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Been quite a while since the last post. Basically, I haven't had a lot of spare energy, so I've been focussing on priorities. Fortunately I've been able to keep working apart from a day or two where I realised I'd be better off sleeping it off!
It's going well, apparently. I had a full CT scan (that's allegedly 70mSieverts of X-rays, or about 70,000 banana equivalent doses). All lymph nodes are either normal or returning to normal, particularly the one that were initially the problem. Nothing else detected (and there'a no secrets with that machine)! So everyone else is celebrating. I'll celebrate once I'm past the last treatment and feeling better again! One more to go, which will be just after Easter.
There'll then be about 4 days of feeling tired and full of chemicals. Then about 4 days of feeling tired and a bit sick. Then about 4 days of feeling tired, run down and catching infections. I've now got a stash of antibiotics and antivirals, tablets, skin ointments and eye drops plus a few steroids, which should last me for the last treatment. After that, I'll have a week or two feeling a bit stronger, but with my hair falling out and itching like crazy.
I still have some furry little curls on top. Rachael complains that I can't even 'do bald'. I'm told the hair will begin to grow back after two months, i.e. about 5 weeks after it stops falling out for the last time. I'm also told that it will be very thick, possibly curly and possibly a different colour. There's a popular charity thing here called Shave for a Cure, where people get their hair cut off for the Leukaemia and Blood Cancer Foundation. They happen to be the one that have been supporting us, providing parking vouchers, leaflets and helping the girls understand what's going on.
I'm planning to do a Grow for a Cure instead. Sponsor me to grow my hair back, and if you can guess the day when the bulk of my hair reaches 10mm (I still have a few curly bits remember...), you'll get a prize. Haven't quite decided on the prize yet.
Meanwhile, Bronwyn has been doing some amazing stuff as childrens' leader at church. She spent the first week or two going through the cupboards, throwing out crates of ancient stuff and collating vast quantities of art and curriculum materials. We're suddenly not short of paint and cardboard. She's also been on a couple of training courses and has brought in some fresh ideas as well as a bit of discipline. I'm told the kids enjoy it a lot more now! The church did want her to do a bible college paper as well, but she's only supposed to be on three months trial at the moment so she decided to wait and see how much workload it was going to be first.
The youth pastor also resigned at the end of the year, and one of the ex-youth is basically running things. A little haphazardly, but she certainly seems to be coping quite ably. The leadership is still looking for a combined youth & childrens' pastor as a part time (0.8) role. So far with not a lot of success! I suspect we just need to raise a decent team to support the leaders we've currently got.
Rach had issues with quadratics last week. She weedled her way out of an internal assessment, on the condition that she lets me know in advance if there are things she doesn't understand. So I've been looking up the general solution to quadratic equations, and explaining it to her. Didn't know it was first documented in India in 628AD, and probably came from the Babylonians. Meanwhile Sarah has been doing research on plastics, and I gave her a lesson on how to copy a Wikipedia article and mangle it into her own words...
Still quite warm here. The cyclone is due to hit us on about Tuesday, although it's rather humid and rainy now. We've had good rain over the summer, so the grass is green. We are now a two-lawnmower family. The old one sits in the shed. It'll start after about half an hour of trying, and the belt will fall off as soon as it tries to cut anything. Probably need to phone a scrap dealer. The other one was probably Claire's (Bronwyn's not sure, it appears to have been abandoned in our garage!) and the battery needs replacing but once it's started it seems to go fine.
Lost a pet lamb and cow recently. The cow (Angel) had already lost one eye due to a tumour, had had issues calving, and had got quite sick. The lamb was from a friend and had got fly strike (where flies lay eggs on the skin and ... maggots ...) It can get bad quite quickly, but it's usually treatable if you catch it quick. Bronwyn regularly checks on the sheep as she goes down the drive.
Plans are already well underway for next January when me and Nick will be 50. Ulp. Nick will be over with our mum and Esther. Plains, trains and automobiles, plus a spot of camping. Should be good!
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