Well, after my weekend last weekend in the bathroom, the blood tests done last Monday unsurprisingly showed that I was a bit dehydrated. My sodium levels weren't too bad - I guess that the bag of pretzels worked then! I did have low potassium though. I knew that I should have eaten more bananas!! Anyway, this meant that in addition to the cetuximab infusion on Tuesday, I also had to have some fluids and potassium. Because potassium can cause heart problems, the potassium laced saline had to be dripped into me over the course of 4 hours. This meant another all day event at the hospital, with a 2 hour cetuximab infusion following the fluids! I was the last patient on the unit by the end of the day and poor Selina (my nurse that day) was itching to go home too by the end of it! Oh well, at least we had taken books and lunch with us and I managed to sleep for an hour or two! Once all the infusions were done it was time to say goodbye to my good friend - my PICC line. I was pleasantly surprised at how easily it came out and more importantly how it didn't bleed!! Now I just have five little dots on my arm where the line went in and the two stitches were. I'm sure they'll scar a little bit, but it's been much better than being attacked by needles every week!
Anyway, that was Tuesday. Wednesday I met up with a friend, Lucy. It was lovely not to be cold sensitive and so I was able to enjoy a cold smoothie in the warm weather! In the evening, Sarah and I headed up to Chelsea (darling) for the launch event for the Liz Earle Colour range. I have been using most of the skincare range from Liz Earle for a number of years and would recommend it to anyone. Even now with my super dry and sensitive skin, it has not really caused any problems for me. As my family can testify, my bathroom cupboard is chocked full of the products!!! ;-) Anyway, unfortunately, my facial rash was playing up in the heat so I wasn't really in a place to try any of the new make-up, but it all looked good and I did treat myself to another lip gloss (have one or two lip glosses to say the least). After a wander up the Kings Road and a pizza for dinner, we did a tour of inner south-west London on the bus home!
Thursday was a bit of a lazy day after a morning yoga session with Clare - I was able to do more now that my PICC is gone, which was great, although with the warm weather it did give me a little taste of what Bikram yoga is like! I'm not sure that I could cope with the heat that involves!
Sarah went home on Thursday and it was time for me to fly solo for a week. With the heat (my flat has been getting up to 27C), I must admit I have not done a lot. I have managed to get a walk in each day and I think I have figured out now how to use the Nike + GPS app on my phone so that I can more accurately measure how far I have walked! It is less than two weeks now until I have to do my Race for Life (shameless plug for my sponsor page coming up: My sponsorship page for Race for Life) so I really have to get practising. I am hopeful that I will manage to get up to the 5km distance this week, with some less hot weather expected as the week moves on.
I had a lovely long lunch with my friend Lindsay on Saturday. We managed to get an outside table in the sunshine at one of the local pubs, albeit next to the road. Why are there no decent beer gardens in London?! Anyway, it was lovely to catch up with Lindz and hear all about her plans - hope the leg and foot heal quickly hun!!
So I am now not only in Race for Life preparation mode, but am also trying to get ready for my holiday to Spain with 7 mates from work. I have been trying on summer clothes and it looks like I have to go shopping for shorts - watch out world, the legs may be coming out!! I have ordered a couple of tankinis from the net - my lovely scar is a good excuse to not get into bikini shape!! ;-) As if that is ever going to happen! I just hope they arrive in time. I must admit I was very pleased to find that last years cropped trousers still fit - couldn't have coped the last few days otherwise! I just hope the weather is going to be nice and that us 8 weather forecasters do not bring a curse of bad weather! :-) I have managed to complete one piece of holiday preparation today though - the all important ice cream test! I have not dared try ice cream since starting chemo again as the cold could have closed my throat. But I decided that as I can handle things in the fridge and freezer again without incident, it was probably safe to try ice cream again. You'll be pleased to hear that I survived and the ice cream was very nice and much appreciated on another hot day! Yay!!!
The rest of the week will hopefully be spent getting in more walks, 2 or maybe even 3 yoga sessions (they have started a 'Yoga for Cancer Care' class at my local studio which I am keen to try) and then I am heading back to my folks place for the Jubilee weekend and Dad's birthday! I may even manage to find some shorts!
Oh, while I think about it, I need some advice from my Apple addicted friends (the technology not the fruit). I have been trying to hold out for the iPhone 5 before changing my phone, but my current iPhone 3 is really beginning to suffer from old age (it is so slow to do anything and a lot of the apps are now saying that they will not work properly). The latest rumour I have read online is that the new phone will be out in Oct (I was hoping for June / July). So anyway, do you think it is worth trying to wait out for the iPhone 5 or is it not likely to be much different from the 4S, which I could upgrade to now? Thanks! (I must admit to almost upgrading the other night as well as almost getting myself the new iPad - I can't really justify that though as I have a laptop, iPhone and a Kindle so can't really see the need for an iPad)
Anyway, enough of my ramblings - I'm sure you've all gone to light the BBQ and open the Pimms by now (I miss both these things but don't have a garden so can't have a BBQ and as yet have not really started drinking again yet) and if not have dropped off to sleep!! ;-)
Enjoy the sunshine!
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