Who is your hairdresser?
Sunday evening and a wonderfully normal day and weekend. I've even managed to stay out of hospital this weekend - hurrah!
I managed a short run yesterday (painfully slow, but completed none the less) and then Briony had stage coach as normal. Stephen's parents got Briony a Scalextric for Christmas so we had some fun setting this up and then racing. Briony got a bit cross when either of us won, so we had to have a gentle word with her. Sometimes it must be tough being the only child!
The evening was finished nicely with 3 glasses of Prosecco and a ridiculous film called Burn After Reading. Stephen has told me to add that it is directed by the Coen Brothers. I'm such a heathen that it makes no difference to me. All I know is that both George Clooney and Brad Pitt were in it.
As a consequence of the 3 glasses of Prosecco I slept terribly last night and awoke with a headache this morning. I am now a certified light-weight as 3 units is more than I have drunk in the past 2 weeks.
Pancakes for Briony this morning as is Sunday morning tradition in the Chaffin household and then we decided that we would go out of a walk in the woods behind the house. I say woods, but that is stretching the truth! It's National Trust land and they seem to have engaged in some fairly aggressive clearance works which has left large parts of the "woods" knee deep in mud. However, we persevered and made it through the mud to one of the local pubs (Pickled Onion Monster Munch and Lemonade for Briony to bribe her to walk all the way back as we had no other options). Sadly on the way home we got a teeny tiny bit lost (for the benefit of my brother it wasn't me reading the map this time as I have form of getting a bit lost (for almost half a day last time)!). Safely found again we made our way home. Briony had done really well as it was about 4 miles in the end.
Chicken roast this evening (with Yorkshire puddings at the request of Briony) and an early night
See, in-between the bouts of excitement and trauma, life really does continue as normal (and boring).....
So what else has happened this week? Well, next week the chemo calendar is really looking quite busy! Monday and Tuesday are relatively quiet (finally getting the piano tuned on Monday, plus my eyes tested, personal trainer session on Tuesday). On Wednesday morning I have the pre-chemo bloods to make sure my blood counts are where they should be for the next onslaught. Wednesday afternoon brings the deep joys of the repeat brain and breast MRIs. 2 of each, one with contrast and one without. I am not looking forward to this at all - the breast ones are fine, but the brain ones in my mind are akin to some form of torture. Thursday is cycle 3 of chemo (assuming the Wednesday bloods are fine) and then to end the week nicely I have the CT to check out if anything has changed in my lungs. I won't get results from any of these until my next appointment with the consultant, which is February 6th. I know better than to read anything into the technician's expressions, or try and see anything on the screens. Hopefully these scans won't have the same impact on my sleep that the first ones had.
On the positive side, my consultant didn't feel that we really needed to do the breast MRI as we are both fairly convinced that the chemo is having an impact. However, because I'm already having the brain one done, it seemed like we could kill 2 birds with one stone and have a look at the breast at the same time.
I got this card from my friends Jude and Duncan in the US - I love it! Now that I have a rapport with my consultant I may take it in to show him on the 6th February!
Speaking of hair, I have been wearing my wigs a lot more now. I still feel very self-conscious wearing them but am getting used to it. I've even had to wash them for the first time which is an experience in itself. I left them to dry in our bedroom as I didn't want Briony to see them on their little stands and get freaked out as it does look very odd!
I had a lovely lunch with Heidi on Friday. Heidi and I have worked together for about the last 5 years in 2 different companies. I do miss all my work colleagues, so it was lovely to catch up with her and hear all of the office gossip! She did laugh at one point where I itched my head and the whole of the wig moved. Perhaps this is a new party trick?
I was shopping in a well-know supermarket earlier on in the week with one of them on and the cashier lady asked me who my hairdresser is as she liked my hair so much! I had a moment's hesitation and then let her in on the fact that it was a wig because I didn't have any hair, followed up swiftly by the fact that I didn't want her to feel bad. But it did make my day!
I managed a short run yesterday (painfully slow, but completed none the less) and then Briony had stage coach as normal. Stephen's parents got Briony a Scalextric for Christmas so we had some fun setting this up and then racing. Briony got a bit cross when either of us won, so we had to have a gentle word with her. Sometimes it must be tough being the only child!
The evening was finished nicely with 3 glasses of Prosecco and a ridiculous film called Burn After Reading. Stephen has told me to add that it is directed by the Coen Brothers. I'm such a heathen that it makes no difference to me. All I know is that both George Clooney and Brad Pitt were in it.
As a consequence of the 3 glasses of Prosecco I slept terribly last night and awoke with a headache this morning. I am now a certified light-weight as 3 units is more than I have drunk in the past 2 weeks.
Pancakes for Briony this morning as is Sunday morning tradition in the Chaffin household and then we decided that we would go out of a walk in the woods behind the house. I say woods, but that is stretching the truth! It's National Trust land and they seem to have engaged in some fairly aggressive clearance works which has left large parts of the "woods" knee deep in mud. However, we persevered and made it through the mud to one of the local pubs (Pickled Onion Monster Munch and Lemonade for Briony to bribe her to walk all the way back as we had no other options). Sadly on the way home we got a teeny tiny bit lost (for the benefit of my brother it wasn't me reading the map this time as I have form of getting a bit lost (for almost half a day last time)!). Safely found again we made our way home. Briony had done really well as it was about 4 miles in the end.
Chicken roast this evening (with Yorkshire puddings at the request of Briony) and an early night
See, in-between the bouts of excitement and trauma, life really does continue as normal (and boring).....
So what else has happened this week? Well, next week the chemo calendar is really looking quite busy! Monday and Tuesday are relatively quiet (finally getting the piano tuned on Monday, plus my eyes tested, personal trainer session on Tuesday). On Wednesday morning I have the pre-chemo bloods to make sure my blood counts are where they should be for the next onslaught. Wednesday afternoon brings the deep joys of the repeat brain and breast MRIs. 2 of each, one with contrast and one without. I am not looking forward to this at all - the breast ones are fine, but the brain ones in my mind are akin to some form of torture. Thursday is cycle 3 of chemo (assuming the Wednesday bloods are fine) and then to end the week nicely I have the CT to check out if anything has changed in my lungs. I won't get results from any of these until my next appointment with the consultant, which is February 6th. I know better than to read anything into the technician's expressions, or try and see anything on the screens. Hopefully these scans won't have the same impact on my sleep that the first ones had.
On the positive side, my consultant didn't feel that we really needed to do the breast MRI as we are both fairly convinced that the chemo is having an impact. However, because I'm already having the brain one done, it seemed like we could kill 2 birds with one stone and have a look at the breast at the same time.
I got this card from my friends Jude and Duncan in the US - I love it! Now that I have a rapport with my consultant I may take it in to show him on the 6th February!
I had a lovely lunch with Heidi on Friday. Heidi and I have worked together for about the last 5 years in 2 different companies. I do miss all my work colleagues, so it was lovely to catch up with her and hear all of the office gossip! She did laugh at one point where I itched my head and the whole of the wig moved. Perhaps this is a new party trick?
I was shopping in a well-know supermarket earlier on in the week with one of them on and the cashier lady asked me who my hairdresser is as she liked my hair so much! I had a moment's hesitation and then let her in on the fact that it was a wig because I didn't have any hair, followed up swiftly by the fact that I didn't want her to feel bad. But it did make my day!
Love that your hair aka wig got such an unsolicited lovely comment! Good luck with scans fingers crossed. Hugs to all Glad you liked the card!
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