages was astounding. I have the overwhelming sense that it is the O'Mahoney's turn to have the pleasure of bringing up a young family in that house, which is perfect for the job.

Nausea in anticipation set in in earnest on Monday. Tim and I were really dreading chemo as we knew what was coming. Dr Mafafo was delighted with my lack of symptoms, which seem to indicate that the cancer hasn't progressed significantly. My white blood cell count was normal again and my general robustness allows me to recover fully inbetween treatments for now. I even put on 1kg with all the delicious Nottens and Cape Town treats! She has advised that I take a fourth round of chemo before testing.

So far, so good, but the known side effects are starting to kick in now, so I probably won't write again until I emerge again.

James heads back to CT for an academically challenging, but 21st and hockey filled 3rd term. Nic is off to White River on Friday to do some work for a Grameen style micro finance organisation and Ali has his head down for exams in two weeks. Marvellous children, they are so strong and moving on in a remarkably positive way.

I so appreciate the overwhelming love and care with which you and all we know are surrounding us. Suffering is a condition of life from which none of us is immune. I wish you strength in yours.

Nottens

We had the best bush experience we've ever had over the weekend at Nottens, which is a fabulous bush lodge in the Sabi Sands area adjacent to the Kruger Park. It was perfect in every way and a trip is highly recommended for the bucket list of all. http://www.nottens.com/

We were all thrilled by being really close to two exquisite and wonderfully playful leopard cubs and were overwhelmed by nervous giggles as we were surrounded by a herd of trumpeting elephants. The food was sublime and those kgs shed during arduous chemo have been swiftly replaced!

I really was in full health and able to enjoy every minute. The scents and sights of the bush and the glorious stars at night prevented us from dwelling on any negative thoughts.

With professional, gentle and insightful counselling from Sarah, I have managed to change from focus away from the ghastly prognosis to recovery and survival. I feel and look so well that it seems absurd to consider myself a statistic. There is also so much good work to be done.

Trish, a homeopath friend has been extraordinarily generous with her time and energy and has treated me successfully with complementary medicine which helps so much. Yesterday we consulted another doctor friend who has advised me to try an orchid product which he has used successfully with melanoma. Trish is now using all her international contacts to source it. we also saw another homeopath friend of hers who aligned my energies, a fascinating and exhausitng process.

Chemo again next week.

Baby Angels

by Nicola (a.k.a. Headmistress)

Here are the photos that my mum was been harassing me to put up since Friday last week :)

It was an absolute delight and pleasure to teach such responsive, motivated and naive Grade 7s at Salvazione Christian School in Brixton last week. We ran an intensive Maths and English programme and were overwhelmed by their swift progress and the quality of the work they produced. Isla Maynard, teacher extraordinaire, stepped into my mum's teaching role and coached those children into producing outstanding work. They particularly enjoyed using adjectives to design wanted posters which were accompanied by a portrait lesson run by Ali. The faces were well proportioned and creative particularly considering their lack of any previous exposure to art education.

Viv Spooner inspired Mathematical understanding and development in her inimitable way and harnessed us all to tutor Maths in small groups which was effective. Daily testing revealed an improvement of some children from 20-90% over the week. For some of these children, it was the first time they perceived their own potential.

Prize winners!

Excited sweeties!

James was astounded by how unfit and unhealthy the children were!

To end the week, we had a prize giving to acknowledge excellent performance and progress. The delight on the prize winners' faces was thrilling!

On yet another positive note... My mum is looking perfectly normal and is back to her cheeky self today. She's a tough old chick!

Tough round

All that wishful thinking. Hmm.. Round two has turned nasty as anticipated by the doctor. The weekend was ghastly and for one as accustomed to being as rudely robust as I, it is hard to accept and tolerate being completely without energy.

The very lucky thing is that the DTIC has not affected my sense of taste, so food (albeit in smaller quantities) remains a delight. Losing the odd kg is not an undesired side effect, but to quote Linda, "I can't recommend the diet."

It's difficult to distinguish between the chemo induced symptoms and those which may be due to the arch enemy. Let's hope they all stop soon.

Cosmic hangover

I'm in the full grips of chemo tox now, and it seems less overpowering than the first round. The nausea is constant but lifts with ginger tea and the homeopathic meds. The 20 or so tissue salt pills dissolved seem to work too. The sleeping pills make a big difference too as I'm not keeping Tim awake.

Having the whole family together is the best tonic ever and humour, albeit at times dark, abounds. They have been so energised by the Salvazione school kids and have had an extraordinarily happy and immeasurably worthwhile week. I made it to the prize giving yesterday morning and will see if I can get some pics onto the blog. It was astounding and so moving to see how the pupils had progressed in one week and also to see the confidence and competence of Nic running the show, Ali giving out prizes and James making them laugh.

We're looking forward to going to Finsbury on Thursday for 2 days and then on to Nottens, which is on the border of the Kruger Park, until Monday. Adrian comes next Tuesday for the week, then James is going off to Mozambique for a few days with the Cox'. There's no stopping the Bashalls.