Yesterday another visit to Haematology Day Unit, Floor 4, Southwark Wing, Guys Hospital. I had held onto a small but beautifully shaped thought that maybe the haemo lab. made some mistake last week. But no. Blood counts still dropping and confirmation that treatment will start on July 30th. So 10 days or so to chill (!) get myself organised and potter twixt garden and studio. And hopefully share a mug of tea or two with some of you. Monday 23rd I am having a MUGA scan - injection of radiation (mmm, nice) and then lots of wires stuck all over me to monitor my heart - to check it is strong enough to cope with ensuing onslaught. It better be. And some. Think my chemo regime will be something called FLAGIDA (for those medical people out there) - which is a combination of chemos including the foul cytarabin that I had to cope with last time (had a bad reaction - but they insist I will be monitored closely). Horrible bag of short term and long term side-effects. Hey ho. 5 days of chemo and if my body handles it, I will be allowed home after a week or so to recover. If I get sick, wam bam, straight back into hospital. How familiar all this sounds... Second round of chemo will take place early September. As above. Then, providing I am in remission I move on over to Kings and the bone marrow transplant mid to later October. More of which later. One day at a time (sweet jesus!). Needless to say, I feel wide eyed, stunned and almost speechless (almost, note!) with this new lot of information to absorb. I find myself wandering around the house doing a lot of loud puffing - and quite a bit of swearing. Short relief. Lilly keeping a low profile.
On a brighter note, I have just had notification that I have had work accepted for both BITE and RE-Open (london based printmaking exhibitions, one at Mall Galleries and one at The Bankside Gallery). Very pleased about this. A good result amongst all this mayhem. Forest Hill is steely grey - while I have had a report of hot x hot in Venice this morning. Thanks everyone for blog comments and emails. Great to hear from you. Catch you all later. tch
10 comments:
Is it wrong that I am enjoying your blog?! Just struggled through Hilary Mantel's 2nd book on T Cromwell (loved the first; the 2nd felt like being cornered into viewing someones geneology chart...as they smack their children for interfering in the geneology lesson). At the same time I was reading D Copeland's The Gum Thief with one eye (he never requires full brain power - it's literature that doesn't presume to be more demanding than tele). Your blog is light, compelling (I held my breath when you wrote, "maybe they mixed up my test results"), and informative. It's horrible that I enjoy it!
Looking forward to seeing you sometime before the 30th. Have a good weekend, lots of love x
Hi T
Glad you had a lovely time in Venice, sounded very relaxing and just what you needed. Well done on the prints being accepted - a glimmer of good luck or more likely hard work paying off. See you soon. x
Spaghetti a la Flagida monitored with a nice Primitivo I hope. Martin Ashley and I are going out Monday to talk about LCP and ancient history. I want to write down all the courses we can think of with staff and noteable students lest we forget we actually have history. A bit like a family tree. You are welcome to come to Whitstable for a visit pre or post Flagida. It's the Oyster weekend here at the moment. Loads of food! Venison burgers, hog roast, seafood, fudge, paella in a massive dish: http://www.whitstableoysterfestival.com/ People were drinking Champers in the rain at 10am this morning. Wish I had the nerve to walk around the harbour blitzed eating a venison sausage.
test 2
Dear Tessa,
had to Google translate it on Serbian,it didn't make sense...then back to English,still made no sense.
See you for the bbq tomorrow:) Sanja xxx
Your writing is wonderful Tessa! Makes me feel as if I am there with you. So glad you had a good weekend in Venice. Great pictures of you and Luigi. All the best from Cleveland. I am thinking about you so much!
ha ha 3rd attempt.
great to talk to you today.
Big hug.
Jake xxxx
bit more nonsense learning how to use this blog stuff
love Jake xx
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