Friday 28 March

Simon has just come home and had some dinner. Daisy and Kitty tried to stay awake for him, but couldn't and just gave him sleepy, shut eyed nods to his questions and cuddles. We are looking forward to the next week of almost normality and Simon will try to go into work for the week.

Thursday 27 March

Simon has had an OK couple of days, better than last week still. His counts today are .4 so will hopefully be .2 tomorrow so that he can come home. He has an appointment with Prof. Choong at 5.45pm on 10 April to go over the test results and decide when to operate, possibly the following week.

One of the men in his room seems to have a similar cancer to Simon's, and will be losing his leg as a result. We know that this is still a possibility with Simon, but we are very thankful that things seem to be going as well as they can be with his treatment. This is all so amazingly exhausting anyway, I can't imagine how much harder it would be when people are going through this and the lump is still obviously growing and painful.

I am looking forward to having him home again whenever that is. I feel very tired and find it really hard leaving the kids almost all day to visit Simon for an hour.

Tuesday 25 March

He went up to Peter Mac again this morning. After a sleepy day on Saturday we had a good weekend, eating an absolutely delicious and huge lunch at Aunty Mary's on Sunday, then spent Monday eating more good food at our cousin Elke's birthday party in Melbourne. So we were tired, but well fed.

As much as we dread him going away, it's nice knowing that he has about two weeks off after this, before the operation. And they remembered to give him anti nausea drugs with the chemo this time, so hopefully he will have a better week. He was dreading it a bit this week because he found it a bit hard last time not feeling as well. Still no pain in the lump.

Saturday 22 March

It's nice having him home again. We have just tried to do as little as possible today. He isn't feeling too good but was helped by a delicious dinner from Aunty Anna. He is mostly lying down and sleeping on and off. He doesn't feel sick, just really tired. The kids won't leave him alone, they are so excited at him being home!

Friday 21 March

Simon is feeling OK, he did some work yesterday, he just feels a bit tired. We are hoping that he might be able to come home tonight. The drug levels in his blood were 2.8 last night and they need to come down to just 2 for him to be allowed home, we will find out some time tonight.
He just called to say he is packing up and on his way home! Yippee!

Wednesday 19 March

We have just come home from having lunch with Simon. He has been feeling a bit tired and nauseous today. At first he thought that maybe the side effects are acumulative with each treatment. Then they realised he hadn't been given the anti nausea drug with the chemo (even though he had asked the doctor administering the chemo if there should be an anti nausea medicine with it). So that was interesting, a relief to know it wasn't normal though!

He thinks the lump may have gone down even more. I had a look and it is definately harder to notice than it was at the beginning of all of this. I can't tell day to day as much, but it is alot harder to notice. I'm trying not to get my hopes up too much, but praying it is a good sign.

Tuesday 18 March

Not much to write today. It was sad last night thinking about him going again, but it's been a good day today. Daisy, Kitty and I are going to have lunch with him tomorrow and we have all spoken lots on the phone to him. He is feeling fine and playing computer games!

Monday 17 March

We had a pretty nice weekend. Ridiculous heat - bad, delicious meals at McEwan's and Auntie Margaret's - good, very good! His vein is getting a bit better each day, along with his cold. He thinks the lump may have gone down a little bit more, but I find it too hard to tell. He still hasn't felt any pain in it and is able to do a bit of work today.

We are trying not to think too much about him having to go back to hospital tomorrow. It's tricky each time having to keep adjusting to him being gone, then being home all the time, then being gone again! Also having to try and work out how soon to tell the kids he will be going again.

We have just received the appointment times for the tests after these next two weeks of chemo. They are all on Tuesday 8 April at St Vincent's. At 9.30am he has a chest scan, 10am a bone scan and at 4.30pm an MRI for the whole body. I'm not sure how soon after the tests we will know if the chemotherapy is working.

Friday 14 March

We have had a pretty good couple of days. The cough and runny nose are still persisting, but getting a bit better each day. Simon has been doing a bit of work too. We have had a nice evening going to a food fair then on to a kinder picnic. Simon noticed the vein that collapsed with the first round of chemo is getting sore again. Last time this happened he had to get medication for it, so he called Peter Mac and they said he would need to go to the doctor's again, he has just left now. Hopefully it will just be a matter of getting some antibiotics and he will be back again soon. Will write more later if there is any news...
OK, he is on his way back now. His temperature was 37.6 and it is the same infection in his vein so he will take antibiotics for it and it should be fine.

Wednesday 12 March

Well it's slowly getting better! Simon still can't stop coughing and blowing his nose so sleep is still fairly broken, but he thinks that eating chocolate throughout the night reduces the coughing, so at least he's getting something good from it all.

He has been able to do a bit of work yesterday and today for the first time in a few weeks, so that's been great. He still hasn't felt any more pain in his leg and thinks it feels a bit stronger than it did a couple of months ago. So it's alot better here today than it was a week ago. Daisy and Kitty are excited to have dinner with dad in hospital next week!

Monday 10 March

Simon is feeling a little better today except that the cold/cough is driving him (and all of us) nuts. He is coughing and blowing his nose constantly. Tonight Mum cooked us a delicious dinner which was such a treat. And that's about it really. I asked him for some news for this blog, but he couldn't come up with anything.

At least when he goes back up to Peter Mac next Tuesday for the chemo over two weeks, it's for the treatment which doesn't seem to make him feel as bad. And then they will do the scans and the removal of the shin bone and we will know if this has all been working. I feel a bit sick about finding out, but at the same time I can't wait to know. We really, really appreciate your continued prayers and messages of support etc...

Sunday 9 March

Simon is feeling much better today. His cough is still pretty bad and is hurting his back from having to cough so much, but he feels like he is on the way to getting better which is great.

Saturday 8 March

Not much news today. Still just all feeling tired with interrupted sleep. Simon has felt better today than he has all week which is nice, but still fairly unwell and the kids are pretty sick with the cold. We didn't hear what the blood test results from today were, so I guess they're not as low as they were last time when he was called back up to Peter Mac for more tests. Not sure if that's good or bad or doesn't really matter? We have spent the day doing as little as possible and think we will just hibernate for the long weekend.

Friday 7 March

It's been a tiring day. Simon is still pretty unwell. I guess his blood counts will be low (he has another test tomorrow which will tell us how low) and that makes him feel worse. He still feels bad with the cold and has spent most of today and this evening sleeping. It's sort of lonely having him here but we don't really get to talk much and seeing him feeling so sick is sad. It will be nice when he's feeling a bit better, maybe by next week.

Thursday 6 March

Well I felt alot better today thankfully, but poor Simon had a bad day. He drove up to Melbourne to give a presentation for work, but just felt too unwell, so he had to cancel it. Fortunately he was able to pick up the prescription for the cream for his ulcer while he was up there, which is great because it was very painful for him last night. He didn't get much sleep at all, which can also be a side effect from the chemo.

He spent this afternoon in bed with a really bad sinus headache. He hadn't been taking anything for it because when they discharged him last week they told him not to even take panadol as it could mask a fever/infection. But he was just feeling so bad, so I called Dr Franco at Peter Mac, who has been really helpful and he said he doesn't believe in not taking anything for this as a fever would still get through. So Simon is feeling the best he has all day after some sudafed and panadine.

He also had a little pain on and off for a couple of days in the tumor earlier in the week, but said it was a different pain than usual. He may have felt something similar after the last round of this particular chemotherapy, so we're praying it's the drugs killing the tumor.

He said I'm not allowed to put any more about him having womanly emotions, so I won't (tonight). He has been very tough today (seriously). I love him being home with us.

Wednesday 5 March

Simon is feeling a bit better today which is nice. He was pretty miserable for the past few days and felt like he was never going to get better! He has an ulcer at the back of his mouth which is a bit sore but the hospital has advised him on what to do, they gave him a mouth wash and he can pick up a prescription for pain killers if it gets bad.

It is all a bit exhausting at the moment and it's when we feel like this that the rest of the year or however long this is for, seems overwhelming. We both still find it a bit of a shock when we think about the fact that he has cancer. We are both very, very tired. Simon is like an emotional woman today and so am I, so that's a treat! This feels like the last time after this particular treatment, so it helps knowing it passes, we will probably just be a little more tired each time I suppose. It's OK, just tiring.

Monday 3 March

Today has been OK, I'm feeling a bit better with the cold, just very tired. unfortunately Simon isn't feeling too good with his cold. The hospital has said to take his temperature every 4 hours, if it gets above 38 he will have to be admitted to Peter Mac for antibiotics. He is sleeping alot and his temperature has been slowly creeping up, but will hopefully be OK. He has a blood test tomorrow to see what his counts are like.

Sunday 2 Feb.

Simon's been feeling pretty good, maybe a bit better than last time because the anti-nausea tablets were stronger and the hiccup tablets worked so that he only had them on and off for the first night. He's been able to do a bit of work most days which he enjoys and he still hasn't felt any pain in his leg.

Unfortunately we all have colds, so we're feeling pretty tired and run down. His appetite is pretty non existent and he only really feels like eating plain food. We are exhausted but love having him home for the next two and a half weeks as long as he doesn't get a temperature with this cold.