Aboard Dignity (Lagoon 420) Blog

No blogs since the hospital. Sorry. But forgive us, we’ve been living life.

The last moments at hospital were incredibly emotional. Minutes after writing my last blog I had my tubes pulled out and we were told we could go. I couldn’t leave straight away as the dam broke on my emotions and I just bawled my eyes out. I cannot begin to describe how I felt but intellectually I knew I had passed one immense milestone and now had a new battle ahead. I was overjoyed, exhausted, thankful, fearful, proud and high. And everything else.

Helen helped. I enjoyed the hug.

We arrived ‘home’ in time for the BBQ prepared by our family. The place was full of their friends who were all a delight to be with. Bugger just coming out of chemo, I was ready for the evening (and early morning). In hindsight I know I was being supported by the dexamethasone but I had all the other crap running in me so I think I did pretty good.

On Saturday we all went out to the park to play with Patrick the dog (who’s now gone back to being a guide dog) and throw ball/frisby. For the first time in ages I was actually ‘running’ around which is a huge improvement. I still feel incredibly lanky as the strength in my legs has more recovery to come and the nerves in my lower body are still reeling from the Vincristine administered during the first 5 rounds of chemo. It’s more improvement though so I’ve just got to keep going.

After the park we dropped Chris off for a return visit to his old martial arts instructor. Very interesting watching him for a while. Afterwards I managed to geek the rest of the family into hunting down a geocache in the park next to the hall where Chris was training.

On Sunday Helen and I drove into Melbourne to visit the Royal Botanic Gardens. By pure luck it turned out that a Corpse Flower had recently opened after seven years so we had a chance to see it before it closed. Fortunately it didn’t stink.

We had a nice random walk through the park while I played with my Nexus 4. One thing I did was to record a track of of where we went. I have since applied that track to the photos we took with the camera so they are now all ‘geotagged’, ie, the photos have data embedded in them to show where they were taken. The pics from the Nexus 4 get this by default but it’s nice to have the better image optics of the camera coupled with the position recording.

Just for experimentation here are the same pics in Google Maps and Google Earth (if you have it). No idea how it’s going to come out.

After the park we met up with the family in China Town where we bought them Dim Sum for lunch at the Crystal Jade restaurant. It was a new experience for most of the family. We ate a lot and it was delicious.

After lunch we headed over to Fitzroy Gardens where we viewed the conservatory, Cook’s cottage (that had been dismantled in England and rebuilt piece by piece here in Melbourne) finally stopping for coffee before returning home. We’re now thoroughly in the modern world as we used our Nexus 4s to get us back to the car and then home without incident.

On Monday we were understandable pooped so Helen and I rested for most of the day (physically) while mentally got stuck into more planning for the near future. We’re now reasonably sure we have time to squeeze in Sydney and Hong Kong on the way to visit my side of the family in South Africa. It’s amazing how much time you can spend researching places to go.

We celebrated New Year in in style with the family at friends of their in a spacious apartment overlooking the river in Melbourne. Russ drove us all to the nearby station where we caught the train into Melbourne (free for the evening) and walked to the apartment. There we met many of the folks from the family BBQ as well as new people. Great company again. We watched the New Year in from the apartment gardens four stories up. The fireworks were impressive, all along the river. We had a clear line of site onto one launch site and the rest we could see over the buildings. It was fantastic.

We managed to get back before 3am but not long before. We elected not to stay up.

First day of the New Year has been one of recovery and lot’s more planning. We’re still not finished. We hope have everything worked out by the 3rd as Sam is due to fly in then and we hope to spend time with him, not our computers.

We had a very pleasant Xmas day spending most of it with the family. We had breakfast followed by pressy opening. I absolutely refused to let Helen pack my present (my phone) so I had nothing to open from Helen. I didn’t mind. Of course, most of the pressies were for the kids but the adults did exchange a few. Russ and Sarah gave us Australia Open tickets for just before we’re due to leave Australia – a huge and very pleasant surprise.

We simply had to have a high octane game of charades – a very traditional activity – which was great fun.

On Boxing Day the treat was going to see The Hobbit. I had heard mixed reviews about it but it surpassed all my expectations. The Hobbit is a children’s book really and it could have been tempting to do a Star Wars Episode 1 on it and filled it with childlessness and Ja Ja Binks characters. This temptation was sensibly avoided with most of the movie on par with The Lord of The Rings. So well done Director and Writers. And all the rest involved. I suspect Peter Jackson held on until he got his own way.

Today the second Nexus 4 phone arrived. Now Helen is enjoying the fun, although for some reason, not quite as much as me.

We spent the morning playing with each other, so to speak, until we learned from the hospital that I was due in at 3pm. We decided to go out, buy a couple more cardboard packing boxes, a SIM for Helen’s phone and, for the first time in a number of years, try out a couple of geocaches. Poor old Helen, she’s getting her geek back full on. We found one and were deterred from seeking a second by a bunch of muggles.

I have to say I’ve deliberately dropped tools on the future planning, paying bills and chasing people for the last few days. I’ve been relishing in digital therapy. I think I needed it.

So here I am back in Monash Medical Center for perhaps my very last visit. Helen’s back ‘home’ and I’m listening to a few songs I downloaded onto my mistress. I’ve had had one blast of chemo already but I feel quite cheerful, although writing about this being my last session is making me feel a bit emotional again. This time they want to make the rounds 24 hours apart as it is better for me. They were 12 hours apart last time. Maybe they’ve adjusted things from the feedback I gave last time. They did point out that I am receiving very strong doses and that a second session 12 hours after the first may not be best for me. I get to talk to the consultant in charge tomorrow morning and will raise this then. His call is final but it would be nice to get back tomorrow evening. On this schedule it’s unlikely.

Boy. I can hardly believe that tomorrow primary treatment will be done. Done. DONE. It is ironic that as I type this Chris Rea is singing The Road to Hell. Almost appropriate as I’ve been on the Road Through Hell and am so close to the end. With my tongue improving I can even taste it.

But not on my own either. I’ve walked hand in hand with Helen who’s been at my side all the time. And just beside us have been Helen’s cousin and her family. I can genuinely say I love them all.

In a circle around them are those that have worked so hard to bring me back to life, helped us delivering the boat, with cars, rides, help on the boat, company, hugs when they were needed, hugs when they weren’t, messages, thoughts and prayers.

2012 has been a horrible year but we’ve been blessed to see some of the best of humanity.