back to school

Or at least that’s what it feels like. The olympics are a distant memory, the sunshine of early September has well and truly faded and it is even dark in the mornings when we get up. Back at work this week and we were all commenting that it felt just like the end of the  summer holidays when you were about 10 years old.

Be good to know what a new term is going bring, hopefully a good Autumn all round meso warrier world. We have three clear months before the new scan , so have a few trips planned – the big one is inspired by Steve and Linda’s hot air balloon trip , I bought Ray a flying experience for his birthday, do as soon as a a good week weather wise if forecast, it will be booked and a trip down to Goodwood planned.

At the weekend we met up with my sister and niece for my sisters birthday, ww were due to meet at the the restaurant. Amazingly we actually got there 15 mins early, sorted out a large table overlooking the gardens at the back and waited…… and waited. Got to the appointed time and thought I should have a walk through and check the front of the restaurant, let the waitress know we were waiting for three more people and realised I had forgotten my phone!

back to the table, more drinks and a bit more waiting , up to check the front of teh restaurant again , still no sign, so assuming they must have cancelled and not been able to reach us we went ahead and ordered ( a bit billy no mates on a big table)

Great meal , although a bit rushed as I was a getting worried as to why they hadn’t made it, only to go to leave and see them sitting at table at the front—— apparently they were 20 mins late , sent me a text and didn’t bother to check the whole restaurant!!! What did we do before mobile phones- other than have common sense obviously!!!

So we sort of had lunch – just not at the same table.

Another busy few days

This last week has flown past, luckily no problem with floods near us, although Autumn has well and truly arrived. Even had one day of going to work AND coming home in the dark. Ray is doing really well at the moment, with far less pain and no cough. He did have his regular trip to the GP this month , this time for sore ears- some drops and a week later all cleared up. He even managed to ward off my cold, so immunity must be doing pretty well. Absolutely determined to make the most of it, so working out what to do next .

Last weekend saw a family dinner at his brothers, with parents and son. Really good fun, talking about a weekend up in London, may even get to meet the son’s new girlfrined. Think he is just at the age , where he just about trusts us all not to embarass him.

This weekend it is my sister’s birthday so we are all going out for lunch in Wimbledon to celebrate. Next week we are off to the theatre, whilst on Friday I am off to Buckingham Palace with friends to see the Diamonds exhibition just before it closes.

one more day to results

Even more nerve wracking than exam day this one, given the stakes involved, puts waiting for your GCSE’s in the shade- no retakes allowed with this one unfortunately.

Have been majoring on distraction techniques the last couple of days, on Sunday we went to the Chelsea Autolegends show – lots of beautiful cars, from old Invictas and Lolas  to new Ferraris – lots to look at , but definitely no touching. As well as cars, there were various vintage motorbikes, being Chelsea lots of very well dressed people and rather strangely a parade of bunny girls. Given there was a special exhibition of women in racing, headed up by Jodie Kidd- we got the full range.

Late lunch in Chelsea, where we sat next to an incredibly boring man, who didn’t stop talking for the entire time- his poor dining companion didn’t get a chance to say a word. Then back home to watch the Formula 1 grand prix on iplayer – seeing Lewis Hamilton win another world championship was one of Ray’s initial targets.

Yesterday was a trip to the paralympics equestrian event , who knew watching dancing horses in the dressage freestyle was so therapeutic , followed by athletics in a packed stadium- amazing atmosphere.

Today is MOT day for the car, an afternoon of volunteering at the paralympics for me, and lets see what tomorrow brings. lots of luck to everyone else waiting for their results.

PET scan blues

Having successfully put Mr Meso behind us for a couple of months, today has brought it right back to the forefront of our minds. The day didn’t start well with delays on the tube, then at the scan itself the quiet room where you are supposed to rest wasn’t very quiet. There was a baby in having some scans and injections , who quite naturally wasn’t very happy.

Not exactly something you can complain about, but listening to a crying baby for the 40 mins it takes the tracer to go through your system before the scan , isn’t the most restful start. Because of how the PET scan works this resting period is really important. The scan is picking up where glucose is being used up most quickly, such as cancer cells, if your blood pressure is high or other parts of your body are also working harder than usual , they can also show up.

Once the scan finished, they asked him to wait for around 30mins while they checked the imaging was OK. That’s the first time he has ever been asked to wait, so of course your imagination works overtime and you automatically wonder if there was anything malign in the background causing the wait.

The other downside is obviously he doesn’t sleep well the night before plus he can’t eat before hand , so he is starving and lacking in energy by the time he gets back home. So tonight is a bit of a down atmosphere while we try and get our imaginataions under control.

Back into that hoping for the best, preparing for the worst dual mode we all have to manage.

does CRP help predict the possible benefit of surgery in mesothelioma

Mesothelioma researchers at several medical centers across Austria say a cell protein, know as serum C-Reactive Protein (CRP), may hold the key to identifying which treatments work best. CRP is a type of protein produced in the liver when the body is experiencing acute inflammation or infection. CRP levels rise to help the body jump start its immune response.

To test the relationship between CRP levels and mesothelioma, researchers analyzed the medical records of 115 patients with a confirmed diagnosis of mesothelioma.  Then they compared each patient’s pretreatment level of CRP with his or her response to a multimodality treatment approach, with or without surgery.

Patients who had an elevated CRP level before treatment had a significantly shorter overall survival than those with normal CRP levels. But what the researchers found even more interesting was the relationship between CRP level and treatment type: “Among patients with normal CRP levels, radical tumor resection within multimodality therapy was associated with distinctly prolonged overall survival when compared with treatment protocols without surgery.”

In contrast, patients who started out with elevated CRP levels gained no survival advantage from multimodality approaches that included radical surgery.

Because radical mesothelioma surgery is traumatic and risky, even mesothelioma experts disagree about when it should be used. The new study gives mesothelioma patients and doctors another tool to help make them make the best treatments decisions possible.

Brave fight by Murray

Just finished watching the final, a brave fight but outclassed in the end. You have to feel for Murray, must be a nightmare to try so hard and just miss out like this.

It’s been a weekend of sunshine and showers, overall we have pretty lucky. I have been over to Faversham with friends for the weekend, while Ray spent some time with his family. The five of us in Faversham spent most of the weekend visiting  various gardens and National Trust properties.

We started off at Belmont on friday and then went to Chartwell, Winston Churchill’s house, on the saturday. Lovely house and gardens although didn’t get to see the famous black swans ( they were staying well out of the rain).Well worth a visit.

Fired up with enthusiasm and ideas for our own gardens  ( although on  a much smaller scale) we went out for a great meal on saturday at a pub called the Sportsman. A great recommend.

We travelled back to London today, all squashed into one car with various flower purchases. My plant to pot ratio has gone awry so will be short while before some get planted.

A normal summer forecast

We managed to get our weekend back to front thanks to forecast. Saturday we decided to make the most of the fact it was due to be the best day and thought we would go out and about for a walk with lunch at a local village- although it was a bit bleak we set off hoping it would improve. Hah

It was so windy whichever way we walked that we couldn’t catch our breath, then the rains swept in as well!!forget this we thought , got back to the car and drove home.

On Sunday – blue skies but heavy rain forecast, so we thought we’d watch a film , only to find thatbthe rains never came and it stayed sunny. We managed to get a short spell in the garden, before the England game, so had a much later evening than expected as we stayed up to watch the inevitable loss on penalties.

So hoping next weekend is good, there is a large fair held on the local green, that raises a major amount for charity, it takes around 6 months to plan, so hope it stays fine for them.

Up and about again

After a couple of days with no energy, Ray is now back up and about again. Unfortunately the weather isn’t conducive to going out so he has been a bit housebound- this drought is really starting to kick in , don’t know how I have managed with the hosepipe ban ! Hah!

When Ray and i first met, he wasn’t very keen on cats, I don’t think he is that keen still, but somewhere along the way , my cats have decided that they REALLY like him- I call him the cat whisperer. He is now the official choice of lap to sit on…

Watching something gripping on the TV………

They first started sitting with him not long before his first diagnosis and looking back we wondered if they could sense he was ill, but now I just think they really like him.

We have been talking about going away for a few weeks, his next scan is at the end of July so we have time to get something booked in , we don’t want to go far as he has some days where the pain is really tiring. The last time you would want to be at an airport or in a plane. Ideally would like to stay in this country, if we could get some sunshine, we would love to go back to the cotswold or down to the New Forest or Lyme Regis again.

In the meantime, the Ducatti rebuilding project is now underway. As is is an old bike, lots of the replacement parts need to be independently sourced so it is quite a big job.  The idea was to get it running and sell it – something tells me that it will become a permanent fixture.

not exactly to plan

Our Jubilee weekend didn’t exactly go to plan, thanks mainly to the weather. The Lotus is bit skittish in the dry, let alone the wet, there was also the additional worry that if it spends any time sitting out in the rain , it doesn’t always start. We were faced with the prospect of a rather too exciting drive there and a very lengthy trip home with the assistance of roadside breakdown, we therefore went with plan B and the Thames Pageant.

My tip for planning a trip into London when over a million people are due to visit is know your bridges. Being about 4 miles from Hammersmith, having studied the route , we decided that rather than being on the actual route starting at Battersea which was bound to be really busy , we would aim for the other side of the bridge. Watch them mustering before the start where it would probably be less busy and be home in time to see the main bits on the BBC.

First error was was getting way too far up the river , on the wrong side of Battersea bridge. By the time we realised our error amidst a sea of people, it was too late to do much else. The whole embankment was filled with thousands of people, we had a small view of the river, just enough to see the lead boats, in between the Union Jacks being waved.  We did hear the bells on the lead boat and there was lots of good natured banter in the crowd as we all danced about trying to keep warm – with lots of very dry humour about the weather!!!

As soon as the lead boats were past , we headed off along the back streets of Chelsea, through one very posh street party , with a great jazz band, people singing and dancing in the drizzle ( at this point you really do have to be British to sit there with an umbrella whilst eating your sandwiches and cakes ). Then up to the V & A  just before the rain really started for a cup of tea  and a piece of chocolate fudge cake. In the cafe a great pianist was playing.

Suitably revived  we headed home via a  sweaty tube train, filled with people carrying damp Union Jacks  , children with painted faces and unheard of on a tube, talking to each other!!! What ever next!!

Back in time to see the end of the pageant on the BBC at Tower Bridge- so not plan A but a pretty good plan B.

We were there , British weather, polite crowds and a chatty tube. It must be Jubilee!

The sun has got his hat on…..

Summer is here, yippeee, the sunshine makes such a difference to Ray, the warmth makes him feel so much stronger and more positive. He spent yesterday in the garden , am so jealous as I was at work.

Am in the bad books though as I met up with friends last night and forgot my house key, so had to get him out of bed to let me in ….. Not happy!!

We are planning quite a few things over the next few days so that we can get out and about walking to make the most of the good weather. There is a big open air art exhibition near us that finishes this weekend, we have been putting off going as it has been so miserable, so that is on our list. There is also an open garden weekend , when some of the private gardens bordering the Thames open thier doors, a number do it for Macmillan so thought we should go and support the cause.

We are out in town tomorrow so will have a short tube journey but hopefully not too busy as wont be rush hour, then there is trip to a riverside pub and a country journey to look forward to. Busy few days ahead