Week 34 – Good progress

My regular Thursday visit to the hospital last week resulted in more fluids and two units of blood as the haemoglobin was low at 81.  The GCSF injections had been very effective as the neutrophils were up to 13.0 (normal range 2-8) so this was a strong response (the previous test was just 1.5). The doctors were very happy!

They also believe that this may well be my last transfusion for a while as now that the neutrophils are back to ‘normal’ my body should put its effort into generating red blood cells and platelets (which are also low at 26).  We will wait and see what this week’s results show.

We bumped into some regulars at the hospital, James and Victoria Watson.  James is about 20 days ahead of me in treatment so we have shared 7B and the day therapy unit over the past 9 months.  He has responded well although spent 3 weeks in hospital recently with Graft vs Host disease.  We played a round of 500 to pass some time while we were both getting a blood transfusion.

 

On Anzac Day we went for a lovely walk along the Bay with the Rouches and then spent the afternoon with Knox and Cate Heggaton (Knox leases our farm  in Tassie).  They have just become grandparents and had travelled up to NSW to make their first visit to see their son Tom and his wife Alex and new arrival Zoe.

On the weekend we also caught up with Richard and Alice Tallis and John and Sandy Hawkins.  It is always good to see old friends and catch up on news.

Last Friday we drove down to Barwon Heads to meet up with our banker from Darwin (for our Kununurra business), Paul O’Brien.  Paul’s parents live in Geelong and he was down this way on holidays.  We had a great lunch at the Cafe overlooking the water at Barwon  Heads.

 

 

On Saturday afternoon we headed off to see the musical “Priscilla” which was absolutely fantastic – lots of energy and great costumes.

 

Sunday I cycled up to Lachy’s place and we took Sparky for a walk around the neighbourhood and had lunch in the local cafe.

 

 

 

 

The space outside my original room at Ward 7B has now been upgraded with a ‘kinetic sculpture Park’ as a result of discussions with management in the very early days. The leaves on the sculptures gently rotate and gyrate in the breeze.

 

 

 

The next thing on my agenda is an appointment on Wednesday with one of the lead consultants to review my 100 day test results and discuss the next stage.  I will report back when I have more information.