Last few days in Brisbane – for now

We’re now just a few hours from heading back to Brisbane Airport to fly back to Melbourne.

The last few days have been very much the same as previous. We’ve had some fantastic blue sky weather with some more windy days. Today is a bit cooler which will help us acclimatize for the Melbourne chill.

We’ve had a bit of luck in that we managed to sell our Hookah via the Gumtree ad. The buyer was only a couple of minutes away which meant we didn’t have enough time to check it out. I warned the buyer of this and that it might be hard to start as we’ve not used it since this time last year. As it turned out it started first time. It’s never done that cold before.

We’ve also done something that we’ve not done in three years. Helen has cut my hair. I had been thinking about my return to work and that I had to get my hair cut for that. I didn’t want to have a white pasty head so I wanted to get my hair cut short while we’re still in the sun. Helen also pointed out that the radiotherapy could result in my hair falling out and that it would be far better if my hair was short for that. It didn’t drop out during chemo but it did go a bit funny and I was getting fed up with blowing around. For a brief moment I felt sadly nostalgic as the long hair was totally associated with our boating life. But getting my hair cut is about preparing and fighting for the future. I felt quite positive. We have some before and after pics which I’ll post from Melbourne.

Last night we joined Pam and John from Passages for the last time – perhaps. They’re flying off to the Far East at the end of this month and we may not be back before they depart. We were all keen on having a light evening but you can guess where this is going. We started off on their boat for some wine. Next we went to the marina club house for burgers and beer. Back on Dignity was had a bit more wine and then polished off the brandy. Well – it’s our last night so it’s ok isn’t it?

Trish has offered to take us to the airport tonight which will be nice.

Tomorrow we’re visiting the radiology consultant and Prof Opat the haematology consultant again. I have put quite a few more hours into my research and learned a lot since last week. I’m practically certain the radiotherapy is the right thing to do especially as they’re talking about using the reduced dose therapy. I’ve found the study online and the results were good. The reduced dose has no negative effect on outcome and the side effects are practically non-existent. The overall survival rate (ie. most of them have) is the best I’ve seen for my condition. Very encouraging.

I have continued to feel well and needing only normal hours sleep. I’m still a bit offset to Helen getting sleepy hours after her and her waking first. I really have no idea how the next rounds of treatment will affect my wellbeing. A lot of the information I have found about the radiotherapy talks more about the hardship of the preceding chemo. I’ve come through that pretty well so maybe this next phase won’t be too hard. We’ll know more soon.