Will you still love me to-marrow - John Mycroft and Multiple Myeloma

 OK - so I left today's entry until I had something fascinating and exciting to report.  Well - there wasn't anything.  I spent most of the day feeling decidedly dopey and a bit wobbly but otherwise in good shape.  We went up to the hospital for my daily round of testing which started off with getting weighed (I don't know if it is for my benefit but the have switched the scale to kilos - I'd much rather be 90 kg than 200 pounds. They ask me the same set of questions every day to ensure my marbles are still intact so, just for buggerment, I counted down from 100 in 9s rather than in 10s this morning.  And I think I've been telling the the wrong name for the hospital but at least I have been consistent.  I can't remember the name of our hotel but I do know it starts with an R and it is next door to the huge football stadium so it's impossible to get lost if I go for a walk.  As I have mentioned before, Charlotte drivers are far more polite and respectfu...

 Major panic this morning - Doktor Nebel, who has been a medical mentor for close to 50 years, was nowhere to be found this morning.  Moving the bedroom furniture and calls to the FBI missing persons bureau produced nothing.  Had ICE deported him for being an undocumented immigrant?  Eventually he turned up in my laptop bag where he had presumably secreted himself to check on the quality of the care I am getting at Atrium.  I believe I have set his mind at rest and restored him to his rightful place by the bed.  It's a miserable day here in terms of weather so my daily walk is going to be achieved by parking in the wrong place at the hospital when I go in for my daily dose of stuff in an hour.  At least there doesn't seem to be any kind of even in town today so we can get to the hospital by the route recommended by our GPS.  My major effort for the day will be to start a new jigsaw, this time a Dutch street surrounded by tulips.  I'll tr...

 Having slept like a baby last night, I woke up a touch dopily at 6:30 and gazed out at a rather foggy day in Charlotte - visibility maybe 100 metres or so.  As the hotel is full of pre-teenage cheerleaders, we're avoiding the restaurant for breakfast.  Not much on the schedule today - just a shortish trip to have my oil changed at the hospital followed by a walk around the block and another jigsaw, this time a row of houses in front of a formal garden, that I scrounged from the hospital.  I'd been warned that today was the day that the transfused gunk would start to make me feel substandard but, other than having a bit of difficulty deciding which way was up, I still feel in control.  Susan has to ask me a dozen dumb questions every morning and I am under strict instructions not to give stupid answers. Meanwhile to prove I am not 100% bonkers, Susan's laptop is regularly announcing that it cannot connect to the internet, it doesn't have a network adapter and th...

 A gentle day today - up to the hospital to have a few tunes of blood sucked out of my pipes and get the good news that the numbers look good.  We took a longish walk around the city which, despite there being a football game in next door, seemed almost deserted.  The drive to the hospital wasn't too bad, either as wee have learned how to negotiate the closed streets. Because there is a football game on, the hotel is a bit crowded so we holed up in the second bedroom and watched a movie on television.  It must have been good as I haven't got a clue what it was - I think it was a light weight romantic comedy with Hugh Grant and the woman from Sex in the City being in the witness protection program in Wyoming.  And they all lived happily ever after.

 Grumpy ole day here in Charlotte.  Hard to tell if it's raining, drizzling or foggy.  There's a nice wee park across the road from here and a few laps of that are probably called for.  It is being prepared for some kind of outdoor thing that involves having a couple of dozen port-a-bogs brought in. It's a quiet day medically - Susan has sent all my various numbers to the people who monitor us remotely and my 3 o'clock hospital appointment is pretty much to confirm that they didn't kill me with the transfusion yesterday.  I feel a heck of a lot better than I did yesterday so I reckon they deserve a pat on the back for a job well done. Talking of job I am immensely honoured to be offered the job of poll captain aka chief judge at our local polling station in February.  It's a job that carries huge responsibility and I look forward to training before the actual event.   I haven't been chief judge before but as this is about the tenth election I've w...

 We had a leisurely start to the day - bowl of muesli, cup of coffee and then off to Atrium Hospital.  I've already got all the pipes inserted that I need for my drug infusions so it was a simple case of getting comfortable on a narrow hospital bed and letting the nurse so stuff.  I've been here a bit over 4 hours now (as has Susan) and have two more left to go.  I think I slept for a while.  They've brought me a pot of candy to munch as the drugs give you a mildly unpleasant taste in your mouth.  Other than that the whole procedure seems far less grim than my first one 4 years ago.  MY puzzle magazine has found me with more insoluble problems than usual - I'd been warned that this would happen but at least I can still correctly identify common objects.  My Dad went down that path and took to referring to almost everything as "the wossname" which led to many frustrating hours trying to figure out what he was talking about.  So I am determined...