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.