Peter's Hospital Diary

I started back at work yesterday with a drive up to Corsham, and then drove back again for an early train trip to London, for both a haematology check up and a lung function test.

There was a small problem in that the appointment was on the hospital system, however the clinic wasn’t that busy, so I was soon in to have the customary armful of blood removed and in to see Dr Raj. They remain very pleased with my progress, and my next check up is now scheduled for 4 months! It would have been a longer interval still, but for the fact that I am still having the ECP, and while that is treating the skin and ffasciitis, it can occasionally cause a flare up of GvHd in other areas. I was also reminded that the chemo can predispose me towards other cancers, particular skin cancers, so I should be aware of that. (But in perspective, if it doubles the risk, then it doubles it from one in a very large number to 1 in a not such a large number. I also saw my favourite dietitian, Rachel, who noted that my weight is now just over 11Stone (70 Kg) and the strength of my grip is almost back to normal!

The lung function test was unremarkable, and the results looked good, although I didn’t have the comparison with previous tests to see what the trend is.

After leaving Guy’s I went back to Westminster for a meeting, and then travelled home – and I am now back in Corsham.

So a good day – and it seems that progress continues – Onwards and Upwards!

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We are now back in UK – seems hard to believe that it is over a week since I last posted!

The weekend in France proved a little damp, but by Monday the weather improved and we went on a trip to Perigeaux. We have been there before with Mark, but only as far as the Brico-Depot (French version of B&Q – even down to the store colours, so I suspect it is the same group ownership – Kingfisher?) but this time we travelled on to the town centre, a view is shown here.

We missed the initial turning but eventually found ourselves round in the older part of town by the museum.

Perigeaux has a Roman past, and one of the larger remaining buildings is a temple. The museum itself was closed, but we had a wander around the town, and eventually stopped for lunch at one of the pavement restaurants. The sun shone, the beer was cold, and we relaxed for a pleasant hour or two before having a walk round the town.

The streets round the town centre are largely residential, and very pleasant to walk round – we saw this fountain in the middle of a large square, and then walking down the road came across this remarkable station building – very grand!
We were amused to see this faded advertisement on one of the walls – a memory of times past when Gauloises were de rigeur – although we noted that the French have not embraced an anti-smoking culture as fervently as the UK!

Finally we set off for the house – where the pool waited invitingly!

Tuesday was another glorious day, and after a little bit of shopping for things to bring back, was spent at the pool side before starting to pack and the house closing up routine.

We were up early on Wednesday morning to complete the closing up, and left at 8:15 for the tip up to Caen for the ferry back. We stooped for a picnic at one of the toll road rest areas, and arrived at Caen in comfortable time, although we decided not to bother stopping off at the big Carrefour Supermarche just outside Caen.

The final highlight of the trip was dinner in the a la carte restaurant on the ferry, which represented excellent value for money for a really good meal that made a perfect end to the holiday – and passed a good three of the six hour crossing! We arrived 15 minutes early at Portsmouth, at 21:15 – 45 minutes later we were unpacking the car at home. A great ten days!

Of course life doesn’t stand still while away, so the last couple of days have been spent catching up, and I will be travelling back to Corsham tomorrow evening to start back at work, refreshed, on Monday!

Onwards and upwards

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And it is pleuting as I type, in fact this afternoon we have had a little lightning and quite a lot of thunder! However yesterday, although starting off a little overcast soon brightened up into a glorious warm afternoon, I started off mowing the lawn on the ‘big boys toy’ and while I was completing that the sun came out, the skies cleared and the pool, now an inviting 26C was used in between sessions of topping up the sun tan, refilling the wine glass and eating a few nibbles on the patio – absolutely idyllic!
We finished the afternoon off with dinner out on the patio until the temperature dropped just before sunset, when we retired indoors in front of the woodburner. Just what was required!

However the forecast for tomorrow and the next couple of days are not so good with mixed cloud and rain, so I think it is probably time to shut down the pool heating as I expect we will be out and about rather than sitting in the garden.
I have added a couple of photos from the Domme visit on Wednesday.
Onwards and upwards!

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We had a very pleasant crossing on the fast catamaran on Sunday, the channel almost like a millpond, and warm sunshine, which followed us all the way down to the northern tip of the Dordogne, just south of Limoges. We arrived just in time to see a spectacular sunset, as we opened up the house and sorted ourselves out.

Monday was a little overcast, but we started getting the pool ready (it needed a bit of a clean) and some shopping – the prices are a bit of a shock, given the weakness of the pound, although in terms of euros, not a lot higher than when we were here 18 months ago.
Yesterday started off very damp, with some showers, but the sun came out in the afternoon, and the pool looked very inviting, although not quite warm enough.
The clear skies lead to a cool evening – just the encouragement we needed to light the fire!

And today was still looking a bit overcast, so we headed south to the medieval city of Domme, perched high in the hills overlooking the Dordogne itself. The sun came out during the journey, and we arrived in warm summer temperatures – just right for sitting outside a brasserie for lunch! That was followed by a stroll round the town, with its spectacular views, and a trip to the caves in the hill that supports the town.

The forecast tomorrow and Friday is for better weather, and the pool should be up to temperature – but regardless of the weather, its just great to be having a break! Thanks again to Sue and Mark!

Onwards and Upwards!

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almost! Most of the packing is done ready for an early start tomorrow to get the 7:00 ferry to France! I am so looking forward to it – and a big thank-you to Sue and Mark for the loan of the house!

Not much else to add really (although buying Euros this morning was a bit of a shock!) – it has been an uneventful week, but I really feel ready for the break!

Onwards and upwards!

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A busy weekend with some long awaited jobs completed! A leaking towel rail in the bathroom has been replaced (this started leaking about 6 months ago, and has been isolated, but yesterday I finally got round to removing it and replacing it with a new one. And also on the heating theme (in time for autumn, I replaced a motorised valve that may not have been seating properly. I’m not quite convinced – the symptom was hot water from the domestic hot water heat exchanger was flowing back into the heating system, and the only way I could see that could happen was if the valve was faulty – time will tell!

Today I replaced a blown lamp on the car foglamps (again in preparation for autumn) after getting the wheel stud freed by the tyre fitters so I could remove the wheel to get access to the back of the front buper. This afternoon I was playing wit the server – trying to get the operating system back to a consistent state. (You may recall that when I did a major update, it updated some of the files, but not all, so I have a sort of ‘hybrid’ system!) I did succeed in getting the install disc to boot from a compact flash card (the server does not have a CD/DVD drive) but the only options presented were to do a full install, not an upgrade, which would have meant a lot of work restoring the coinfiguration and backups, so I will leave it for the moment until I can spend some time to back it all up and then start again with a clean installation.

Olivia stayed last night – so it was an early start when she woke at 6 o’clock and came padding in to climb into “the big bed” where she promptly fell asleep for another 2 hours! Quite the toddler now!

So on all fronts… Onwards and upwards!

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From the window in the dermatology day centre on the 12th floor at St Thomas’s where I am 20 minutes from finishing this session of ECP! The machine is humming as the little lymphocytes are being exposed to UV radiation to activate the drug!

Some of the little jobs from last week are complete – the replacement components for the shower pump control board arrived and have been fitted, and a replacement central heating valve has arrived, so that should go in at the weekend too.

I must try and get the car to the tyre fitters and get that wheel nut slackened off, then at least if I have a problem I can fix it, rather than wait for Green Flag!

We are off to France for a break next weekend (thank you Sue & Mark!) and I am looking forward to seeing all the changes since we were last there – eighteen months ago! Hard to believe where the time has gone – it has been quite an eventful time! However I will be taking the laptop, so I may be able to add some photos!

So… Onwards and Upwards!

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Not in its entirety, but for late August it was pretty chilly! However it was an opportunity to catch up on some of the little jobs that have been accumulating – the first off being a recent fault on a shower pump, that keeps cutting in and out. I suspect it is a control board, so I have ordered the replacement parts to fix for next week. Next off was the central heating, where there is a sticky control valve. I freed it up, but it still isn’t working correctly, so a new one is (or soon will be) on order.

My car also came in for some attention, a wash and I wanted to replace a foglamp – which means removing a wheel and the wheelarch liner – but I couldn’t get the wheel off, so that will have to wait until I replace the front tyres, and I shall tighten the wheel nuts by hand.

Finally I intended updating the software on the webserver (and in fact it was down for a large part of yesterday) but the new server doesn’t have an optical disk drive, so upgrades will be from a USB type device (actually a Compact Flash memory device that is treated as a hard drive) but that took ages to prepare – so that didn’t get done either!

However, there was a bit of socialising – out with friends Marion and Martin on Friday, to a new Indian restaurant in the village (very tasty too – thank you) and on Sunday I was out with fellow blogmaster Mark for a pint and some chilli nachos – and from that you may gather that my sore mouth is getting better!

Today is also the first day of a contract extension, so more good news, and on Thursday and Friday I shall be having my next session of ECP! And I jumped on the scales on Saturday – just over the 11 stone mark!

So in all ways… Onwards and Upwards!

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