When I get older.... loosing my hair..... many(?) years from now.....Will you still be sending me a valentine............Birthday greetings bottle of wine?......

F*#K Multiple Myeloma T-Shirt

I've been sitting here with an empty blog space for a couple of days now.... Over the weekend I stumbled across another blogger and started to read his experience. The reason I started to read was because he was young and started on the same drug therapy as me. So I thought it would be good to compare notes... anyway, after starting at the beginning of his journey and reading on, his journey became more complicated. His stem cell transplant was unsuccessful and the cancer came back aggressively and more vigorously than before. So the next step for him was stem cell donor - they found a complete match from his older brother and he went through the same process (albeit a little more painful than the first time) only to be told that it was rejected once again - he was also suffering with shingles, infections and graft vs host disease. His prognosis is 12 months..... The guy is amazing and has maintained strength and a sense of humour throughout. But no matter how you look at it... it's a scary thought. Another reality check I guess.

And YESSSSS I know... it's just one person and there are so many other successful stories, I know all that, you don't have to tell me. It just caught me off guard, I thought I was about to read about a similar story to my own, and be able to gain some insight into the stem cell therapy and his experience through it all. He's an amazing inspiration and I'll be following his blog now, as his journey continues. For anyone interested here it is Sean's Blog

Other than my reading, our weekend was delightful. Friday night was pizza night - yum - and a quiet night watching the telly. Saturday we got to lie in until about 11am !!I started cycle4 of my chemo, then we made hot cross buns - which were absolutely delicious (yes in the Thermomix too) and more TV shows and relaxing. Saturday evening we went over to friends place for a delicious dinner. Unfortunately for Dirk it was a fantastic piece of salmon.... excellent for all of us that eat fish !! Dirk doesn't eat seafood... oops (sorry Jane, he didn't want to say anything !!) He ate half of it, and all of the salad and veg, and actually said it wasn't that bad, but I think it was a little bit of a struggle for him. Luckily the company and the conversation were fantastic so it didn't matter. And then there was dessert and choccies <drrooollll> !! Back home at midnight to swallow some more pills (Thalidomide) and off to bed. (sleep came later)

Sunday was similar to Saturday - except Dirk did a lot more than I did. He washed the cars, cleaned the back deck, we washed the pups and I did the washing. Had some Thai take-away and watched more TV.

Sleep has been a bit hit and miss again recently. Late nights and then finding it hard to wake up at 7am for work. Most of the time, Dirk attempt once or twice to wake me, but if he doesn't get a response, just leaves me to sleep. Which is ok most of the time, except I have some early morning meetings on some days and have been late a couple of times. This isn't a good thing as I hate it when people are late for my meetings, so I can't now be doing the same thing. I either have to get Dirk to whack me out of bed or change my meeting times.... but the latter could be hard as some of the earlier meetings are with other regions so are planned around their time zones.... looks like the whacking scenario is the only way to go - I can hear Dirk cheering at that  opportunity !!

Looking back at the blog I was reading over the weekend, it's got me thinking about why I was drawn to it.... my friend at work pointed out that maybe there was a reason I read the blog. I think there was / is. And I think I need to stop procrastinating over what I am going to do and start acting on these things.... like my diet options. I haven't really changed too much yet, I've been thinking about it, but haven't done anything. If I am going to beat this disease, I need to give my body every available chance. I need to eat the right foods, boost my immunity and get serious about putting the right things into me. So this is my new focus. Good energy and immune boosting foods and supplements. Another thing that I realised after reading Sean's blog, was that this is serious.... it's not going to go away.... as yet there isn't a cure. It was a wake up call to me. I need to face this head on and think about my future - my long term future !! So that's what I intend to do.

I'm off to the shops now... time to stock up on a few things. I'm not going to go full on into it, as knowing me I'll fall off the health nut wagon in about 3 days !! But I'm going to start introducing healthier options and think about what I'm eating and drinking from now on. Start thinking before reaching for the high sugar biscuits and cakes and decide if this is going to feed cancer or attack it..... watch this space......