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

 Clean out the crap day.  Anyone want to buy some 1960s German Marklin 3 rail model railway stuff?  All jolly nice but, as I have decided to build myself a proper train layout (more for the pleasure of building it than using it) I've decided to stick to something a bit more modern and a hell of a lot cheaper.  Definitely going to limit it to old fashioned "one train running at a time" on an 8 x 4 sheet of plywood (unless I can find a 12 x 4 - got a lot of room under the house.)  Just might fire up a computer or two to control it.  I've got a boxful of the bloody things.

 Another 3 a.m. phone call from our care team to tell me that my monitor is saying I'm dying.  Nice of them to tell me but a quick check from the other gizmo tells us that my oxygen is at a splendid 96% snd my pulse is at the kind of level you'd expect from being called at 3 a.m. to ask if you're dying.  I really do, honestly, appreciate this care but do wish that I had a bit more confidence in it.  It's not as bad as my first go around with this treatment when I would be woken up by bright fluorescent lights twice a night so somebody could check on this stuff manually but at least Susan didn't have to get woken up as well.  Indeed, it's she who gets woken up as I don't hear the phone.  She is pretty expert at not disturbing me, too.  So, what to do once you're done sleeping for the night and wide awake at 4 a.m. with none of your home toys around you?  Grab a computer only to find it tells you nothing but that trump is still alive and being a dic...

 No more ouch in my right arm which I celebrated with something like 15 hours sleep at various times through the day.  I may have missed a day as I could type with only one hand and was too lazy to try dictating which I really must do. I spent a short time tutoring one student yesterday and can't say it was one of my most fruitful sessions ever.  Perhaps the concept of multiplying by 299 by multiplying by 300 and then taking away the number you first though of is just too difficult to grasp.  Go ahead - try it.  Think of a number.  Then multiply it(on paper, not on a calculator) by the traditional "put down the two and carry the 7" method.  Then try slapping on two zeroes, multiplying by 3 and taking away the original number.  It's how I've been doing it for the last 60-odd years, much to the disgust of the headmaster at Fairways who made the mistake of challenging me to a public test of mathematical skills. It's warmed up a bit here in Charlotte ...

 Morning! In case you're wondering I didn't kark it yesterday but the hotel's power supply did for about 8 hours including my usual blog update time.  Needless to say it took out the internet connection and the hotel's dashboard with it.  Fortunately we still had cellphone service.  So our evening was spent noshing sandwiches and playing cards by the light of the tablet that the medics had given us to keep tabs on my sundry monitoring devices.  The sundry pills I'd been given to convince me that there were better options than having my right hand amputated worked wonders. Not that I don't enjoy sharing my bed with an ice pack. I slept soundly for 9 hours and even managed to find the bathroom in the middle of the night and my wrist is now back to its usual level of remembering sundry injuries from days of yore.  Today is more of the same - a visit from our local onsite guy either preceded or followed by the daily hour at the hospital having an armful of bloo...

 Something has caused my right wrist to hurt abominably - feels a bit like my left wrist did a few years ago when i nudged it with a 4 pound club hammer.  So I will be trying on a dictation program later

 My last few days have started with me bumbling around bumping into furniture and forgetting where I've put my laptop followed by checking if there is any good news from Mar a Lardo.  Today I am much more chipper and have my first cup of coffee inside me.  Today brings one medical appointment (another armful of blood) followed by 3 hours of math tutoring which is a great way of keeping the few surviving brain cells ticking.  Three students - one learning about different election methods and their advantages and drawbacks (I have to refrain from constantly saying "Unlike the shitty system here in the USA"), one learning a load of the arithmetic shortcuts that have been my private secret for the last 70 years (go on then - what's 87 x 93 in your head?) and one learning how to fly which suddenly makes trigonometry useful.  Unlike the worthless cow of a mother who would turn up at every parents' night at school and think it was clever to announce that she hadn't u...

 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...

 It's amazing how much help I'm getting here - no "take two aspirin and call me in the morning" stuff.  Our day started with a 7:15 call from a lady telling us that someone would be arriving in the next couple of hours with a bag of goodies.  Sure enough, she turned up, put a monitor on my arm to record everything but my blood pressure and heart rate, gave us a wifi-connected tablet (which I don't get to keep) and generally made me feel important.  We then went out for a longish walk, hoping to find that a couple  of places in downtown Charlotte that call themselves "something Market" would turn out the markets but are actually food courts.  Nice walk, though.  Charlotte is very walkable with wide sidewalks and crossing signals (which are respected by the majority of drivers).  It also has no what you might call hills (said the main from Asheville and Titirangi).  My afternoon was spent in a slightly braindead funk - I managed to find the las...

 No medical stuff today, just hanging out and enjoying having an immune system.  I'm feeling good -yesterday's dopey stuff has mostly worn off and the three pipe port they've stuck in my chest (may add a photo later) is pretty much unnoticeable most of the time and, at its worst, hurts less than banging my shin on the coffee table. As it is a pretty grumpy rainy day we did a couple of errands, starting by hunting down a load of quarters for the hotel laundry followed by a trip to CVS for batteries for the TV remote and Publix to top up on mostly fruit.  Is it my imagination or has fruit got outrageously expensive?  $2.99 a pound for pears (or abut $1.20 each) strikes me as a fortune.  That's $NZ11.22 a kilo.  I can remember getting a 20kg bag for less in Oratia.  $5 for a jar of gherkins seemed a bit much, too.  Perhaps I'm having flashbacks to the 1960s when I had to do all my own supermarket shopping.  Debatably the most useful lesson ...

 A busy day today, starting with a "no breakfast" order as they didn't want me barfing during the insertion of my tubes, like I would.  Can't say that a cup of black tea really satisfies the inner man.   My cellphone GPS has developed a new habit of sending us in the wrong direction and telling us to turn shortly after we pass the street we need to go down. However, with my first appointment being at 7:30 there wasn't  vast amount of traffic around so, after a tiki tour of Charlotte we arrived on time.  What happened was that I had three tubes inserted in my chest through which the drugs can be injected.  They'd told me that I should not eat after midnight, presumably because the drugs could cause nausea.  I can confirm that but managed to resist the temptation - just. After a couple of hours rest back at the apartment, it was time for part two which was an infusion of chemo prep drugs through my new tubes.  Susan and I happily sat and ignore...

 Dunno if it's the chemo but I slept like a baby until 4:30 this morning and am ready to roll though my appointment is at 1:30 this afternoon.  Same treatment as yesterday - having a couple of pints of stuff slowly dripped into me.  First job after breakfast will be to shave my left arm - having all the hair yanked out of your arm with an industrial-grade Bandaid (tm) really loses its appeal after the first couple of dozen times. The day has started pretty normally for a day in a hotel - begging the hotel wifi's permission to get email, most of which told me it was Black Friday and that I desperately needed to buy a load of stuff.  No news of trump's demise so it was a waste of effort checking. A bit buggered so more tomorrow which promises to be busier. 

 We had a fond farewell from Sam this morning as Susan and I headed for Charlotte for my two weeks of treatment at Atrium Hospital.  The back of Susan's Subaru is loaded with clothes, books, computer and other necessities of 21st century living before we move into our new temporary digs.  I'm currently hooked up to an IV which is dripping the third batch of stuff I've never heard of into me, including something to stop me barfing (which I have felt no inclination to do).  It's getting on for 5 pm. and our apartment is only about a mile away so rush hour traffic shod not be a problem.  We haven't checked in yet and, considering how much stuff we've brought in addition to 2 suitcases of clothes, we're hoping that they have a sturdy baggage cart or two. I've resisted the temptation to bring a guitar and have settled for a pile of DVDs, half a dozen books that range from sci-fi to calculus, the inevitable laptop and, of course, a cribbage board and a deck ...

 Another round of tests in Charlotte last week to see if it is money down the tubes to treat me.  Good news is that just about all my numbers are in the acceptable range or close to it so we are all systems go.  Our bags are slowly getting packed - Susan is far more methodical than I am in that area.  I reckon that if I have all my meds, a couple of clean pairs of y-fronts and a functional credit card, I'm ready to roll. We are going to be stuck in a hotel suite (we've coughed up a few extra bucks to get more space) for 3 weeks so a paperback and a laptop really aren't going to cut it. The neighborhood ladies delivered a magnificent care package to Susan yesterday evening - a handful of novels, some wine and a bunch of other goodies I may be tempted to sample - so she's looking well set.  I'll be taking along a couple of stamp albums, some jigsaws (the ladies brought me a rather tricky looking one) and my rugby watching laptop (I believe I have now silenced all ...

A longish day today, most of which fell upon the shoulders of Susan , my wife, driver, emotional support and generally wonderperson.  A not very early start got us to Charlotte a bit early to have a dollop of marrow and a chip of bone removed from my pelvis for lab examination.  All done at Atrium with amazing skill, kindness and gentleness, it was all over in an hour.  The twilight sedation left me feeling a bit dopy and they loaded me into a wheelchair rather than have me stagger around the place drunkenly.  I dozed most of the two hour drive home so I can see why they insisted on me having a driver.  It's now 8:30 and I can barely keep my eyes open.  I've also got typos in about 20% of the words so I will call it quits for tonight.  Another 3 hour trip to Messino Cancer Center here in Asheville tomorrow accompanied by a handful of steroids so tomorrow night may be a Flying High and rugby marathon. It  actually turned out to be half a night'...

 I am rapidly coming to the conclusion that all Window apps are written by people who have never had to use a Windows app but I am determined to get the hang of it again. Second day of chemo at  Messino Cancer Care today - I didn't blog about the first one.  Not particularly grueling, starting off with having an IV line stuck in my arm followed by a couple of pints of various liquids being dripped in my vein.  The liquids are cold which is a bit disconcerting to start with though my nurse was spot on with the needle and complimented me on my pencil sized veins right on the surface of the skin.   I would post a picture but I hadn't taken my camera and my $1.95 cellphone has pathetic zoom out range.  Will try harder in future. Today's drugs included a handful of a drug favoured by dead Tour de France cyclists so sleep may not be a major feature of my night.  I do apparently have friends in high places and TVNZ is showing a T20 cricket match bet...

Morning, All They said the multiple myeloma treatment wasn't permanent and it's back so here we go again.  This time we're going for a thing called CAR-T which the doctors tell me is far longer lasting and needs less maintenance.  A recent brain scan, not connected to the MM, revealed that I am decidedly lacking in certain grey matter and heading for Alzheimer's so yesterday Susan drove me to Charlotte for a load of tests.  I'm delighted to say that, other than remembering the list of words, they were all pretty much a piece of cake.  This senitility test included having to identify a giraffe - the "intelligence test" that a certain orange person was so proud of acing recently.  I'm sure he did fine on reading the list of big words, too (none of which was "acetominophen"). Oddly enough, if you read a list of ten common words to me, the chances of my remembering more than about 4 are pretty slim. I was also working on half a hearing aid whic...