5 days in a row!

Have now been out of the house for 5 days in a row....a new world record.

We picked the car up yesterday and it is fantastic!

Julia and I went out for lunch today with John Fryatt who is in the UK for a short visit.

I have a GP appointment tomorrow so this going out business may just become the normal state of affairs!!

Pain mostly gone....appetite coming back!

What a difference a few days makes. The new painkillers are doing a great job in, well killing the pain!!! I have realised that for the last 2 months at best the drugs had been taking the edge of the pain - the current drugs and dosage actually makes the pain go away!
I have also stopped vomitting and can actually feel some of my appetite returning!

We went out for a Chinese meal on Saturday evening, watched Al's team play footabll on Sunday (they lost a close game 2-1) and I drove over to Jeff and Paulines for a coffee this morning....meaning I've left the house for 3 days in a row - a record for the last fews months!

Whilst I still feel far from packed with energy - and the painkillers do make me drowsy - I am feeling pretty positive at the moment....long may that last.

We pick up the new car tomorrow - I know Julia is looking forward to this very much.

Progress on the drugs....still waiting for the car!

Finally some significant progress with getting the drugs sorted. Been taking Morphine Sulphate solution this week and settled on a specific dose to take the pain away. Spoke to the GP this morning and have used this dose to prescribe slow release tablets that will allow for the correct level to be delivered via 12 hourly tablets. Amusingly enough the tablets of choice are MST 100 tables produced by NAPP and tested by me in my first job out of Uni (although hopefully not this batch!).

Had a bit of a nightmare with the car. Julia spoke to the garage and thought she agreed to pick up on Tuesday - only to find the guy was agreeing we could look at the car on Tuesday. This would not have been a real problem had we not already arranged to cancel the insurance on the Megane after the Tuesday. Subsequently we have had to take out a short-term policy to cover the time before we eventually pick the motor up next Tuesday.

I have to admit that I have not actually made it out of the house for more than a week now - I can see how incredibily easy it is for people to become institutionalised. Since I still have absolutely no appetite (or desire to eat any food) it is a very slow process to rebuild my energy levels. Will definately make more effort to get out this next week. Hopefully Alex will have a match survive the weather on Sunday this week.

Better drugs.....new car!

Been to seen the oncologist today. Progress is slow in terms of recovery and the back pain remains pretty constant. Dr Elvis prescribed me some Morphine Sulphate solution which should improve the situation. He is also going to refer me to an NHS Palliative Care Consultant to begin to take over my care moving forward. To be honest this is a bit of a relief because we are wary of falling in between the Private medical cover (which does not provide Palliative care!) and the NHS - this will remove all issues related to that and allow a more all-in approach to future care - especially pain relief which has been a bit hit and miss.

We've been checking out new cars in the last few weeks (since I am effectively not driving at the moment and both cars need services/tax). Today Julia has been in and test driven and ordered a brand new Peugeot 4007 (their Sports Utility vehicle 4x4 thingy). Whilst Peugeot would not be my preferred manufacturer the car is extremely well equipped, gets pretty good reviews and was at an amazing price! Especially given they have part exchanged both of our existing cars at pretty good rates. I was stunned to see the deal they did....times must be hard for car dealers!! (Shame!). Should be here at the weekend or early next week. I think this is the first new car that Julia has ever chosen herself!

Jo and Pradeep dropped in yesterday during their UK travels....great to see you guys!

Still snowing!

Improvement is slow but I think I am starting to feel slightly better as time goes by. Definately have good and bad days, and still along way from feeling good but moving forward is good!

Unlike the summer it has not really been much of a challenge to remain housebound over the last couple of weeks since the weather has been extremely bad. The road outside the house is white-over again and could be challenging for our plans to go ten-pin bowling today. School was shut for Tuesday and Wednesday this week and an interesting drive for Julia when it was open on Thursday and Friday.

Vombieville

Sorry for the lack of posts but to be honest I've hardly moved off the sofa (other than to go to bed) for the last couple of weeks.

Physically my eating is much better (i.e. I can eat a range of soft foods without problem) however I have very little appetite and eating anything seems a chore (I call it the Zombie-plan diet!). So this is not really helping in building my energy levels back up again.

Improvements seem extremely slow and as I feared I was not up to attending Diane's wedding or the Peterborough game against Spurs - althougth the boys did go with Grandad! (Posh lost 4-0 for those who are interested).

I spoke to the GP last week and got some different pain killers for my back pain - which has now settled in my right shoulder-blade - I suspect these are helping with the Zombification process - although strangely enough they don't help much with the painkilling. I will speak to the Doc again this week.

Many thanks for all your messages and thoughts - sorry I'm not very good at responding.....even the iPhone doesn't have an app for unconsious email delivery!

Happy New Year to you all!