Tuesday 10th September, today I woke up quite early, but it was too early to get up so just lay around and watched a couple of programs on the Kindle but when it got closer to a respectable time to get up I was getting tired. In the end I went back to sleep again but didn't get into a full sleep and was just quite a light one, turned alarm off and continued to lie on. Eventually there was a phone call for me which turned out to be from the hospital asking if I was available today to go for my MRI scan in the afternoon. Of course I jumped at it as it may be a couple weeks until I would get another one.
This did waste quite a bit of the day as I would have to leave at about 2.30 to get there and avoid the school kids and the traffic with them. When in the hospital, there were already a couple people waiting so I guessed that I could be a while, especially since it takes at least thirty minutes for each one, got out my Nook and waited. Just over an hour later I get called through to get ready for my scan and ended up sitting there in a gown for near 30 minutes while others that were waiting for relatives sat there awkwardly avoiding looking at me. Couldn't carry my Nook with me as it was stored in the locker, so lay back, closed my eyes and just waited, a sort of warm-up for the main event.
Finally got called in and lay down into the machine and all started, got ear buds in but they never gave me music this time round so I could quite clearly hear the thud, thud, thud of the machine. It was peculiarly relaxing, there was a bit of a shake going on that relaxed me even more and nothing to look at so I just had my eyes closed, next thing I knew the nurse was back again, talking, couldn't hear her with the ear buds in so took them out and asked "what sorry?" "you can take the ear buds out"... I was a little dazed after so I think I might have fallen asleep in there, or at least dozed off for a while and took as long to waken up and focus on what I was doing.
On the way down into town to get the bus I had an urge to go to the shop get a twenty pack an head to the pub to have a pint and watch the footy, but I held it off and went on home to find out that there was load of family coming over that night and after being told off by my mum the previous day for looking like a trap in the house I had to make a bit of an effort, so I put on a "fancier" t-shirt, I was quite tired and found it hard to focus on single conversations, but think I made it pass ok and didn't look as if I was drifting.
Wednesday the power is supposed to be getting cut off from 9.30-5.30 for some maintenance so I want to get out for a while to kill some time rather than doing nothing in the house. Last night I ordered the last bit of my nephews birthday present from Argos so had to go down and collect that and may as well get him the card at the same time. It was a bit of a damp day but not heavy showers and they never seemed to last long, which was evident when I was walking down. Once it was raining for a "prolonged period" I would put up my hood and as soon as I put up my hood the rain stopped and I put down my hood, a minute later it's raining again and I put up my hood and it stops I put hood down, over and over the whole way there and back. Took the long way back to call into the chemist and to get a sandwich, it was an absolute beast!! chicken, turkey and egg in a round bap, it was bigger than my face and a real struggle to cram it into my mouth. That evening we had all the family over again, kids running riot and the adults just as bad, if not worse.
Thursday morning was an early one, my aunt and uncle were leaving to continue on with their travels around Europe, was great to see them again and I guess it will be quite a while until we meet again. Most of today was just spent sitting around and didn't bother doing very much, was originally going to go out for a walk but the weather was just a tad too miserable so stayed in and watched TV and read. At five I called James back who had called last night but was busy at the time so couldn't chat and caught up with all the bizz on his end and it was just so hard fitting in all the craic that I had had since we last spoke. In the evening Tim called over and found out the news on his end as well. Everyone seems to be getting so old and being all serious these days. The Insyplex got a reopening tonight with a showing of Red Lights, it hasn't been getting utilised the last couple of weeks, just with being slightly busier in the evenings.
Friday morning was hot chocolate day, but to my dismay there was no hot chocolate! Wasn't a long stay in hospital but I did have to come back a bit later to pick up some tablets for my tongue which seems to be pretty dead. While waiting I went for a walk into and around town and was heading back up to the hospital and thought I would pop into a cafe for a latte, sat down and ordered a full English breakfast... and a latte. It was from Ming de cafe, was really nice but I wasn't hungry so may have enjoyed it more if was to go when hungry, certainly filled me up at least and finally got my tablets back into town and home.
In hospital today it was all about the blood counts and how they were reacting to the chemo. The platelets where doing really well up to 400 odd, WBCs where 8 and RBCs where around 13. The white cells are down a fair bit from what they were but are still at a very good level and makes me feel like I might be able to go out for a few pints tonight and have a bit of a change of scenery, more just to get drunk. But that will be discussed on the next instalment of A Lan and his Blog...