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.