Blood transfusion

Today’s blood transfusion was no problem. It turns out that I am AB blood group. Spent the day chatting and listening to music including some classical but also Dead Kennedys, Led Zeppelin and Santana.

I was released earlier than expected at about 3:30 pm. I was picked up and then out for coffee afterwards along leafy Glebe Point Road. Plans made for chicken livers.

Cycle 5 – day 1: Hemoglobin low

Another long day at the Cancer Centre. After giving blood, I saw the Prof. and told him that I had felt particularly well during Cycle 4. All noted and routine questions answered and he then reiterated the current plan of continuing for two more cycles, then scanning and re-assessing. My weight is up slightly at over 67 kilos.

I was quite surprised then to find, when my blood results came back later in the morning, that my hemoglobin levels were down and consequently it was considered necessary to have a blood transfusion which has been scheduled for tomorrow. The transfusion will take place in the Chemotherapy Suite at the Cancer Centre and will take all day from about 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Today’s chemotherapy went ahead as normal and I left the centre sometime after 3 p.m.

I also sadly found today out that one of the members of our Cancer Support Group at the hospital died a couple of weekends ago at the age of 51. He had been sick for some months but when I had seen him he was very much being as positive and funny as possible despite obviously being in some pain and very unwell. He is the first person that I have met since my diagnosis that has been lost to the disease. Another two members of the small group are also ill (which actually covers a variety of different lung cancers), although exactly to what extent I am not sure, so it was certainly a sober day and a reminder of the seriousness of the disease.

On the brighter side, I attended another support group yesterday evening (CAN HELP meets in Sydney city twice a month) and met a woman who was diagnosed with a similar stage and type of lung cancer as myself in 1998, and although another tumor of some sort has developed in recent years, she is looking very well and calm today in 2007.

10,000 page views

Today marks 10,000 page views for this blog since starting it, more or less, early this year. Most of the views have been as a result of the interest in dichloroacetate. This news story was significant for me when it came out as it seemed to indicate that for each year survived, the medical profession may develop improved treatments and thus slightly increase the odds of surviving a further time. Yes, the goalposts are moving but, it is hoped, slightly towards me. In any case here are some numbers to mark the occasion of ten-thousandness:

Total Views: 10,030
Best Day Ever: 394
Views today: 23
Posts: 58
Comments: 79
Tags: 26

Cycle 4 – day 16

I am feeling very well and relatively energetic. I had felt just a little queasy and vaguely off-colour and unwell earlier in the cycle but this last week has been very pleasant. I had a very restorative quick trip to the bush this week and back now trying to catch up with various tasks and concerns.

It is strange reflecting that the pain in my back which bothered me for over a year has now gone. I have put out for disposal the lumbar roll (pictured) that I had tried to use to alleviate that pain when sitting at my desk. It is an object which inspires feelings of bewilderment and disbelief reminding me that I had tried in vain to understand the pain for such a long time before finding its true cause.

I have made a several trips to the bush since my last entry on the subject. This has contributed to the sparseness of the entries here but these trips have provided very worthwhile times of fairly total relaxation and beauty. I have enjoyed tending the wood fuel Rayburn stove with its operating manual’s peculiar vocabulary of words for special levers and knobs such as the “riddling lever” (a mechanism in the stove for shaking free the ash from the the stove’s burning enclosure).

Since returning I have established contact with the Cancer Information and Support Society (also on my Resources page) who are running an interesting seminar later this month and they in turn have put me in contact with a Gawlerist support group that meets twice a month and meets in the city, only a little over a kilometre from my home. I spoke to a woman from this group who had been diagnosed with lung cancer (I think a similar type and stage as my own) in 1992 which was very exciting for me and I am looking forward to the attending the meeting next week.

Sydney CeBIT 2007

I have for many years enjoyed visiting the big computer fairs held annually at the Sydney Exhibition Centre and yesterday I visited this year’s CeBIT fair.

It can be a mixed experience of mind numbing arrays of esoteric hardware and bizarre attempts of software entrepreneurs who have attempted to devise new ways of convincing people to part with large sums of money, but overall visiting these tech fairs s something I love to do. Often there can be a sense of the latest fad or innovation to hit the IT sector. For example, for several years now VOIP has been on the advance.

Also on the advance at these shows has been greater visibility for open source software and there was a small special section at this year’s show specifically identified to showcase open source. It was here that I found my personal highlight for this year’s show.