Good News, Bad News

Went to the clinic on Wednesday and the news was mixed again. The good news was the kidney tumour hasn't done anything, and there are no signs of tumours elsewhere so there has been no spread, but the tumour in my pelvis has started to grow again and that is not good.

My only option is to go for another round of chemo and see if that helps. The drug will be more toxic this time and the side effects more obvious. I will lose my hair for instance, but that's a small price to pay to try and keep this critter at bay. I've opted to go for the treatment in January aand have a nice Christmas first.

My leg swelling has reduced further in size, today it was measured as 7% bigger than my left leg, down from 11% two weeks ago, which is great stuff, so I plan to get a few more walks in before Christmas and get as fit as possible for the New Year.

Frank is trying to decide whether he wants a blonde or a brunette at the moment, I'll let you know which one he chooses (for my wig that is!)

Speak soon
Sheila x

Nothing Growing

There's nothing growing in the lab yet from my blood culture but it could now take up to 5 days apparently. At least it's nothing virilent and the blotches have faded a little :-) INR check again tomorrow, any guesses?

Spoke Too Soon

I spoke to soon to say the Warfarin level had settled. On Thursday I noticed blotches appearing on my bad leg and they were more red on Friday. We decided to go to the BRI and have my INR checked on Saturday morning. It had dropped ie blood too thick again, so they've upped the dose for a few days. However they don't think the blotches are related so they've taken a blood sample to "grow a culture" from and see if it's an infection. If it's not an infection, and I'll know tomorrow, it's probably an underskin bleed of some kind. It has a fancy name which I can't remember at the moment but it's not a problem apparently.

So just when you think it's quiet..................

The house has a staircase now and Frank sneaked in to have a look upstairs, there are no internal walls yet upstairs, so none of them will be load bearing, it's just one single room at the moment. We tried to go back in today but the security guard was there, think he'd just woken up!

I've started researching my family tree, looks like I'll need to go to Yorkshire soon to get back beyond 1851 on my grandmothers side. O'Brien is proving more problematic, it's the apostrophe as usual. How did we manage before the Internet?

More news next week.
Sheila x

Warfarin Stable at Last

I don't know where this week has gone, so this is a little late. On Monday I went to the BRI and my blood count had settled at around 2.5. There was lots of amazement and joy, sad isn't it really, but we were all cheering, it's taken so long to get there.

We exchanged on the new house today and they are putting the slates on the roof, so by the end of tomorrow it should be waterproof, which in this weather will be a good thing.

I had my next CT scan yesterday at the Glen (only leaves Frenchay Hospital to visit in this area) and I'm going to the clinic next Wednesday to see what's been happening since August. Fingers crossed.

Walked another 6.5 miles on Sunday, should have been 5.5 but we got lost at one point and had to take a detour! Nice flat one again, though muddy, and the stiles were tricky at times. Nice pub at the end though, the Wild Boar at Aust, recommend the houmous and olives, and I'm told the Gem was good, log fire too, lovely old country pub.

Speak soon.
Sheila

Sunnny Sunday

What a fantastic day it was on Sunday, bright, sunny, warm, nothing like November (or the last two foggy days!). We set off for our walk from Sand Bay near Weston Super Mare and followed a trail inland to an old Priory. We then walked along the coast and back along the beach at Sand Bay. The walk was pretty flat, so it's one for all the family and on a sunny day like we had, I'd recommend it. We estimated it was about 6.5 miles all together. We had more fun trying to get a cup of tea at the end, but got one in the end in the cafe on the toll road at Kewstoke. That's an interesting place if you are passing but I won't give it away, the views are lovely anyway. I'll post some photos when Frank gets them from the camera. All in all a brilliant day, I was very pleased to have made it round and am looking forward to the next one.

Sheila

Following Complaints

Following complaints that I'm not updating the Blog often enough, even though there isn't much happening at the moment, I'll try and let you know what we've been doing.

The Warfarin saga continues, just when we think we are getting to a stable point, it goes up or down, not by a little, but by a lot. Today my blood has thickened again and my leg has been giving me grief this week, so it's back to the drawing board. All of which means we haven't been able to get away in the van as we had planned, although we did rush to drain it when we heard the frosts were coming.

Socially we've been quite busy, and the Christmas season hasn't started yet. Most days we have a look at the new house and see how it's going. Our estimated completion date is March/April.

This weekend I'll be attempting my first Sunday walk with the locals since May. I'll let you know how it goes, I'm a bit apprehensive, but I have to try.

Sheila