We are now sailing or flying or driving or simply walking into a new year. I trust that 2017 will be good year for everyone, that terrorism will disappear or at least reduce in volume and intensity. That all our families will be healthy and enjoy life and prosper and that our governments, all levels, will govern wisely for the benefit of their constituents. In our case I hope that Elaine continues to improve.

Now after all that crap back to the lady in question. She is at this stage still having very little side effect from the chemo which, judging by her demeanour and activity level, is doing it's job very well. As I have said too many times to count may it continue. Don't get me wrong there are some side effects and we are dealing with them, but they are much less than we expected. We also know that we still have a long way to go but the results so far keep us very positive.

It is Monday December 26 Chanukah day 2 or Boxing Day depending on your religion, either way it is a great day. The sun is shining, the wind is light and she and me are unwinding at Lancelin. She is continuing to do well going for walks, nothing over the top but all good exercise. She is also experiencing a little bit of nausea but the pills seem to be helping reduce that. Not much else to say, yours truly has had a couple of drone flights and a couple of swims, Elaine is much improved on the last 6 months so all is good.

I really should have posted this good news last night, but somehow by the time we got home and attended to the have to's I fell asleep.

To take it all in chronological order we started the day picking up our films from yesterday's scan and heading in to Hollywood for chemo. After the usual bit of difficulty finding a vein Elaine sailed through that part of the day. Then we had lunch followed by a visit with our oncologist who seems to be much more relaxed and friendly now that all is going well. His report was great as all 9 tumours has shrunk by about 50% since the last scan in October and ther are no new ones. Since they had all grown in the period from September to October this is fantastically good news as it means the chemo is working. We are not out of the woods by any stretch of the imagination and this is an unpredictable disease but progress is being made. Elaine is handling the chemo well and the side effects are there but not intruding very much into her lifestyle. Chemo will continue in the new year and hopefully it will continue to work well.

Following that we went to afternoon tea with Elaine niece and grand nieces who have just arrived from Canada. A small scotch was had to celebrate the good news. Then we had a dinner date with Taylor to celebrate his birthday. Thus is my excuse for falling into bed without doing a blog.

We will try not to get too carried away with these gains but we are now even more positive than before and we are heading off in the motorhome for 5 days. So happy Chanukah and merry Christmas every one.

Okay today is Friday and yes there has been no blog since Sunday mainly because we have been busy and there is nothing new to report.

This has been a chemo week, day 1 of the 3rd stanza was Wednesday, and that means that we had a blood test on Monday. Just a quick trip down the street, about 500 mtrs, walk in and take ticket, the lady comes out takes you in then jab/suck and it is all over. The bloods were obviously alright because they proceeded with the chemo on Wednesday. However Dr Troons rooms forgot to write up the anti-nausea drip and that delayed proceedings. Eventually it all happened and I went for a walk returning not long before it was all finished.

Net result was that we kept our 1.45pm appointment with Dr Chan, the pain specialist, at 2.45pm. Not bad eh! As usual he was cheerful, friendly and efficient but it still meant that we did not get home until 4.30pm. As she got out of bed at 9.30am it was a long day for Elaine and there was more to come. A duty to preform which had us home at about 9pm. Long day for madam.

That is about it, Elaine is still doing well and in fact has cooked twice this week. We are well aware that cancer is an erratic and persistent disease however we have remained positive all the way through this and the progress so far has cheered us up somewhat. We are hopeful that it will continue. Elaine is having scans next Tuesday and that will be the defining moment.

The time has come for another missive from yours truly.

We have had a good week, Elaine is feeling good and the visible signs of here cancer have all but gone. Which would indicate that the chemo is doing it's job, it would also indicate that the medication is performing well. We are not sure just which is doing the best job of getting Elaine back to normal. Certainly it is obvious that the chemo is working and we will have to see how or if our pain specialist reduces the level of medication, hopefully he will as we go forward. The medication affects her memory and at times makes her a bit vague so this is a bit if an issue. The other issue that really worries Elaine is that, with this level of medication, she can't drive. I don't mind being the taxi but it does worry her as it affects her feeling of independence.

The reduced pain etc means that Elaine is functioning almost normally and that means that she has been to the shops this week. Actually she has been a couple of times but so far the credit card is surviving well. We also had our whole extended family round for a Chanukah BBQ last night which really gave her a big lift.

I would not like anyone to think that I had forgotten to write our blog, so here I am.

There has not been much to report, Elaine is still going well and all the comments made in the last couple of blogs still apply. We are really excited about it and hope that it continues.

Well Elaine slept for most of they, as usual, but that is to be expected from the combination of the treatment and her medication. Other than that she has done well which is the pattern of this week, it will be fantastic if this continues as we are sure that it will. Today she did some gardening, got me to do a bit that was too hard for her. There is not anything more that I  can except to say have a great day!

Another good day, Elaine actually spent a couple of hours at the shops and we had a visit from Stephanie from Silver Chain. Other than that she was tired and slept, which is normal and more or less an expected side effect of the treatment. 

As I keep reminding myself and my readers 'a good day' is a relative term. Elaine still has pain in both shoulders and today some pain around the lower side of her rib cage. There is also a very numb left foot. But it is all a lot better than it was and she is quite herself. 

This blog is being composed while sitting next to Elaine at Hollywood hospital. She is receiving the day 8 chemo of the second stage of her treatment. Today has been a bit messy.........we arrived here at 1.15pm to keep our appointment only to find out that our doctors rooms had forgotten to book us in. Bad.....but it eventually got sorted and we started about 2.5 hours late. At this stage we still expect to visit his rooms when the chemo is finished.

Other than that we have had a good day with Elaine doing lots of bits and pieces indicating that she is improving. She is still sleeping lots and still has pain in her shoulder and her left foot is numb, but in every other respect she is showing marked improvement. Hopefully it will continue this way.

Today has been another good day with Elaine getting about and doing little bits of jobs. Mind you last night was not so brilliant, she could not sleep and kept taking midnight snacks to pass the time. Guess what that did to her stomach in the early hours!

Anyway today after lunch Elaine donated some more blood to Clinipath which will be assessed by our oncologist, Dr Troon. The obligatory afternoon nap is now happening and I would guess that her shoulder will be hurting when evening is upon us. Otherwise all is good, may it continue to be so.

Well I have been silent for a week, my apologies, but I will now bring you up to date.

We have had a good week, nothing out of the normal has happened. The pain in Elaine's shoulder remains a major issue that we are dealing with by some serious medication. But we have been using less of the 'breakthrough' medication which would indicate an improvement. The visible tumours have definitely shrunk which is good news and which we hope continues. At the same time Elaine is almost back to her normal self, so we are sweating a bit on the chemo having continued success.

Last week we had chemo, the so called day one large dose and, once again, Elaine handled it well. It was followed by a visit to Dr Chan, our pain specialist, who did not change any medication. However he is going to put some sort of nerve block in her shoulder to relieve that pain and it will we done before Christmas. We will also be seeing him again in 2 weeks time. Another thing that he indicated is that we can expect more blood transfusions and that we need to be particularly vigilant with possible infections due to the affects on her immune system.

So we are looking forward to a good week.

Alright 2 days is better than 3 or more.

The last couple of days have been good, pain has been minimal and Elaine is in good spirits. Today she even started the exercises that the hospital Physio gave her, good stuff.

Section 2 chemo starts again on Wednesday so we shall see what we shall see.

Sometimes the days run away with me, I'm not sure why but that is my excuse for 3 days of silence. Just to explain, the day starts at 7am with Elaine's first meds then I go back to bed for a bit. It is an elastic bit, but I then go for a walk followed by breakfast and chores. While Elaine was in hospital I visited about midday but normally I wake her about then. She usually has an afternoon lie down I relax a bit until time to start dinner. After dinner tidy up etc then bed. So I should be able to fit the blog into that routine and I will endeavour to keep it current in future. Hopefully that will work better than political promises.

Back to the lady in question. By the time I got back to Hollyeood on Wednesday Elaine was festooned with drips. There was a blood transfusion plus antibiotic and she was still a bit, read a lot, woosy. After the drips finished she was sent off for X-rays but they couldn't complete then as she was not feeling well. Thursday however was a different story, there was still the antibiotic drip and they were able to complete the X-rays. There was also a visit from Dr Troon, our oncologist, who explained what was happening and noted that the chemo appeared to have made some gains. We also learned that the fever was a result of severely lowered immune system due to a lack of neutrophils. These neutro watsies are the bloods infection fighters and the chemo had attacked them which is one of the expected side effects. Anyway Hollywood did a good job of looking after Elaine and along with the  cheering up from visitors she was ready to come home on Friday.  Which is how it unfolded, after an ultra sound on her bad shoulder that didn't find anything of note and after we were given some more antibiotics to be consumed at home.

Yesterday was a good day, the shoulder pain even stayed dormant until the night. I prepared next weeks meds and we had the pleasure of a couple of visitors.

Wow, what do they about overconfidence or pride going before a fall or counting unhatched chickens!!!!!!

We just got hit with all of them at once. Elaine has been fantastic from walking better to being her usual chirpy self although still with pain attendant. Then early this morning I was awakened by Elaine calling out in distress and rushed up to her bedroom. Her temperature was way up so after a few phone calls to Silver Chain and Hollywood Hospital I drove her in to Hollywood. They then cheerfully admitted her at 2am no drama except that she was quite distressed but the nursing staff got it all under control and didn't complain once.

Yesterday Dr Troons rooms advised that Elaine's nutrafills (I don't know the correct spelling) which are the infection fighters were very low and that is what happened, she got an infection. so today Elaine has had a blood transfusion, blood tests, X-ray and an antibiotic drip. Hopefully she will feel better tomorrow. Her doctor says 2-3 days in hospital is typical for this problem.

Then we will start the next part of the chemo!

Cor, I don't believe it, no posts for 13 days. If I didn't know better I would say that the poster person had gone to sleep, certainly he has become very slack. I shall admonish him severely for this lapse in doing his job.

Anyway back to the nitty gritty. We had the Day 8 part of stage 1 of Elaine's treatment on Wednesday  the 2nd followed by a visit with our pain specialist. The treatment went well with madame handling it okay as it is really just sitting in super comfortable chairs while they drip stuff into your veins. Actually they start off putting the canula in, which in this case did not go smoothly, but it did get sorted and I imagine that the whole thing is not really comfortable. I had planned to take off for a bit, but by the time it was all go they said that it would all be over very soon so I stayed put. Then Dr Chan, the pain guy (actually the pain relief guy), and he didn't change much, just confirming what I had been doing and increasing the size of Elaine's patches to the maximum available.

We had been scheduled to see the oncologist on the same day, but that was a bit difficult time wise so we saw him on the Friday. He was rather friendly this visit, more so than usual which was good. After looking and talking he did some rough measurements and decided that progress was being made in the form of some (very small amount) of shrinkage to the visible tumours.

This last week was what is referred to as a lay week in the sailing community, in others words nothing happened as far as the chemo is concerned. I took advantage of this and had a check up when I went to get some scripts for Elaine's meds. the week was hilighted by 2 visits from a Queensland couple that we met and befreinded 2 years ago and who are travelling through WA at this time.

All in all Elaine had a good week. She appears to be in less pain although her arms, mainly the left one, are still giving her heaps. She is still sleeping most of the day, but this is an expected side effect of the chemo. So far the side effects are minimal so we hope that it stays that way. Elaine is also back, or almost back, to her usual chirpy self which is proved by her comments on my cooking and housekeeping!

Here we are again!

We are both managing to remain reasonably positive, for Elaine that is a bit tough because she is in pain most of the time. Varying degrees of course but it is a constant reminder of the issues at hand. I on the other hand have life fairly easy just doing the housework, pity that I didn't do domestic science at school, and doing my best to keep her pain at a manageable level. But through it all Elaine manages to keep functioning and doing things and enjoying her visitors.

Today we do part 2 of  the first cycle and so far no really bad side effects, hopefully it will stay that way.

OK I acknowledge my slackness in not doing a blog all week, but somehow we seem to have been very busy. I have at last completed the printing of my blog from our travels which now need to be read through so that I can make it into a book for my old age and my grandchildren.

Now back to the important subject, Elaine. She has had a fairly busy week starting with Poppy's birthday party at the Rollerdrome on Saturday. That being followed by Lyla having a sleepover. Then on Sunday a few visitors Toni and Taylor and Danny and his girlfriend Molly who all finished up sitting on the bed with her. Then came Karen & Jackie and more visitors during the week. Visitors always cheer Elaine up so they are very welcome any time although afternoons are best. Ashley and Jax have just left and Jax had the usual good grandchild effect on madame.

The medical side has been a bit iffy in that Elaine has had a fair bit of pain this week requiring extra medication and it is obvious that the cancer is aggressive. Our oncologist finally spoke to me late on Monday after I left 2 messages at his rooms. He said that we could start chemo this week if we gave him the go ahead!!! I reminded him that we gave the go ahead Wednesday and Thursday last week and that his rooms had acknowledged that go ahead. Anyway he organised it to start on Thursday which it did. So far there are no major side effects other than sleepiness. It will continue next Wednesday then we have a break for a week. Our chemo is being done in 3 week cycles with treatment on day 1 and on day 8 then nothing until the start on the next 3 week cycle. At this stage there will be 3 cycles over a total of 9 weeks. at the end of this he will assess whether to continue, depending on results.  We also saw our radiation oncologist on Wednesday but he just reviewed the radiation to date and confirmed it's cessation for the time being.

So it is still one day at a time and trying to stay positive. Talking about positive we have had a good sign from Elaine's white rose. This rose has pride of place in front of our front door and was given to Elaine about 10 years ago as a housewarming present when we moved into Shaw Road. This year we have a magnificent display of white rose flowers, probably it's best ever! That has to be a good omen.

Not a lot to report. The pain is increasing both in magnitude and in new locations, but we are dealing with that as best we can. Our daughter Toni has arranged for a single bed (from Elaine's ex parents in law)  that has head and foot raising mechanisms and is now in Elaine's bedroom and seems to be making it easier for her to get in and out of bed. Thanks!

On the other side our oncologist is proving to be very hard to talk to, but our GP has had a few conversations with him. According to our GP they have been productive conversations. Dr Troon the oncologist has also had telephone conversations with the Peter Mac people in Melbourne apparently some good has come out of that.  This hasn't been communicated to us which I find rather annoying. However chemo has now been arranged for next Wednesday and we will get the details when we phone his rooms on Monday. I font like doctors treating me like an idiot but I guess we will have to put up with it as Geoff's (out GP) opinion is that he is good.

Firstly to my family, our friends and my loyal commenters......thanks, you support is fantastic and very helpful to both of us.

Anyway Dr Troon will be speaking to Melbourne today, he tried yesterday but finished up making an appointment for 10am today. I guess that we will learn the outcome later today or tomorrow. In the meantime Elaine is booked for chemo on Monday and more importantly her hairdresser today! We also so have a full weekend with Poppy's birthday celebrations which will keep our minds busy.

I haven't felt much like doing a blog for the last couple of days.

We visited our oncologist, Dr Troon, on Monday and learned that this cancer beast is behaving in a very unfriendly and aggressive manner. Not nice at all! We probably knew this but had not admitted it even to ourselves. He talked again about chemo and Elaine now has to decide whether the extra time is worth the risk of unpleasantness that goes with it. To add to the difficulty of that decision there is only a 30-40% chance of it working at all.

We also introduced the news that we had sent information to the Peter Mac cancer centre in Melbourne and that they had suggested a conference call to their 'unknown primary' specialists. He was a little taken aback and doesn't think that they will know more than him but, naturally, agreed to make the call. Probably today, so that we will see what happens and whether it changes the equation at all.

Naturally we are not very happy but we will continue to soldier on and make the best of it. The support from our kids and family and friends is fantastic. Thanks!

Wow this certainly is a long break between blogs, I will have to have a stern word with the blogger!

Anyway not a lot has happened in the last 10 days. Elaine has completed another round of radiotherapy and not a lot has changed. The pain is still there and seems to be spreading a little, but hopefully she will start to feel the effect of that treatment next week. Prior to starting this latest round of treatment our radiotherapy oncologist ordered a new CT scan which discovered some more lesions and since then there has been another one shown up that is quite visible.

Last week we visited our pain specialist who didn't make major changes to Elaine's medication, just a couple of minor tweaks. However we started a discussion about 2nd opinions and he indicated that it was probably a good idea. He also suggested that in view of the new lesions we should bring forward our appointment with our medical oncologist. I put both these suggestions into action and have brought the medical oncologist appointment forward by one week, which has necessitated another CT scan last Wednesday.

The 2nd opinion thing was also put into action via my brother and his son in Melbourne who is friendly with a director of the Monash Cancer Institute at the Peter Mac Centre in Melbourne. Our GP very quickly put together an extensive dossier  on Elaine's treatment which I sent off to Anthony who sent it on etc through our family connection. The net result is that a conference call between our oncologist and one of the 'Unknown Primary' specialists at Peter Mac has been suggested. Hopefully it will happen after our appointment on Monday and hopefully it will be helpful.

Hi there - mid afternoon Monday October 3 and I have just reread my blog from early May. It reminded me that Elaine has been putting up with this since then and probably from very early in the year. Wow that is an awful lot of pain! But she has stayed functional and positive all the time which is not a bad effort at all. Obviously it has affected me too but only in my activities, she has of course borne the brunt of it.

The up side of it all is that I have learned to cook, clean, etc and have caught up a few projects that have been sitting in the wings for some time. Such as getting my trumpet (90 years old and in my care for 63 of those years)  out, polished and making noise again. The other job is that I am about halfway through putting my blog from the last couple of years into book. Private book only I am not making any attempt to go past my personal edification in the future when I am old and doddery.

I have just reread yesterdays post and decide that it has overstated the doom and gloom bit. Sure the news is not good but we are remaining positive and  are working on delaying the onset as much as we can. With of course the help of our medical team and more importantly our friends and even more critically our family.

The month of September is now drawing to a close and the news is not getting any better. It seems that with this damn disease the news is rarely good. Elaine continues to get new spots and our radiation oncologist described it a rampant. We are however still moderately positive and are taking it all day by day doing every thing that we can to try to defeat it. Late last week our medical oncologist offered chemo and made sure that we were aware of the rather unpleasant side effects. So we have had discussions with our  GP who in turn had a long chat with the medical oncologist. The net result is that we are still undecided although it appears that chemo will not extend her survival by a long enough period to justify the discomfort that it will cause,,....bummer. But we will soldier on and try to enjoy what time we have got and to see as much as possible of our children and grandchildren.

It is Saturday after a fairly traumatic week, primarily due the spreading cancer. We know that this is the nature of the disease but it does take one by surprise when it actually happens.

Elaine started radiotherapy treatment again on Thursday to the groin area, so we are hopeful that this  tumour will continue to shrink. But, due to the spread, we now have to consider the option of chemotherapy which is on offer by our medical oncologist. I had a long conversation with him yesterday and came away from that with the impression that there is not a lot to gain from this. He did however recommend that talk to our GP (Dr Geoff Gild) and give the matter some thought before phoning him on Wednesday with our decision. So we did that and Geoff being the friend that he is phoned the oncologist (Dr S. Troon) and after a long conversation came away with the confirmation that chemo will not extend Elaine's survival time by an appreciable amount of time. The trade off with chemo is rather extensive including fatigue, nausea, mouth ulcers, costipation or diarrhoea and hairloss. The decision is of course Elaines but it does seem that we will stay with radiotherapy and we will have a discussion with Dr Chee after this round of treatment completes on Thursday.

Well it is 3 days since my last literary effort and a bit has happened since then.

We had a visit with our radiation oncologist, Dr Chee, on Tuesday to review the results of Monday's scan. Firstly they were good and showed that the original tumours had shrunk, not lots but any shrunk is good. They also showed that the right sort of activity was still happening. But then the bad news that he had found 3 new tumours, the first a small one behind the kidneys. Then one, just a spot, below the belly button and another spot also just under the skin and nearby, but I did not take note of exactly where. They are probably too small at this stage to treat but that decision will be left to our medical oncologist who is running the show. We had an appointment to see him late in October but have rung his rooms to see about bringing that appointment forward.

I guess that this is the nature of the disease and we will have to used to it. But it doesn't make it any easier and it would be nice to have a way of stopping it in it's tracks!

This is, as someone else said, an insidious disease that we are dealing with!

There definitely has been an reduction in Elaine's pain level since we started treatment at Genesis. However the pain, which had gone down dramatically immediately after the radiation, treatment has increased over the last couple of weeks, which is not good. There are a couple of factors to be considered, firstly the large quantities of medication which would help to reduce the pain and which we eased up a little over the last 10 days. Secondly the side effect of lots of pain medication is constipation, which of course is then countered with more pills, which could in this case exacerbate the pain in the groin (which is the main tumour). So this is all very confusing but we will learn more tomorrow when we go to get the results of the scans that Elaine had last Wednesday.

After a lovely morning with Lyla at 'school', or kindy depending on your age and point of view, we headed back to Genesis. Our first observation was how little time it took to travel from Wembley to Joondalup. Admittedly at 11am but it only took 20 minutes and, having allowed a lot more time than that we were early. Never mind the plan was for Elaine to drink lots of liquid, get rid of it and drink some more, which sounds like some sort of witchcraft ritual but has apparently serious reasoning behind the procedure. This was a preliminary to measuring the lady's appropriate parts for the next round of radiotherapy.

However after making a start, Elaine was part way through the first glass of water when it was decided that this was unnecessary and the ritual was discontinued. Yesterday when the booking was made we, the receptionist and I, confirmed that this would be required and timing plans were made accordingly. So I don't know what happened but obviously someone reread the detail sheet today and made an alternative decision. Then we had to wait some time for our slot on the measuring machine and by the time we headed home we had been visiting in Joondalup for nearly 2 and a half hours, some of which we would rather have spent in Wembley. No matter it is not a big deal and it all got done in the end.

So after deluxng ourselves at Hungry Jacks establishment we arrived home and madame went to sleep while I made loud noises at the back of the house.

Another visit to Genisis today but more later.

Elaine has had a bad couple of days, make that a few days with high pain levels. In fact very high on a couple of those days requiring more breakthrough medication than has been required for some time.
That might have been partly due to the side effects of the pain medication, hopefully so and it will go away of its own accord.

Dr Chee at Genesis today has sent Elaine off for another CT scan and will have his staff book her in for more radiotherapy aimed at the groin lump. Other than that he didn't add much to our knowledge base. He did however show us the X-rays so that we could see the size and location of the lump, not very nice stuff and obviously a little upsetting.

Later we had a visit from a lovely Silver Chain lady, not our usual lady who is on holidays, but like every one that we have met from this organisation a very nice person. She discussed the medications and agreed that the reduction has, at this stage, not been successful. So between us we modified the routine a little and even though Elaine required breakthrough later in the night we may be on the right track.

I am continuing this on Wednesday, having started on Tuesday and been interrupted. I mean..........how dare anyone interrupt a genius at work!

This morning Elaine had the CT scan as ordered and we look forward to hearing about the results when we next visit Genesis. As it turns out we will be there tomorrow to get measured up for the next treatment which will start next week. Lyla has invited us to a grandparents morning tomorrow which we will attend but will have to leave early to get out to Genesis.

Not a lot to report since my last blog.

 Elaine is making steady progress, but I have to say that there is a fair bit of up and down. We have had a chat with our GP and he has added a couple of things to help compensate for the side effects of all these pain killers. I did a count the other day and Elaine is taking 30 pills every day plus a couple of liquid drafts...wow! I did the count as part of an attempt to rationalise and avoid having to get new scripts every week for one or other of the pills, sometimes 2 or 3 scripts but I am sure that you understand where I am coming from. This is difficult because a number of the medications require individual authorisation from the government due to them being restricted for obvious reasons (addicts choices). This week we saw our pain specialist and he started a program to reduce the medication as a result of Elaine's lessened pain level. This first reduction is one of the restricted ones and that will now last to line up with the rest of them.

Elaine's improvement shows in all sorts of things such as greater awareness and less confusion, a little bit of gardening and importantly more and better interaction with the kids, grandkids and friends. Today we went to Poppy's sports day for an hour or so, which was great. She still sleeps most of the time, but hopefully that will change as we lower the overall medication dosage.

Well.....Well.....This is a bad example of neglect of duty, about a week since the last post. So I am back and will do my best to report on what has been a fairly quiet week. The media fills in this sort of week with lots of rubbish, I will try to be a little more objective.

Elaine is travelling fairly well at the moment, her pain level is down which would indicate that the radiotherapy is working. However there is some clarification to that statement, as expected the pain is variable, but generally a lot less than it has been. Elaine still takes around 25 pills per day which helps reduce the pain level. There are of course side effects but we deal with those as they rear their ugly heads. Our doctors, particularly our GP, and Silver Chain continue to be a really important and effective support team.

Elaine's improvement can be judged by her doing a small amount of gardening, turning the washing machine on much more than is really needed and by close, very close, supervision of my cooking attempts. We have also been lucky to have family dropping in to chat and offer support and in Lyla's case cheer us both up and is probably between them the best support team.

Wow, 5 days since my last blog!

Nothing much has been happening, Elaine is slowly improving, although it is a bit like Dr Chee said, up and down. But the main thing is that there is improvement. This week Elaine has been doing a bit of cleaning, a bit of gardening, a short visit to the shops and today lunch out with Karen. Well done Elaine!

Another cloudy then sunny west Australian day is dawning and the expected rain seems to be hiding for the moment, so I will go for a walk as soon as I have finished this blog. A little bit like the media when there is not much to report one can resort to useless bits of information like the preceding sentence.

Back to the issue at hand. Yesterday was a good day, Elaine even helped take the cover off the van, which is a difficult job----well done Elaine. So progess is being made, that is our mantra and target for the moment. Pain is still there just reducing a little day by day and the long list of medication is obviously helping. The success of the radiotherapy is measured in the reduction of pain and should keep doing so for a few weeks.

We are pretty lucky with family visits and phone calls, which along with phone calls from our friends makes a huge difference to Elaine's well being. Thanks everyone!

Today is Friday and we have a little thing on the dining table which has daily sayings. You know the sort of thing a calendar with a smart or motivational saying for each day of the year. I don't know where we got it but it came to light the other day and we are working through the pages, at this stage only up to early January. But the point of this lengthy explanation is that today's page says 'you have made it through to Friday - good on you!' which I thought is appropriate.

Today and this afternoon in particular Elaine appears to be doing well. She is 'with it' and this afternoon played well with Lyla. I picked Lyla up from school at 3pm and I think both my girls enjoyed the balance of the afternoon. Having said all that, Elaine still has considerable pain but seems to be making progress. Another thing today was a walk to the end of the street and back, we will have to try and make that a daily exercise.

Not much has been happening the last couple of days, but Elaine still has a lot of pain in her shoulder. She does think that it is subsiding a little but is still quite strong. Pain has also returned to her left buttock, but is not very bad. Yesterday we had a visit with Dr Chee (I should note that this time he was almost on time) at Genesis and he has opted to wait for a month before deciding whether more radiotherapy is required. Obviously if the pain situation deteriorates we will be in touch for an earlier decision. Elaine is quite put out that none of these doctors, Dr Chee and Dr Troon, actually examine her or even look at sites of the problem.

Late in the day our marvellous Silver Chain nurse Stephanie arrived for her usual visit accompanied by a doctor who is doing a rotation at Silver Chain. It is quite something the number of doctors involved with Silver Chain, this is the 3rd one that we have seen. As usual there was quite a bit of discussion about Elaine's pain management (bad boy GHC didn't administer yesterdays midday pills, as we left home at 1pm and didn't get home until nearly 4pm, but I should have given them early!) and her level of pain and activity. We also discussed this lack of examination and their opinion was that, in this case, the X-rays are a lot more explanatory than an examination would be. That still didn't satisfy Elaine so we will have to follow it up further.

Now on to madam herself who is a lot more active than she has been for some time, probably 2-3 months. She is currently doing some washing, has been to the shops in a limited fashion and has done a bit of gardening. This is a big improvement!

OK it's Sunday and we start a new week, hopefully better than the last one as far as Elaine is concerned.

Elaine has a fair bit of pain although there seems to be a small improvement. The shoulder is the main culprit but that should start reducing during the next week. She has now got a bit of pain in her right buttock which,we think,  is the original pain that had her being treated before we went away. Then that didn't improve so we came back into the current situation.

Last night our granddaughter Lyla had a sleepover, originally she was going to sleep my bed to avoid hurting nannee. However when it came down to decision time she slept with Elaine and they both survived the night. Although Elaine did suffer a few kicks from her little darling. But over all it was a good change of routine and nannee definitely enjoyed the visit. Bamps also had fun and learned how to cook pancakes, although Lyla did most of the work. Our very friendly granddaughter also made a new friend of our next door neighbours 2 youngest children (girl & boy) and they played beautifully for hours.

How's that, I only missed one day.

Elaine's pain is fairly constant at the moment. The lovely lady, Stephanie, from Silver Chain and the nursing staff from Genesis agree that it is to be expected. The radiotherapy tends to inflame the lesion, but we can expect the inflammation to start to go down during the next week. In the meantime medication and rest will help to make it all bearable.

Otherwise we are getting on with life and doing the things that need to be done. a visit from my Melbourne based brother and Louise's usual over supply of food was a welcome change of routine.

Well I have had a few complaints regarding the fact that the blog is not up to date. I have referred these complaints to the appropriate department who have stated that the complaints should have been made on the proper form in quadruplicate. However I have convinced them to answer the complaints and answers should be received sometime in the next year or so! For me there was not a lot to report, but I will try to be a little more regular.

Back to the lady in question. Elaine is much improved in fact very much improved, she is a very different woman to the one that arrived back in Perth on the June long weekend thanks to her medical team and of course her own competitive spirit. Elaine's pain has been dramatically reduced with the groin pain (which was the principal problem) almost gone, but she still has lots of pain in her right shoulder. This is probably due to inflammation caused by the radiotherapy and we are hopeful that it will decrease during the coming days...fingers crossed. Elaine is now doing things around the house, interfering with my cooking (!) and yesterday came with me to pick Lyla up from school.

Today we had an appointment with Dr Chan. However he called in and did not attend the clinic at Charlies, so we saw one of his offsiders. This was OK although not ideal. He will advise our doctors on a suggested program to reduce the medication after Elaine's shoulder pain subsides.

Another day another ?? whatever, for old buggers like me they are all the same.

Elaine's much better judging by the amount of stick that I am getting! She still has considerable pain in her shoulder, that is to be expected at this stage but should start reducing by Monday. Elaine is also still sleeping lots but that also is to be expected as fatigue from the treatment.

As for me I am catching up on the things that need doing, such as serving the cars, fixing the generator, etc. All good we are getting back yo normal and can start working out what to do next.

Okay okay everyone is entitled to a break now and then, I have just had a 2 day break.

Elaine didn't have a break she had the last 2 days of this round of treatment. We now have to wait and see how good the results are! Elaine is almost pain free, her shoulder is playing up a bit but that is to be expected (as the radiotherapy inflames the tumour). Next week we see the pain specialist and hopefully he will give us a program for reducing the level of medication. Silver Chain have as usual been proactive and already started this reduction.

At home we have had a good run with visits from Jax for 2 hours on Tuesday. Last night Louise and Tony visiting from Melbourne took us and Karen to dinner which made a nice change of routine.....thanks.

Another day at Genesis and, other than being a little unsteady on her feet, Elaine was great.

This afternoon we had a visit from a doctor with Silver Chain regarding Elaine's medication, which we feel may be little overboard at the moment. On the basis that she is almost pain free and that she is still disorientated and is sleeping a lot and we have a huge list of thrice daily medication we feel that this is the way to go. Dr Chan agreed and we have now reduced one of the pills, so that will be judged over the next few days.

Then tonight Elaine supervised my cooking on a proactive basis, so progress is definitely being made.

The improvement is dramatic, Elaine is virtually pain free. She is still a bit vague, disorientated and memory is lousy, no doubt due to the long list of medication that she is taking 3 times a day. This is a small price to pay for the benefits that we are getting. The other side to this is that we are just starting the second round of radiotherapy and this will no doubt have its own effect. Secondly this disease has its own timetable so we are by no means out of the woods yet, but we are making good progress.

Yesterday we attend the christening of our new great granddaughter at St Maty's Cathedral, and what a magnificent building it is! Grandeur from a time well past and only possible from the Roman  church, remembering of course that it was built on land that was not quite as valuable then as it is now! More important was to see Elaine mixing and joining in, both at the church and at the knees up afterwards, not quite like normal, but getting closer every day. Following a short 'nanna' nap after that we entertained our three littleys (Lyla, Poppy and Jax) and once again it was great to see Nannee joining in.

Then to top it all off she assisted physically with the cooking.

The end of a good week, may we have lots more of them.

Today was treatment day 2 of 5 and as usual all went well. The side effect of Elaine's deluge of medication is memory lapses and today vagueness much like she was a bit drunk. We will have to do something about that, but it might become a balancing act between pain and disorientation. Elaine is also sleeping lots and that is probably a combination of drugs and treatment. So all in all a trip to the doctor is called for early next week to discuss all this.

Tonight we are visiting Karen, as visitors, just to gradually wean her off our freeloading presence.

Another day without pain!

Today we started the second round of treatment. This time hitting 2 spots in the upper chest area. Being the first of this series it took a bit longer than usual but Elaine handled it well. Following the treatment we had another session with the nurse just to check that all is OK, just another example of this good organisation. We are getting good at the drive to Joondalup, in fact I just tell the car that today is the day and it does it all by itself............you do believe me don't you?

Prior to leaving home we had a call from the Silver Chain lady just to confirm yesterdays arrangements, again impressive attention to detail in looking after their clients.

After Genesis we needed fuel for the car and the servo was near Hungry Jacks so we treated ourselves to a deluxe lunch!

Life is on the improve and I hope that it stays that way.

Another day without pain.....................yyyyiiiippppppppeeeeee!

That is to say the main tumour is now behaving itself and the others are not causing any major drama. It would appear therefore that the radiotherapy is doing its job. We also have to be aware that the medication is having an important beneficial effect, so after a long chat with Silver Chain there will be no change to Elaine's medication. However this is very pleasing progress and we both trust that it will continue.

Tomorrow we start the next round of radiotherapy, lets hope that it will all be successful and that we will beat or start managing this thing.

Yesterday we made yet another trip to Genesis, this time for the planning session for Elaine's next round of treatment. The treatment will start on Thursday.  She was good but by the time we left was feeling tired. Other than that a good day with me getting the shopping done so that we are now stacked up at home. We are settling in and it is good to be home.

Well today was one of our better days. Today Elaine's pain was once again down, not gone but definitely reducing, and this is the third day in a row......hip hip hooray for Elaine. We had an afternoon appointment with Dr Troon, our medical oncologist, and after hearing Elaine's story was quite pleased with our progress. He also confirmed with us that Genesis is proceeding with treatment to the other lumps then said that we don't need him for the time being. Again hooray and he doesn't need to see Elaine for 3 months with scans and bloods about a week beforehand. We still have an appointment at Genesis to prepare for the second round of treatment which will start on Thursday.

Progress is being made and although neither of us slept any better last night it is great to be back in our own house. We will however miss Karen!

Today is a 'h' letter day, we have moved back to our home. As comfortable as we were/are in the van it is good to be home. Our tenants left the home spotless, the only thing that they didn't do as poison the weeds that pop up between the pavers, do I did that today. So we have done the basic unpacking the rest and all the other bits and pieces will follow over the next few weeks.

So back to the central attraction Elaine, she has had another relatively good day. A little bit of nausea but the pain is down and next week we start the second round of treatment.

There we go I took the lay day concept too far and let the blog go for a couple of days.

Nothing much happened on Friday except that Elaine had a reasonably good day........hooray.

Saturday I got to have a day off, but first had to meet our tenants and collect the keys to our house. Then I picked up Poppy and Lyla and went with them to see Scooby Doo at the Convention Centre, thanks to Gwen. Thank you Gwen the girls enjoyed it and so did GHC. Just to top off a god Elaine also had a good day, pain down a bit and Toni took her out to lunch, Ta Toni. Then we had dinner with Karen, our last as her freeloaders.

Once again early morning just before getting Elaine up for her morning pills, which seems to be a good time for me to think. It is a bit cruel but she does go back to sleep afterwards and Silver Chain told me that ideally the medication should be every 8 hours, so we do try. I go back to bed afterwards too.

Yesterday was a good day, pain was there but at a better level so that Elaine was able to have a fairly pleasant day. We were all prepared to visit the oncologist, but I phoned to see if he was on time and was told that he wasn't in at all! It appears that I had the wrong day, seeing that I put it in my phone as it was given to me I don't know how that happened. But it did, you can't rely on these old blokes for anything can you? Our appointment is for Monday so we have a couple of free days, I guess that we can go clubbing.

Today we had a review appointment with Dr R Chee which reality was a short discussion after a long wait because he was well behind schedule. We where able to report a small reduction in pain and he advised that this could continue for weeks. In fact, so he said, it could be lots of weeks with the main reduction possibly occurring suddenly. Not really very enlightening but I guess we just have to keep hoping for some success. The other thing was that he decided to proceed with attacking the other two lumps. The shoulder one appears to be growing and causing a lot if discomfort and pain, so this is a welcome move. First they have to have a planning session before the treatment can start and whilst we expect it all to happen quickly we don't have dates yet.

We did however decide that, on the way home we would have a meal of lamb shanks at the local Charcoal Chicken........lovely.

Go on, just pretend that this is yesterday and that I am doing the blog on time.

We were quite busy yesterday, firstly I had a bit of work to do which allowed Elaine to sleep till midday after her 7am pills! Then we attended the funeral of a dear friend, almost family. Come evening Elaine helped cook dinner for the first time in ages. After dinner we went to minyan, all in all a very active day for Elaine which she handled very well. The pain is still there and by the time that we got back to th van it was quite intense, but she did get through it with the help of her pills and break through medication. Well done Elaine.

I guess this would indicate some gain from the treatment. We will see what Silver Chain and the doctor have to say later on today.

Another day in the life of Elaine and Graham in the van and we still feel comfortable, but it will be very nice to get our home back. Elaine appears to be enduring less pain now, there is still a fair bit there. Hopefully the pain will continue to reduce.

Other than that there is not much else to report. Our friends drop in and phone and it really is lovely the helpful interest that is being shown and all the offers of help that we are getting.

I actually started to write a blog yesterday, but I got interrupted and the old memory being what it is I didn't get back to it.

So what has happened since last Thursday, not a lot. Elaine's pain level goes up and down, the highs are bad but not as bad as they were before the treatment started. The lows are good but nowhere near good enough, so there is still a way to go. I am kept fairly busy with being around to dole out medication, cooking such as it is (I am not the best cook in the world, or even the street, but neither of us has starved or come down with food poisoning!), shopping and the bits and pieces that are needed.

Comment has been made about us living in the van and it should be noted that we are very comfortable, also remembering that we can use showers etc in Karen's house. We do have our own shower but going inside means that we can have longer showers and don't have to worry about filling up our grey water tank. We also have a toilet which we use at night and every so often I have to go to the nearest caravan park to empty it's tank. All in all we are quite self contained, particularly since we are plugged into 249v power and can top up water tanks as required. Another point is that during the first 3 weeks Elaine was in hospital and during her first week in the van our tenant expected to move within the week. That move has stretched a little but we now expect to be in our home late next week. Another point to remember is that we are used to and enjoy living this way, at least I think we do!

I would like to say thanks to our GP and friend Geoff Gild who has been very helpful and considerate.

This will be another day of unlimited praise for Silver Chain, but first a report on the patient and her consort.

The pain is still here in force, maybe a slight reduction but still controlling Elaine. Yesterday we had a minor change in medication and a change in timing after a chat with the a Silver Chain nurse, as yet I don't know whether we have made any gains.

Today I had a play date with my granddaughter Lyla  and Nannee, after waking at 7.30am for pills, was still asleep when I left to pick her up. She was still asleep when we got back around midday!  Stephanie, the Silver Chain nurse, visited again shortly after our return to check up on yesterday's action with Dr Chan. At the same time she checked madams vitals and the Silver Chain van delivered a walking frame. This service is rather extraordinary and must take an awful lot of pressure off the patient, the patient's family and of course the hospital system. Fantastic!

Just one other comment, not only am I worn out running around with Lyla (a bit of an exaggeration as  it is more walking around and keeping an eye on her without interfering with her playing) but I really enjoy the time spent with her. She isn't perfect but it is still lovely.

Well I have just had few days off, mainly due to the fact that nothing was happening. But we are back in business now.

For a few days in the middle of last week the pain level was down, not down down just down a little, enough to give Elaine a bit of respite. Then on Friday it came back, I don't think quite as bad as before the treatment, but certainly it was making its presence felt. We were warned that the treatment would initially inflame the tumour before it starts to shrink, so I guess this is the inflammation part. Hopefully it will go down in size soon and Elaine will get some real relief.

Last week Genesis referred us to Silver Chain, which I thought was just a home nursing service. It is that, but that is a very limited description of what seems to be a very large organisation. After a couple of phone calls our (or she will be) nurse came to visit, here in the van, to fill out the paperwork and get us into the system. They are aware that we will be going back to our house soon and the service will continue there. The paperwork was extensive to provide them with a full history and details of doctors and treatments. They will monitor all that, keep in touch with both us and our medical team and can provide 24/7 assistance if needed to avoid having to go to hospital. All very impressive, particularly when you add in that they can provide various bits of equipment to help us out at home. Then in the afternoon a doctor visited to add to the file and at the same time suggested a medication change (to which Dr Chan agreed) and will be part of the Silver Chain team. All very very impressive and nice!

Today we visited Dr Chan the pain specialist at his clinic ar Charlies, where he likes to see us, rather than his rooms, although that may change down the track. He basically just confirmed, with some minor changes, the medication list and arranged to see us again in 4 weeks.

It did not take long did it! Mr slack did not do yesterday's blog, naughty boy.

Anyway, morning after, here it is. Yesterday was treatment number 5 and the last of what I will call stage one. As usual all was sweetness, light and smooth sailing down in the Genisis basement. The basement is officially B1 and is situated below the parking under the building. After her treatment we had a question and answer session with the nurse who basically confirmed what we already knew. Results will be judged on the pain reduction that is achieved, the only other thing is the lump in Elaine's shoulder, but that will wait until the assessment of this stage. Side effects have, so far, been minimal limited to Elaine feeling some fatigue.

We are really lucky to have a friend like Karen who not only allows us to,stay on her driveway but claims to enjoy our presence.......thanks Karen. As far as our house is concerned, our house sitters have applied for at least two places and they expect to be gone next week....we shall see what happens. It will be nice to get back to home but we are quite comfortable in the van and it even has a couple of advantages, but home is home.

There will be no more treatment for at least 2 weeks, but in the meantime we have doctors appointments starting next Wednesday. So until then have fun.

Today is an easy day just treatment number 4 quick, efficient and friendly as usual. Elaine must be getting used to it, and is probably a little tired, because she fell asleep in the machine and they had to wake her to go home. We also confirmed that, partly due to the strong dose that she is getting, that it will continue fighting the badies for a couple of weeks after the treatment stops.  So hopefully it will devastate the tumour and make it run away, not likely but shrinking it dramatically will be helpful.

It's funny how things go, this morning we left just a few minutes later than planned (due to the need to wash bed sheets, one lot with embedded chocolate!) and for the first time we got red lights all the way. Really we only got one green light and most of the others were having to brake because the lights were changing to red. Up to now with plenty of time to spare we have had nearly all green lights. That's it for now, I'm off for a walk.

OK we are back at the van after treatment number 3 and a review by Dr Chee. The treatment was quick, friendly and on time as usual but the doctor was a few minutes late, no drama. The review was basically to confirm that all was proceeding as planned, it is. So far no side effects and we think that the pain level has receded a little. Two treatments to go then a doctoral review in 2 weeks time, it appears that the radio thingies go on killing the nasties after the treatment stops. So we will see what happens.

Slight change to the above, whilst Elaine feels reasonable and it would appear that the pain is down a little, she does feel a little nauseous at the moment.

Meanwhile life goes on, the generator is running at the moment. It played up a little while we were away and we decided, at the suggestion of the mechanic, that we needed to run it a bit and get rid of old fuel etc. we also had to attend to one or two other things not connected with Elaine's treatment. At least we are getting back into routine, as I already said yesterday, but reinforced with today's activities.

Before I start, this blog is not intended to replace personal contact by phone or message, it is mainly for me to let off a bit of steam. We really appreciate the calls, messages and support.  I am however trying to put as much information in as I can so that you know what is happening.

Right now I am sitting in the van while madam is sleeping as this mornings activities have tired her out. I will however wake her shortly to take pills, which I hate to do because she is not in pain while she is sleeping. Elaine went to sleep as soon as we got back so I had lunch and went for a walk.

The experience at Genisis was once again positive, more or less on time and friendly.

Treatment started today so we are making progress, hopefully in the correct direction. Up to now it has been X-rays and tests and meetings with doctors so it is really nice to see some positive action.

We are attending Genisis in Joondalup and now that we know how to get there it is just a stress free 40 minute drive. That is another thing with treatment starting we will be establishing a routine. Genisis is a very slick operation, and I mean that in a complimentary way, starting from basement parking by following the blue (Genisis patients) line and validating the ticket as we leave to go home. Then clocking in via a barcode on the reception counter and being greeted, on time today, by a friendly nurse who took Elaine into the treatment area and left me to use the free wifi. After treatment we were again taken into an office with another friendly nurse who checked that we knew what to expect and were comfortable with it. We were also given the list of the weeks appointments including a review with our doctor after treatment on Wednesday.

The open ended support from our kids and family is fantastic and the supportive phone calls from friends is very encouraging. We are receiving visitors although the very high pain level is knocking Elaine about. So with all this positivity happening we know that it will all work out and we will get through it 'with a little help from our friends' ( to quote someone but I can't remember who).

This is the first post on Elaine's journey through the complexities of cancer treatment.

This all started about 8 weeks ago after Elaine had treatment for back pain and the pain persisted. Our  advisors thought that it was just a matter of taking time to be effective so we took off on our, now usual, winter trip. But the pain didn't go away it just got worse, but we kept travelling going down to Esperance then up to Meekatharra via Kalgoorlie.  We then decided that the pain was too much and visited the local hospital where the doctor confirmed my thoughts and advised us to return home and get proper treatment.  So we drove 800 kms home, or rather to Karen's place where we are now parked in our motorhome. Elaine went to hospital and after X-rays and tests the diagnosis was made.

We spoke to our house sitters and they are now looking for new accomodation which will enable us to move back into our house and free up Karen's drive.

Last week we met with our oncologist, Dr S Troon who referred us to Genisis Cancer Care in Joondalup. We then met with our pain specialist Dr W Chan who is attempting to get Elaine pain free or at least much reduced. Genesis were very prompt and we saw them on Thursday, had Elaine measured on Friday and start treatment on Monday. The initial treatment with be 5 hits of intense radiotherapy to, hopefully, reduce the size of the very large tumour in her pelvic area.

Just for the record there is an upside to this in that I am learning to cook!