Life goes on, but different

 Dear family and friends our wonderful supporters, a little update as its been a while.

Gail has had 3 treatments of the once a week regime and it has been totally exhausting for her, having to spend days in bed with no energy at all.    The fourth week was last week where there is a reprieve, no chemo and hopes of some recovery before the next months worth.  Gail did not feel ready to come home with me for that break, needing to see how she would be.  So she stayed with her Mum where she has been so well looked after, and thankfully where she has had some really good days.  On her good days she visited her brother and popped back to the cottage where we are staying to pick up things.  There was lots of family time, with people visiting which she could enjoy for a change.

The week before we had Maria come to stay to take some of the load off us, as do our girls Emma and Ang, we are ever so grateful.  We are grateful too for all the offers from friends for visits, especially as we are a long way from home, but we have to balance these with how Gail is and how many we can accommodate in between our regular support team.  We were able that week to have some lovely family time, especially visits from grown up nephews and nieces.  Our Dean who travels all over the World, has come back for a couple of months to have some time with us, and meeting his lovely partner has been a bonus.  How lovely it is to have young energy around when we are feeling old and worn down.

My week at home was lovely with catch ups with a few friends and family (Frederique and MH, Sally Sis and the boys and Lindsay and Adrian Rodda, who know full well how hard this journey is).  In that I include our dear neighbours who are looking after things at home for us.   They are always at hand to offer a meal and a catch up.    I did a delightful walk with Alan and the Nally's including an exquisite swim at Cellar's beach, Noss Mayo on a very hot sunny day.  More swims were had, one at Salcombe with a BBQ afterwards with my amazing mermaid gang.  They produced a beautiful card to bring back to Gail with their love and well wishes. Its always hard for me not to cry when leaving them, for our shared cancer journeys touch on a deep level right to the soul.   I managed to do some gardening, I would never cope if it were not for Debbie who makes it beautiful and a pleasure to come home to.  I thank my beauty makers, Amy and Kelly who somehow give me the illusion that youth is still on my side through hair, nails and getting rid of my mustache, along with a good dose of wisdom and hug giving.  I even got my bloods done at our GP and my GFR is up to 43 which is great progress, I am aiming for 60.

On my way back to Marple I had a wonderful lunch with family prepared by my Mama and a surprise hair make over given by my Sis Emer again with love and support thrown in and a lot of fecking this and fecking that.  I then finished the journey with my Sis Sue who is home from Qatar, she has stayed a couple of days and it has been lovely to have that time together with her gentle, quiet energy.

Some good news is that our consultation with Dr Hubner yesterday,  he said he wanted to change the regime to fortnightly rather than weekly to get back some quality of life whilst Gail is having the treatment.  He anticipates that she will get the same amount of chemo, otherwise with her bloods getting low on platelets he would have to be reducing it every week.  I made sense and Gail is over the moon for the breaks this will give her.  Its been an emotional month, as her hair is coming out slowly but surely, however we have a whole array of wonderful head covers on stand by, all of which make her eyes look so big and blue xxx

As always thank you for the 100's of messages, cards (profuse and funny from Fritzi and many others) and flowers (Mark and Baz) and beautiful gifts, our coasters from Trish and Andrew in Ireland are stunning.  I must mention the gorgeous bowl make by  John who came for massage and made it for Gail.   These things keep us knowing we are in your thoughts and bring with them the best intentions for our health and well being.  I only hope you know we hold you in our hearts and minds and care what is happening in your loves too, there seems so much hardship for so many at this time.

I leave you with some photos, hopefully you can figure what they relate to in our story as they are in no particular order :)

























Comments

  1. Sue BristowJuly 22, 2025 at 4:43 AM

    It’s so good having these updates. It stops us asking the questions of how Gail and yourself are.Thankyou , you know your. Constantly in our thoughts, and send you both oddles of Brummie love .💖💖💖

    ReplyDelete
  2. KarenJuly 29, 2025 at 10:03 AM

    Hi you two lovely people, thank you for keeping us updated and it's good to hear that the chemo regime is changing for Gail so as to make it more bearable for her and so that she will have some quality of life. Hopefully, if it goes well for her, she may feel well enough for a trip down south to the West Country, fingers crossed. Lots of love to you both xxx

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