Chemo looses out but not by the book.

 
No Chemo today, but this train is non-stop !!


Today should have been Chemo (IV) day. Not so I'm afraid. My white blood cell count (which they want north of a score of one) was sitting at a naughty 0.5. This has happened before to me. The last three days saw me gasping for energy mid afternoons so I knew my body was taking a whacking. The resolution is, off all Chemotherapy for one week, so both the daily oral and IV of course is now muted. 

Some will say it's good to give the body a rest. With respect, the low blood cell count is my body demanding exactly that. I personally would prefer if the Chemotherapy could continue. The last time this happened to me (six weeks ago), after being off it for a week, when I did get the next infusion, it hammered the living shite out of me. I was a physical and emotional wreck for the 3-4 following days. Not Nice ! But I totally get it and why we must mind that all important blood count as best we can. 

As my white cells are quiet low, I am told this morning that I am now at the highest risk of getting an infection. Any infection I get will result in a definitive few days in hospital as my body won't fight it. It can't as the chemo has killed off my antibodies. To explain, a simple head cold for me would just progress (at speed) to something more sinister. With that in mind, only infection free people can visit me right now.  If you are free but work or live closely with somebody that currently has an infection, that bars you from visiting me too. The latter sounds so cold, clinical and indeed anti-social but I've been told by my medical team to beat that message home on the loudest drum I can find, so my blog here won that prize. Couple that with the fact there is a serious wave of fluey coughs and sneezes traversing the country, it's like playing a real life version of cat and mouse. And yes, you've guessed it, I'm the bloody mouse...  Squeak !!

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 Street Names, House Numbers and Postal Codes..
Not needed to find me. 



Every cloud has a silver lining and today's cloud was no different in Murf's World. Just in the door from the hospital and 'ding-dong'. It was the postman, a new chap on the route. 
"So you fly hot air balloons" is his opening gambit. "Well, I try hard" was my retort. With that he produces a hard and heavy padded envelope. As you can see from the address (above pic), not alone do I not need any eircode (postal code), but house numbers and even street names for me are also so old school, love it!!

 

For a five-year period from the mid 1920s, the Limerick-born pilot Lady Mary Heath was one of the best-known women in the world. It was an era when everyone had gone aviation mad, due to the exploits of Charles Lindberg and, later, Amelia Earhart. ‘Britain’s Lady Lindy’, as she was known, made front-page news worldwide as the first pilot ever, male or female, to fly a small open-cockpit plane solo from Cape Town to London. Most remarkably, the woman born Sophie Peirce Evans at Knockaderry, Co. Limerick achieved all this despite the most unpromising of beginnings – when she was just a toddler, her crazed father had murdered her mother and was put away. 

 
No Chemo today but this did me better
 than any cocktail of drugs. 

On opening the parcel, here I uncover this beautiful book.  It was sent directly to me from the author Lindie Naughton, with a nice hand written card which included a note that links 'Lady Icarus' to the way back then 'Dublin Ballooning Club'. What topped this off brilliantly was a personal dedication to me from the author "To Aidan, Best Wishes & Keep Flying High". 

With only a single Christian name 'Pearse' to go on as a reference to who organised all of this, it took just an hour on Facebook to track down a person of interest. 

Thank you so much Pearse Fahy for putting all this together and treating me to this fantastic read. Your timing of today was just impeccable. With coming home minus my chemotherapy, you had me flying high before my lunch. Thank you again and of course the books author, Lindie Naughton. 



Thank You so much for reading this blog.

With best wishes

 



Comments

  1. What a nice surprise you got!
    I got a nice surprise too. .got my Pin today ..Thank you !!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Brilliant. Thanks for letting me know.

      Delete

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