Hey ho..

We've all relished the much needed break from the 3 week grind. The fourth week enabled me to enjoy my family, catch up with some friends, build stamina with big walks, spend time on the huge project to get our Salvazione grade 7 kids into high schools and participate, with much delight, and pride, at the KPMG Africa Conference at Sun City.

We went to the prize giving for the SACEE writing competition and Ali read his piece well. he came second in the Senior Prose section, much to our great delight. James' hard work during his vac paid off. Nic has had bad luck with her job and is waiting (impatiently) to hear the outcome of another interview. That nasty double dip is hitting hard all round.

Round 6 started today. My white blood cell count is normal again. This is very good news. Dr Mafafo could not find any outward sign of deterioration.

The side effects are hitting fast, so I know how the next week to 10 days will be.

The refreshing breaks are healing and empowering.

Up for air

Round 5 seemed to take forever to get over. The nausea dragged on and I battled with fatigue. Getting up the few stairs from the front door to the front gate was challenging and alarming for one accustomed to robust mountain walks. While I know that each round will be more difficult to tolerate, it is difficult to accept.

Having James home was a great tonic. He had a huge amount of work to do for 2 tests next week and managed to do several good days of work, with some happy family meals interspersed. He is wonderfully supportive and has intuitive gentleness and kindness, which got us through the muddy patch. My mother hen instinct was at the fore and anyone listening carefully would definitely have heard a little cluck from me, once I had all my chicks around the table! What more could I ask for?

Nicola started her new job in the Africa Division of Standard Bank on Tuesday, amidst great excitement of buying proper work clothes and shoes (high heeled; she had to practise walking in them and was seen in them with her spotty pink pyjamas!). She seems to have found the place where she can combine her passion for social business with good career opportunities and training. We are well aware how lucky she is to find a fabulous job in this precarious economic climate.

Ali has gone off on a leadership camp for the weekend. He's reading some of his work at the SACCEE Creative Writing Prizegiving on Wednesday evening and it's his 17th birthday on Thursday. The house is very quiet without the boys today.

Our 60 boxes of stuff arrived from CT on Thursday, so I have my work cut out for the next while. Chaos has erupted and while we were delighted to see all our books again, the rest should probably have remained in boxes. Worldly goods can be such a nuisance.

I'm toying with the idea of delaying the next treatment by a week for several reasons and will need to consult with the powers that be to see if this will be a viable option. We all need a break from the gruelling 3 week routine. The idea of an extra week off feels like a holiday coming up. The Becks have generously allowed us to go to their house on the Lunsklip River near Dullstroom for the weekend, so we'll be off on Friday with a couple of Ali's friends. The breaks are excellent medicine.

We seem to be balancing optimism, hope and realism relatively well.

Round 5, day 3

As promised. a pic of James indulging his mother's youthful fantasy! Two beauts?

The week has gone well. Tim has managed to be with me throughout the treatments and his resolute and calm presence makes all the difference in the world. A strong team. Starting again on Tuesday was tough, knowing exactly what I was in for, and we remain concerned that the chemo may weaken me to the point where I will be unable to take the seemingly successful, but still experimental Ipi.

The trend has been that the white cells have diminished with each round and we were delighted to find they had recovered well. This is why CT and our lovely bush experience were so much less taxing than anticipated. I feel strongly that this is to do with our fascinationg and, 100% out of our comfort zone, experience at a remarkable Christian healing service with Pastor Louis in Deep River in CT last Tuesday. Di Utton arranged it, Nicola (snr), Anna and James all accompanied us on the challenging adventure. We were surrounded by goodness and people of remarkable faith. Dr Mafafo was also interested in what I'd been eating, as I'd put on 2 kg!

The cancer world is inescapable and we had bad news about a lovely young man, Brett,28, whose treatment is not working and he has deteriorated. We have had several treatments simultaneously and shared many secrets about alternate meds, so it is a blow. I had particularly requested not to be treated in a facility where I would be exposed to children with cancer, my passion for teaching kids would make it too hard. I have classified Brett as "almost a child". The chemo ward was a grim place yesterday.

I know the next few days will be tough. Trish, my homeopath, has been able to access me some very good support meds, which make a huge difference. Happily, our home is full of positive energy; Nic is back from a highly satisfying and successful training session at Phakomane Bank in White River, Al did some challenging and pleasing painting in an adult class this morning and has taken pics for a charcoal portrait. James has to be parted from his new toy MG for a few days as he comes home for a weeks study break on Sunday. Although he finds the chemo regime gutting, Tim has managed to juggle work with his particular efficiency this week too. It's so much easier to be the patient than the support team.

I look forward to coming up for more quality time next week.