chemo 12

Chemo 13
Chemo 11
27 Sep, Tue - Last week Tuesday was the last "normal" day and on Wednesday morning I left early for Wilgers Hospital to draw blood for a white blood cell count. The count was good and chemo was started. The pattern is predictable. Wednesday I am OK. Thursday I start to feel groggy and by Thursday evening the foul taste and smell is back and.the funny feeling on the tummy area is starting to become more pronounced. The Pretty One fetched me and we were home before 22:00. Friday I was very groggy and spent the day in front of DSTV on the couch. Saturday morning I took things easy and by 15:00 I was feeling better. My daughter turned 25 on Sunday and they had a big party planned for Saturday evening. So we were kindly requested to evacuate so that the next generation could do there thing. We went to a friend (Johan Barkhuizen) and had a great kuier and slept over at his place. After a very substantial breakfast we braved the return to home to see how big the damage was. It was actually not as bad as anticipated. Yesterday I gave birth (the constipation is also by now a standard symptom) and by last night a bit of normality returned to the digestive track. I hope to start riding again tonight.
30 Sep, Fri - Another month is done and dusted. Time really flies when you have lots to do. On Tuesday afternoon we went for a short ride. Wednesday was somehow filled with delivering stuff all over. I even took a drive out to Hartebeespoortdam on the far western side of Pretoria. I arrived back in time for a ride, but could not tear The Pretty One away from her desk and promptly got some urgent design work to do. So the ride never happened. Thursday I started building a new shelve system in my workshop and by 16:00 I was in no condition to get on a mountain bike and ride. I was in a couch hugging condition. I will leave shortly to draw blood for a white blood cell count. If it is too low then it becomes easy to pick up all sorts of infections.

The clean wall

The back of the shelves taking shape

Chemo 11

Chemo 12
Chemo 10
12 Sep 2011, Mon - Hi ho, hi ho, it's off to work we go... So does another week start. The Pretty One is pretty motivated to shake off the winter fluff and we went for a ride in the afternoon. Did nearly 30km's, slowly, but it was good. The shoulder is OK, the tiredness is not unbearable as long as I sit in the office behind a computer, so this week is a good week. If all goes well then we start session 4 next week Tuesday, and so the cycle repeats. In the mean time I will ride my bicycle and enjoy the good days double.
13, 14 Sep, Tue, Wed - Tuesday was a quiet day with no complains. Wednesday I did a quick delivery trip and in the afternoon me and The Pretty One went for a slow ride on the mountain bikes. I managed 26km in just about 2 hours. This is not slow, it is painfully slow - but I am riding and the shoulder is feeling quite reasonable. When I started Chemo I weighed 84kg, and now I am struggling to keep the weight under 88kg. So fortunately in the eating department all goes well.
19 Sep, Monday - On Thursday it was life as usual with no complains, Friday afternoon I went for a windy but flat 30km ride and Saturday morning The Pretty One joined me for a slow and hilly 25km ride through the Buffelsdrift smallholdings. Yesterday we slept late and in the afternoon we had a lovely braai at Abrie and Petro, The Pretty One's oldest brother and his wife. TODAY is significant as it is my sister's 51st birthday, but it is also my 3rd anniversary of discovering cancer. I saw 3 doctors that day in quick succession and they all got big eyes and said something like: "Mmm... this does not look good..." Now it is three years later and I am still here and fighting. I must go and draw some blood just now to see if the red and white blood cells are enough for another bout of chemo starting tomorrow. This afternoon I will go for another ride and then I will see if I feel like riding again by about Saturday or Sunday. Time to go...

Chemo 10

Chemo 11
Chemo 9
6 Sep 2011, Tues - Back in front of the plough, but the day turned out fine. I did not get around to do a cycle, but I got a lot of other chores done!
7 Sep 2011, Wed - We had a restless night with the cats discovering bugs. They then jump on the windowsill and in doing so they trigger the alarm. This actually means that spring has sprung and it is time to get down to some serious cycling to get rid of all this winter fluff around the mid section... I am also tasked with the job of getting the garage cleaned out so that The Pretty One's Daughter can use it to have a 25th birthday party in there. I will post before and after photos. My shoulder is not well, so I will keep an eye on that one as well.
8 Sep 2011, Thu - My baby is turning 23 today. How time flies! I started feeling progressively worse through the day and by 13:00 I was down and out. Fever, no sore throat or any other flew symptoms, just fever. I had a restless night with bouts of heavy sweating and freezing, all while lying under the thick winter duvet.
9 Sep 2011, Fri - I got up feeling a bit better, but it is now 10:30 and I think it is time to hit the couch and snuggle up under a blankie. The garage is only receiving only brain attention for now.
10 Sep 2011, Sat - I had a good rest yesterday and woke up feeling a lot better. In fact, I felt so good I went for a short cycle with The Pretty One. We did about 23km at a very slow pace. The pace was sos slow that She actually rode ahead on all the slight inclines and then turned around on top and came back down to come and fetch me. I was really tired after all that and took a good rest the rest of the day.
11 Sep 2011, Sun - A quiet night and a late snooze later I was suddenly in the dust and dirt of seven years of garage stuff that needed sorting and putting away. It happened so fast I did not even have a chance to take a photo! But a few hours later we had most of the useful stuff packed in crates and the rest bagged and ready for a waste removal effort of sorts. The Pretty One know of a guy with a small truck that does this sort of thing so we will get him to come and remove all the junk. This was a very tiring experience, but fortunately by 13:30 we were just about done and I could retire to the comfort of the lounge and watch some F1. The shoulder is not doing to badly and I can live with it for now. The digestive system seem to be back to normal

Chemo 9

chemo 10
chemo 8
29 Aug, Mon - We had a lovely kuier yesterday with Kevin and Vanessa, and the food channel really made a good kook out of Kevin.. Today passed without much excitement, but the blood test was good and I will get round 3 of chemo tomorrow.
30,31 Aug, Tue, Wed - Did a quick tour in the office and by 08:00 I was on my way to Wilgers Oncology. At Wilgers it was the normal drill and by 22:00 on Wednesday I was home.
1 Sep 2011, Thu - Woke up with the usual groggy feeling. I had some herbal tea last night and this morning that is supposed to help against the constipation, and it seem to have worked for now. Actually, later in the day it seems to be working too good. I started feeling very groggy and by 11:00 I was lying flat in front of the Travel Channel. Then the diarrhea came. But by 19:00 I started feeling a little better and actually was hungry before I went to bed and had some stir fry and a cheese sandwich.
2 Sep, Fri - Woke up this morning feeling a LOT better than yesterday. I will see what my digestive system thinks of today, but the rest feels decent. We are driving down to Empangeni to visit my Sister and My dad and Tannie Minnie will be going along. Looking forward to the weekend...
5 Sep 2011, Fri-Mon - We had a good uneventful drive to Empangeni and arrived 18:30. Shortly after arriving Tannie Minnie's nose started bleeding uncontrollably and a quick visit to the emergency ward sorted that out. On Saturday morning me and Swarrie fiddled with bits of steel and started building a new security gate, as the old one is busy disintegrating with rust. Saturday afternoon we made a potjie (lamb stew) and over indulged good and well. Sunday morning me and Swarry went for a nice 25km ride and my lack of fitness as well as my low red blood cell count made for a slow meander amongst the sugar canes of Monzi, near St Lucia. But I enjoyed the ride and the shoulder was fine, so I guess I will have to give regular riding another try. We had a late afternoon braai and Joyce and Sachrys came to visit and we had a thorough chortle. We left Empangeni this morning at 06:08 and had an easy drive back to Pretoria. After Thursday's quick bout of diarrhea nothing happened on Friday, Saturday or Sunday, and eventually this afternoon (Monday) I gave birth. Or at least, that is how it felt. So now I should be OK for the next 2 weeks. The shoulder is OK as well, so tomorrow I will give the training program a go and see.

Chemo 8

chemo 9
Chemo 7
23 Aug 2011, Tue - I had a half night's sleep, as 2 of the 3 alarms triggered in short succession at 01h00. The security vehicle arrived eventually but could see nothing wrong. That was that as far as sleep was concerned, so tonight I might have a good rest... It is my mother's birthday today, 70something and going strong. Arriving at Wilgers Oncology this morning it turned out that my white blood cell count is very low and my chemo is postponed for a week. The Oncologist can not shed any light on my sore shoulder, so I am just going to ignore it from now on. Today is a really windy day, as the days should traditionally be around here in August.
24 Aug 2011, Wed - The alarm blues continued and ignoring my shoulder seem to work. I spent the day breaking into my daughter's car (keys locked inside), expanding the alarm system and rigging up a camera borrowed from a game farmer friend so that I can see what is triggering the alarm system.
25 Aug 2011, Thu - Turned out that the alarm system is a bit sensitive. At 01:30 a rabbit triggered it and at 03:17 a big black dog was the culprit. Now I must hunt for a way to eliminate dogs and rabbits, but include anything bigger... I also woke with my shoulder much worse than it's been for a while. Might be all the activity from yesterday, climbing up and down precariously balanced ladders and such stuff.
26-28 Aug 2011, Fri-Sun - I went to see Dr Frantzen on Friday and the basic diagnose about my shoulder is the same. He did however gave me an injection in the shoulder so if the pain does not subside by Monday/Tuesday we know it is referred, else it might just be some inflammation or something? A big part of my energy over the weekend went into making sure the security system works 100%, but I am sure it will always be possible to breach it. If criminals would spend half the effort they spend on criminal acts on hard work they would all be much better off. Everything they stole last weekend does add up to about R15000 to replace, but I doubt the guy doing the actual stealing gets more that R1000 or even R500.

Chemo 7

Chemo 6
15 Aug, Mon - We had a very lekker kuier yesterday with Johan and Anlie, friends from school days (How long ago is that...). I feel good apart from the shoulder... I will see the heart & lung specialist tomorrow and maybe he can shed some light on the strange pain. Right now it seem as if a very early summer storm with thunder & all is going to hit us.

16 Aug, Tue - Same old, same old... The Doc that operated on the tumor on my aorta cannot shed any light on the shoulder and referred me back to the Orthopedic Surgeon who fixed my collar bone in May 2008. I had a nasty fall and broke my collar bone 6 weeks before departing on my 2008 Freedom Challenge.

17 Aug, Wed - A normal day with normal pain in the shoulder. The Orthopedic surgeon (Anré Peach) said he wished  his neck and bones were in as good a condition as mine, so it is definitely not my neck or shoulder... So we are back at my diaphragm or maybe my lung... Lets throw this curve ball at oncology and see what they come up with this time? I think I must make as if nothing is wrong and just carry on as normal. Ride my bike and work a bit...

18 Aug - 22 Aug - Apart from the "normal"things that happen every day we had a very strange robbery on Friday night. Without going into all the gory, boring detail I can just report that we were not harmed, in fact, we were quite unaware, but that it was an "inside" job by one of the workers is obvious. The power tools that disappeared was only the working ones that was neatly picked out off the shelve in between the broken ones! There were a number of other tel tale signs as well. On Saturday we had a glorious kuier and a great potjie with Annelie and Christo, and a very relaxed Sunday. I went for the scan on Monday and the news neither good nor bad... The tumor is not bigger, but also not any smaller. So tomorrow I will hear what my Oncologist says.

Chemo 6

Chemo 7
Chemo 5
6 Aug, Sat - We slept late and then had a leisurely morning before we went to Joburg to my Boet's place for an afternoon of over-indulgence. Ate way too much, and that on top of the constipation problem... But for the rest my shoulder is still bothering me but fortunately there is no nausea

7 Aug, Sun - Another late morning with The Pretty One and then a glorious kuier with Bennie and Hester.

8 Aug, Mon - Finally... I had a normal sit-down in the "small" room. Now it is just my shoulder that bothers me. I will give it another couple of days and then make a decision. I will have to get back on to the bike pretty soon. I am really feeling very unfit and heavy, and need to do some exercise. My blood's hemoglobin levels will be lower, so training will get my heart rate up quickly, so I will have to be careful with my heart.

9 Aug, Tue - I had a bad night as my shoulder was hurting and uncomfortable. But today is a new day and a public holiday for some reason. So I changed a leaking ball valve in our toilet and did some chores in the office. I expect a few old squash friends over later for a few beers and a "braai".

10 Aug, Wed - We had a real lekker chortle yesterday and life was good... We went to bed about 21h30 and by 23h30 I woke with a really sore shoulder. By 0h30 I was sitting upright in a Comfortable chair in front of the TV and took some tramacet for the pain.That started knocking me out by about 01h30 and I eventually got some sleep after that. I woke this morning feeling very groggy but now (10h50) I am starting to feel like a human with a sore shoulder again. I am stopping the cerebrex anti inflammatory for a few days to see if it makes any difference. I think the recent heartburn attacks might come from that.

11 Aug, Thur - Apart from a sore shoulder I feel quite normal. I stopped the Cerebrex and will monitor if the shoulder is worse.

12 Aug, Fri - I started the cerebrex again last night as the shoulder started getting unbearable. Had a fairly decent sleep from about 23h30 but woke with a sore shoulder. Another cerebrex early with some musely and the shoulder is back to just a vague pain that flares up when I do not sit. Standing and lying down seem to work against my comfort level. I am scared to get on the bike, but it is something I would want to do pretty soon...

13 Aug, Sat - I had a bad night as far as sleep goes. If it wasn't for the sore shoulder it would have been a perfect day for cycling, but I spent the day very easy on my bum in front of the TV. We did buy some groceries for the week and tomorrow I expect friends over.

14 Aug, Sun - Another night of little sleep, but my friends arrived and I will throw an eisbein and a chicken on the Weber...