Mmmmmmmm.......I thought that I had done a blog since last Monday, but as I cannot see it I must be imagining it. I must be cracking up.

Anyway since last Monday we have had chemo again, the new chemo that is on Wednesday May 24. This time a bit of a schamozzle. We went first for a visit with our very nice pain specialist, Dr Chin Werne Chan, who basically rubber stamped the changes to Elaine's medication. The only change was to increase the sleeping tablet component as she was not, and still is not sleeping well. Then on to the chemo day ward for our 2.30pm appointment but on arrival we were informed that we were not expected. Ow that hurt, they informed us that our oncologists rooms had cancelled us the previous day, saying that we would be having the chemo as an inpatient in the ward upstairs. Strand seeing that we had seen Dr Troon on the Monday and he expected us to be in the day ward. So the very friendly day ward staff phoned his rooms and confirmed that we were to be treated. But the day ward was flat out, so we were sent upstairs and treated in the inpatient ward as a day patient!! Sounds a bit complex but it worked and we got home at 6.30pm......long day.

Since then Elaine has been fine, albeit with a little nausea and no more pain than normal. She has also not been sleeping anywhere near as much and is more alert both of which are bonuses which we hope will continue.

This week will see us at chemo again followed by a session with our oncologist.

She is home, you beauty. Dr Troon visited today and decided that Elaine was ready to go home. We have a course of antibiotics to finish off the infection and the list of medication has been reduced mainly by withdrawing some of the heavy hitters. So hopefully we will not have any more episodes like last Wednesday. Also hopefully the infection will go away and stay away.

Elaine's appetite has been poor in hospital and did not improve for tonight's meal. To be fair it was not fantastic, I did not defrost anything this morning as I was not sure what the day would bring. So dinner was chicken roll and curry puffs from the freezer, all home made, Elaine had some but not a lot. She is also a little subdued at the moment, hopefully that will change over the next few days.

I feel a blog coming on, in fact it has been coming on since about mid afternoon yesterday.

Yesterday was chemo day and it started badly when I tried to wake Elaine up for her morning meds. That became bigger than BenHur but she did eventually get up and take her meds and drink her morning tea. During that period she was quite her usual self  or what has become her usual self. So I headed off for my dermatologist who removed a small piece of my back for testing, then returned home and picked up madam. Off to Hollywood we went where they started her new chemo treatment. First the premeds all going well at this stage, then they tried to wake her for the main event and she would not wake up. She in fact was unconscious.. Next thing we have about 10 people rushing around, giving her injections to wake her up and checking that nothing dramatic was wrong. Eventually they did wake her up and after a while were able to complete the chemo. It appears that Elaine had become overloaded with the opiates which are a major part of her anti-pain meds. So last night was spent her at Hollywood for observation and as she is still very confused and they want do lots of tests she will be staying here st least for tonight.

A little scary but I don't think there is any serious unexpected drama, but we will find out when we speak to dr Troon.

Well we are back home after a very pleasant 6 day break which cleared our heads a bit.

Yesterday we enjoyed a very pleasant Mother's Day with visits from all of our family...fantastic.

Today we are back into routine getting a blood test this morning, organising our medication requirements for next week, etc.

Elaine has a bit of extra pain last night and tonight, no doubt due to the weeks activities including the enjoyable but active time spent with our grandchildren. This has not stopped her from making chicken soup tonight!

We are on the way home after 2 days travelling and 2 days in Kalbarri. The first 2 nights spent at the Murchison House Station which was very basic but pleasant enough and I got some good photographs of the Murchison River with the drone. The last night at the Big Rivet Ranch which was much nicer and worth the extra cost. I also managed some more photographs included some of the horses which are their main focus. We also did some driving around and looking and Elaine did some walking which can only be good. She is also doing well and is much more involved than in the recent past, including some driving.

Tonight we are camped at Eneabba on their Showgrounds which is a low cost, 24 hour spot on the edge of the town. Home tomorrow to get ready for Mother's Day, we have driven further today than is our normal distance and will again tomorrow, but that was necessary to get some time in Kalbarri.

Hey we are travelling again!

Our oncologist suggested that, as there was to be no treatment or ct scans or anything else this week, we could p.......s off for the week. So we packed the van and headed north with Kalbarri in our sights. We drove up Indian Ocean Drive to a rest stop that I found on GeoWiki but after a wrong turning, going back some 28km it turned out to be 'camping forbidden' so we headed back up the road. The next stop, also from GeoWiki about 10km from Dongara was ok and there is another couple of vans here, so we have camped. A long day for us as we normally try to keep our days under 200km and this one was 350km but it was a nice drive. Tomorrow we will cover 250kms to Murchison  Station where we will unwind for a couple of days before heading home.

Now to Elaine, she is doing well. On the Sunday we had couple of the family round which is always lovely and Elaine managed to spend a lot of time with the kids. After this week we start a new chemo treatment which we gather is a little intense, so we will see what happens. Effectiveness and hopefully little side effect is what we are looking for.......we shall see! By the way she also drove for a bit today.

Life doesn't always go to plan and today was an example of that.

Elaine had chemo today followed by a visit to our oncologist where we got the results of Monday's scan. As we had anticipated the tumours had all grown enough to be concerning. Obviously the current treatment is not working very well and the effect of the previous treatment on her blood levels means that we can't go back to that and a change is called for. That is exactly what will happen, after a week off we will start a new treatment and that will, hopefully, work. Our oncologist wants us to make a point of taking breaks and I suspect (as he does) that Elaine's bloods will be the driver for the breaks.

In the meantime we remain positive and will make the most of whatever time we have.

Thus starts a new month and Elaine is going well and, according to her doctor and pharmacist, is looking good. She is too, but of course the issues still exist. She has put on a bit of weight, probably a combination of medication and reduced activity. She also has difficulty walking, but over all she is doing well. Of course there is still pain but the medication appears to be keeping this at a manageable level.

The side effects of chemo are still minimal, except for her various blood levels. This is an issue as it has resulted in a lighter dose of chemo and the possible resurgence of the tumours. We will find out more about that when we see the oncologist on Wednesday, after chemo, as he will have the results of today's ct scan.

We managed to spend the weekend down at Woodmans Point again and that did us both a lot of good. The down side was that I didn't get to have a sail and suffered a minor injury helping around the club. I will have to do something about being able to launch the boat without help.