Suddenly the world seems such a perfect place.......Suddenly it moves with such a perfect grace......Suddenly my life doesn't seem such a waste

So I've realised that amongst all of my self centred obsession, I've been neglecting my duties as a friend lately. I've failed to catch up with people and call them to see how they are doing.... my bad. So how are you all :-) ? - <joke> my intention is to be a better friend and get back to normal. Expect a phone call very soon. If you don't get one and you want one, let me know !! For those of us that use Facebook, it's so easy to stay on top of what's happening with everyone. All you do is click on their name and stalk their updates to gain insight into all the news. Check out pictures of parties, birthdays, children, drunkenness (my favourite) etc. and you feel like you were almost there with them. Brilliant !!

Day31..... The Blood Tests

I had another check up and got my blood test results with Dr Ben yesterday. I was prepared with my little pink book full of questions for the month and we went in. The girl on reception is a young Irish girl.... just lovely I'm sure, but we can't understand a bloody word she says !! I think she said something along the lines of "we don't have an appointment for you today" but after some sign language and nodding, we sat down and waited and eventually Dr Ben called us in. Straight to blood test results... brilliant !! Just to explain a little - non-secreatory Multiple Myeloma cannot be detected via the blood and urine so traditionally was hard to detect as it lay within the bone marrow and didn't show in normal type of blood tests. They now have a new test that is run called "serum free light chain" which picks up the protein levels in the blood to detect how things are going.
The normal range that I was being measured on is Kappa: 3.3–19.4 mg/L - my 1st result in Jan was 402mg/l after 10 days of chemo my second result came back at 354mg/L and then yesterday I was down to 175mg/L !! This is great news dropping so quickly. Even quiet Dr Ben appeared slightly happy ! He even smirked (I think - unless he had wind) He also went on to say that I may start the autologous stem cell replacement within a couple of months !(gulp) So I am booked to see another specialist at Royal Perth hospital for mid March to start that process. The other thing that I have to start is an intravenous drug called Zometa this is a sort of calcium booster that helps prevent bone weakness and also assists in slowing down the cancer growth. It can only be given intravenously so off to the hospital next Wednesday morning for this one. I asked him about my shakes and he said they should start to get better as my body becomes more accustomed to the Thalidomide !! Lovely.....

Day 32

Last night Dirk and I had the pleasure of joining our soon-to-be-wed friends for dinner. We went to a fabulous little place on the beach in Fremantle called The Pickled Fig - fabulous food, good bottle of bubbles but the company was the best part of the whole night. I can't say how much I love this couple. Such a pleasure to spend time with. You know when you meet some people and they just lift everything. Always happy, fun to be around and just gorgeous. I am so looking forward to Sunday to see their big day together. I just know its going to be fab. AND Kasey even bought me a gift. from one girl who has just done it all, to another that is about to start..... she bought me a wedding planner !! It is the BEST and I love it.... see what I mean about gorgeous? !!

Day33 - The Pickled Fig, Fremantle

And so today... back to another full on day. I'm a little behind on some work and it just keeps piling up. Now I also have to think about taking time off in a couple of months (for a few months) I'd been planning for around Aug / Sept time. But I guess once I see the stem cell guy from Royal Perth in late March, I'll know a bit more. And also we have a few more cycles of chemo and a fair few more tests before I know anything.
The end of the day was one of Micromine's (in)famous Soiree's - a fabulous event at work and one that I always relish. Open bar, nibbles and an uplifting presentation from our MD. It's always fun and I love the speeches. I might add that they aren't always PC, but they are always honest :-) Today was no exception. Love it. Love that place too.....

So my new day resolution is to be a better friend again. Starting tomorrow :-) Keeping in touch and returning calls. Making sure I take the time to see how they are all going. There'll be plenty of time for me. But I can't neglect them - they are all too special..... VERY special and I love them all..... very much.

Day34 - The Byrneleigh - Micromine Soiree

“Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot..... nothing is going to get better. It's not.” ― Dr. Seuss

Wow..... three days since my last blog post !! and yet it feels just like yesterday ! Where did the weekend go? I think I must have sneezed and missed it. I slept a bit, shopped a little and shook my way through both days..... but not in the disco sense (do people still use the word disco ?? - I'm thinking not !!) I'm still pretty shaky and jittery. Not quite as bad as last week.... I even think that the mood swings are beginning to subside, but I think if you were to ask Dirk the same question he may just have a slightly different answer !! .... and it wouldn't contain the words "less" or "subside". And just as the effects of the Cyclo & Dexa begin to wear off, BANG.... take another dose thank you very much !! But I think that's the whole idea. I'm sure that eventually my body will just return to a relatively normal state of being and all will be forgotten of this stage...... for now it's just shake, rattle and blluurrggghhhh.

I'm pretty sure people have been reading my blog though. Especially my closest friends.... they have stayed well clear of Sylvia (my physco alter ego)  this past week !!! Not a peep from anyone. And who can blame them. Who wants to call and then get their head bitten off? I've really needed the time too. Time to escape from my dark moods without having to talk about it all. The downside is that I haven't been able to get excited about any engagement stuff.... there's been no-one to share it with. The upside being that any time I've been down, all I've had to do is look at my bling and it makes me smile. I've had a lot of work to do too. In between all of the moods and shaking, the only other thing I've been doing is work.

I caught up with my old school pal on Saturday. Great to catch up again..... But what is it with Perth?? I called five restaurants on Saturday to get a table for three people. They were all booked out. They weren't even flashy places, just local eateries that I thought would be good for a relaxed casual meal. So we ended up going to Raffles for tea. Nice..... but ..... $350 !!! for three people??? (all I had was an entree).....REALLY? .....What are we fucking New York? or London? It's PERTH for shits sake !! If you haven't seen this you must watch "Shit Perth People Say" It is spot on the money. Sunday was spent in front of the telly watching Rugby, Cricket (whilst I nana napped), then Series 3 of The Inbetweeners & Team America. Not a bad Sunday all in all. Although I'm not sure my friend flew half way around the world to spend the day watching TV !! Hopefully he'll forgive us this time. An invite has been extended to him for Friday Night Pizza Nite before he flies out, we'll try and be a little more entertaining then.

And so this week's lending itself to becoming another "week from hell" I have two major reports to finish for work, two Dr's appointments, blood tests, and meetings galore. But amongst all of that Dirk and I have our good friends wedding on Sunday (yay sooo can't wait for that) and we even get to catch up with the Bride & Groom for tea on Wednesday evening. I am really looking forward to the weekend. New frock, good friends and a long weekend..... fanTASTic. I should have been in Toronto this weekend and next week, which would have been good, but I think I lucked out not being able to fly this time.

Day29.....(& Day30)