Aboard Dignity (Lagoon 420) Blog

One thing I forgot to mention last blog as it was late news for us too. The Prof had noticed declining white blood cell counts and ordered a bone marrow exam. This I had, had, had, had yesterday. I repeat this for ‘good’ reason. The first person to try failed on her very painful first go. She had a second go promising to get a doctor if she failed a second time. Rather than following her second failure by getting someone more competent she had a third go and failed that too. Each time I was having anesthesia injected in the skin and bone which was very painful. Third time unlucky she finally gave up and fetched the registrar who did a much better job in terms of less pain and successful biopsy. We were then told to rest and wait 30 mins and someone would come and see us. 45 minutes later Helen went off looking for someone and eventually found someone to superficially check on us and send us on our way. I complained in writing today as this is not the treatment we’d expect at a private hospital. Far worse than the same operation I had in Australia which was painless and quick.

Today, although feeling I’ve been run over by a bus we did go out to see a house in Chesham.

http://zoop.la/13Da7gk

It was really nice but a little too big for the two of us and certainly too big if Helen has to stay somewhere on her own.

The pace has certainly gone out of our house hunt but deep down we both want somewhere to really call our own. That bungalow we first saw in Chesham is still on the market.

http://zoop.la/ZQWCrT

We may back and see that a second time. Lovely house but not the ideal location. We’re not caring so much about the latter at the moment.

Thanks to everyone for all your great messages of support. Helen and I were both upset to hear the news of relapse but had expected it. In a lot of ways we feel better knowing the ball is rolling. Results from the brain biopsy analysis, skin specialist and hip biopsy, biopsy, biopsy, biopsy should be in soon and we’ll hopefully be in a position to start treatment soon.

On Saturday we had a house viewing in Chesham. Originally we had wanted to see a different house but the estate agent persuaded Helen to add this one as it was on the same street we use to live when we were in Chesham. This had all been set up for Thursday but was trumped when I got the skin specialist appointment. Come Saturday, the house we wanted to see was vacant without a spare set of keys but the add on was viewable. So off we went to see a house that was certain to be too large and almost certain to be at the limit of our price range.

We decided to walk the mile or so into town. We viewed the property and, as nice as it was, it was way too big.

http://zoop.la/113bVuS

We took the long way back around the park lake before separating when Helen wanted to go shopping. I welcomed the break as I was getting tired and needed to go at my own pace for a bit.

On Sunday Helen’s sister Betty and her partner Paul invited us out for a walk and a pub lunch in the Tring area. As this is an area on our list and yet to visit we agreed. The walk was around an old chalk quarry since allowed to fill and become a bird sanctuary. It is now called College Lake. We walked around the artificial lake although I needed a couple of rests in some of the many birds hides dotted around the lake. When we’d finished we headed of for lunch at the imaginatively named Red Lion pub nearby. I had a pint with my lunch and as expected it finished me off for the afternoon.

Back I had a snooze before watching the Monaco Grand Prix which, probably for contractual reasons, was shown on the BBC several hours after the race actually started. Pat on the back for Nico Rosberg who won the race in the town he grew up in and his father won 30 years earlier.