Venus

Last night we went out to see Venus at the Dendy cinema at Circular Quay.

It was hard to relax into the idea of going out. I felt unwilling to abandon my preoccupation with my disease. I was unsure about facing the possible aggravation of my pain from the short bus trip and the confined space of the cinema seat.

We had chosen Venus, more or less on the basis that it was billed as a comedy, and had some grand old actors in it. It was a quite a surprise to realise how apposite the themes of the film were to my current life circumstance.

General report

After chemo on Monday I was more or less bouncing around for the first 3 days, on the whole, feeling pretty good. On Thursday I began to feel very tired and had a bad taste in my mouth. I dozed off a lot. The feeling of tiredness had already somewhat abated on Friday and today, Saturday, I feel fairly bright.

On Thursday or Friday I experienced some ringing in my left ear for some moments and at another time, some type of zig-zag shimmering effects in my vision. Both these experiences were very brief, the ear noise probably a matter of seconds, and the vision distortions disturbed me for some minutes.

Since my previous posts about pain, I’ve been there and back again. It has been quite a constant problem that seems to move and vary in intensity and character around mostly my right lower torso. I walked a kilometer or so on Friday and wasn’t happy about it at all. At the moment it doesn’t seem possible to be comfortable for extended periods, although I am basically functional and still sleeping well. I will be trying a new pain control regime tomorrow. Fingers crossed.

Dichloroacetate forum

Someone, apparently a Jeff Galloway from Alberta, has set up a forum for discussing dichloracetate (DCA) at dichloroacetate.org.

Breath test for early stage lung cancer

Genetic Engineering & biotechnology News report on the development of a breath test capable of detecting early stage lung cancer.

First chemotherapy session

I had my first blast of cytotoxic drugs via intravenous drip this morning. We arrived at the hospital a bit late and so decided to cough up for the commercial car park in the hospital grounds (this amounted to $30 for the five hour visit). After presenting at the clinic and some waiting, we were introduced to the chemotherapy suite which is a large open area, well lit and clean with lots of natural light. It is partitioned into sub-areas each containing one or two rocker recliner chairs and drip holders. Two drips were administered sequentially. The first (Gem) took half an hour and the second (Carb) about an hour. While waiting and during the treatment, we passed some time with the SMH, particularly the “Target” word puzzle and various activities on our laptop computers.

It was wonderful to have such a caring and supportive friend with me and the staff at the clinic all had a caring and supportive manner. I even may have been mildly flirtateous at moments and feel that, apart from some considerable initial trepidation, I was able to enjoy myself. Everything went well and no obvious side effects yet today.

After the clinic, we moved the car, and then went into Newtown for a large vegetable juice and a bit of salad.Then home and I lay in bed watching a double episode of Hornblower before coming out and attending to some tasks. I have been a bit panicky and unsure of myself for one or two moments during the afternoon, but really I am feeling mostly very well, except for ongoing problems with back soreness.

The next session is just a half-hour dose of Gem next Monday. Then, one Monday off before beginning another “cycle”.

Trip to Mudgee

We returned yesterday from a brief holiday in Mudgee. We stayed two nights at off-peak rates in a fairly comfortable hotel in a picturesque parkland setting. We travelled from Sydney along the Bells Line of Road to Lithgow and then to Mudgee.

It was great fun and a very nice break from routine. It was refreshing to experience some out-of-town tranquility and fresh air again.

I tried to record the sounds of the fountains playing in the hotel grounds onto a laptop computer with my new stereo microphone but found the signal strength of the microphone too weak to get a decent volume recording.

Part of the trip to Mudgee was in the dark but we were in daylight all the way back on the return trip. The view of Wollemi National Park in the photo was taken from Pearson’s Lookout lookout on the road between Mudgee and Lithgow. We also wanted to see the Tomah Botanic Gardens on the way home but arrived just at closing time at 5 p.m. so missed out this time.

Solar gadgets in Glebe Point Road

I love gadgets and solar powered gadgets have a special appeal. An interesting gadget shop has appeared in Glebe Point Road.

CT scan scheduled for this week

As the chemo begins on this coming Monday, I am required to have another CT scan as soon as possible. This will provide a point to measure against when assessing the effectiveness of the chemo on the tumors when we scan again in a couple of months.

It will be interesting too, and not without an element of dread, to consider whether this will show that the tumors have grown over the last month or so. In any case of course, we then begin to hope that the coming chemotherapy will knock ‘em back a bit.

Notes on juices from Gawler

I spent some time last night reading Ian Gawler’s book You Can Conquer Cancer. The book was lent to me very shortly after my diagnosis and came inscribed with the phone number of its owner and contact details for Dr Juice. The book’s owner turns out to be a very healthy looking, friendly and helpful bloke who had been diagnosed with prostate cancer (metastatic I think) and who has now been in remission for a year.

Since receiving the book I have really only given it a quick initial scan, although I did manage an initial reading on certain topics, such as diet and meditation. Last night I returned to it and re-read some of Gawler’s recommendations, particularly regarding juice.

As mentioned in earlier posts, I have been following a juice regime since consulting Dr Juice in early January. Mostly, I manage to drink two largish glasses of juice (about 400ml each) per day. These consist of carrot, celery, beetroot, apple, but also cucumber, parsley, and lately, some small amounts of spinach. All vegetables are organic, except sometimes when I am out of the house, and I turn to one of the many apparently fashionable juice bars that have appeared about the place in recent times. I am also eating lots of organic vegetables in solid form, either in salad or steamed with brown rice.

Booked in for chemo on Monday

I spoke to the oncology nurse today and she will book me in for the first cycle of chemotherapy to start this coming Monday 19th February