Week 41 – Bloods still stable

I’m in new territory now with a weekly visit to the hospital to have a blood test and my PICC dressing changed, but no consult with the doctor.  The consults will only happen monthly unless there are issues detected.

When the doctor informed me of this I felt a little strange so requested the ability to get the blood results via email after the tests each Tuesday.  He said there was no system for this but gave me an email address to follow up.

So I can report from today’s tests things are still very stable.  Red Blood Cells (Hb) are 97, White Blood Cells 8.9, Neutrophils 7.1, Platelets have dropped a little to 62, Creatinine 85 and Magnesium and Potassium in the normal range.

So this is pleasing and in my mind slowly confirms that things are stable and going well (as the doctors say!).

I have generally been feeling pretty well and we still manage on most days to get around 10,000 steps of walking in, either to the hospital and back or perhaps into the city and back.

We ventured out on Sunday to visit Jan’s parents and family at Bairnsdale for an overnighter – my first this year!  This was a big step as what was once a regular part of our lives (trips away) has become something of a distant memory.  It is quite unsettling to trip out of town and ‘so far away’ from the hospital – just in case it is required!

 

We had a fabulous time and of course Jan’s mum cooked up a lovely Sunday roast and invited Jan’s brother Andrew, Heather and children over to help out.  We took a farm tour on the Monday morning to check out the drought conditions of the farm.  They are hand feeding all their sheep as pasture growth is sparse.

 

 

 

 

Other catch ups with friends included:

Peter and Liz Dowling from Wagga (and farmers at Condo).  I have been busy making Liz some pom poms for a mobile she has put together for her grandson.

Our Tassie friends Cat Nichols and Ian Herbert and Rob and Jo Bradley were en route Sat night at the airport travelling to Canada to see their gap year boys.  We headed out to the airport with a few beers to have pizza and watch the Wallabies test vs Ireland.  It ended up being a great night out!

Sunday breakfast we caught up with Ross Williams from Tassie and daughter Anna.  Ross had come over for the rugby complete with a lovely bag of home prepared lamb chops.  Greatly appreciated.

Then on Monday night a surprise visit from our old next door neighbour – Steve Butt.  Steve was in town for a conference and had a spare hour so dropped around for a visit.

I must say hardly a week goes by without two or three friends getting in touch and coming for a quick visit, lunch or even dinner.  It really has been a most unexpected benefit of being sick and stuck in  Melbourne, but one that has certainly helped keep us connected with our friends and that has made a huge difference to my recovery – thankyou!

And finally another masterpiece done – thankyou Darren Wallace.  A good challenge.

And the bonus is we have found a new home for the puzzles – both our local library at Docklands and the Peter Mac library gladly receive gifts! A good re-cycling option.