Brief Weekend Update – 21.2.16

“If Carlsberg did Weekends…………..”

Saturday mornings are usually shopping day in the Clark household. Carol runs Max down to his job at Explore Learning & then does the weekly food shop. Whilst she was making the list last night it got me thinking as to how people on a limited budget manage to cope with the extra costs of trying to maintain a high quality diet, & to sound like a total snob, are some folk able to cook properly a balanced diet without reverting to tins & packets which are full of the crap they should be avoiding whilst under treatment? As an aside, we haven’t used packet or tinned sauces now for pushing two years due to health reasons in the family. Whilst it may take a bit longer when cooking, the results are worth it. I know exactly what goes into what I cook, so if it’s bad for us I can only blame myself. It also isn't always more costly to cook from scratch, just needs a bit of planning. I’m lucky, I’m still being paid by my employers, but I know a lot of folks who If they don’t work they won’t get paid. I’m now necking full fat milk like it’s going out of fashion, not cheap. Ditto for full fat cream which goes into most dishes. Fresh fish is probably my staple main meal now, again it isn’t cheap stuff. I guess one area we are making savings is that Carol now manages to make a bottle of red last 3 or 4 days & a white wine box in the fridge is in danger of passing it “Best By” date! I hope (& presume??) there is some help available for folk who are on restricted incomes from the Govt. or is it provided by charities such as McMillan? I know that once I’m back on my feet I intend to look at anyways I can support the RBH Cancer Unit, I’m sure everyone says that when they’re going through treatment but I will follow it through. They only need another £66k to get a forth machine, so if anyone is feeling flush…………..

A half decent nights sleep, up at 4am & then again at 7.45am, so feeling quite awake this morning. I spent half an hour or so going through all the Meds in my office ahead of the final Consultants meeting on Monday. She’ll be wanting to top me up for around a month I guess. The amount of money being spent on drugs for me at the moment is ludicrous, it was running at around £250 p/wk last I asked, probably higher now.

As I was feeling pretty chipper I decided to go to OBR to watch the Centaurs play, no photo’s as it was chucking it down, but a good game to watch with Big Pete for the usual excellent company. I was buoyed somewhat by the tweets coming out of Cornwall where Rams had a convincing BP win, no Morphine required whilst that sort of good news is flowing through the veins.

Errant son was out this evening at the latest squeezes so it was just Carol & I for dinner. Fresh pasta stuffed with mushrooms, beautiful cod loin & a lovely tomato based sauce for her, same for me sans the sauce. An evening of decent food, good company & chilling watching Argo (worth watching). It was just like a normal Saturday night, pre-cancer, apart from I’m stone cold sober. Even the cat got in on the action by finishing off my tub of custard for me, stupid animal 

 Now, anyone want to swap some Morphine for a few blue pills……………..

6am start for Sunday, not too bad as I’d a few things to do before tripping up to OBR for the Colts match against Windsor. It was good to see the lads get back to winning ways after a few defeats. 27-10 against a decent Windsor side. Max got a brace, well one was the biggest knock on I’ve seen for ages, but the ref gave it J 

Not the best photo I’ve taken, but you can’t tell me that was grounded! His other was a classic Bloomfield patented Colts “Catch & Drive”. Espley taking middle ball cleanly, rolling maul & Max at the bottom of the pile. Lots of smiling faces on & off the pitch today, thanks to Cookie for taking the pic of Max & I together. 

 As the weather was fairly decent for a Sunday I took the chance to take some shots too, they’ve here if anyone wants to view them - https://www.facebook.com/Paul-Clark-Photography-1619542031665742/

Our first Sunday roast for a while this evening, this getting back to normality lark could catch on in the next few weeks. Lazy evening watching Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid, good clean fun. 

I’ve mixed feelings about the coming week. Part of me will miss the routine of going daily to the RBH for treatment when it finishes on Friday. I will also miss the daily interaction with the staff and other patients, no longer are we just folk who happen to being treated for Cancer at the same time, we’re also friends. It helps having a structure to the day. I’ve a feeling that when the treatment is over I’m going to have to make sure I’ve got things to do & not wallow in self-pity as I’ve been accused of by someone who I thought was a friend (Water, duck, back!) I know I’ll feel really ill for the first week or so after treatment whilst my body gets used to not being injected with poison or zapped by the RT, but I really want to keep as active as I can. Stagnating into a sofa whale is not going to happen.  We’re planning on tiling the bathroom floor, so maybe that would be a good project to undertake. Do it slowly, at my own pace & do it properly.

The first “Dishing out Champers” tomorrow to Jo & Scary Surgeon, hopefully they’ll pose for a couple of pics for me too, if not I’ll nick them off the web!

Now to finish the week I defy you not to watch this video with a smile on your face –  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4QSYx4wVQg

Thanks for reading.

To be continued……..

#shouldertoshoulder