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

The old Guitar Slim song (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fj33EGMbazY) ran through my mind a few times today.  Starting with a bit of a lie-in (till nearly 7, we're not talking of lunch in bed), I left Susan to take Sam to school.  By the time she returned, I was ready to take a walk at JBL (the soccer fields).  Almost felt capable of 2 laps but settled for one and a half with an extended walk around the pavilion to stretch it a bit.  Feeling full of energy / joys of spring when I got home, I packaged up a couple of recent ebay sales and then settled down to the real task of the day - fixing the string in one of the living room cellular blinds.  (We have cordless ones in the master bathroom and, if I ever put these things in again, I will consider cordless.)  [Closer inspection reveals that they are not cordless at all but that the cords are inside the blinds and spring loaded so your chances of repairing them must be very close to zero.]  I had bodged...

Susan and I made the longish trip (2.5 hours each way) to Wake Forest today for my Day +30 check-up.  All my numbers have headed in the right direction (at least all the ones we care about) and are now firmly somewhere in the "acceptable" range.  I still don't have much stamina but it was nice to have my improvements confirmed.  (It was also nice to get back the charger for my headphones which I had accidentally left in my room though my beloved striped knitted hat appears to be a goner.  I only hope that whoever has it now wears it as much as they can and don't stuff it in a drawer and forget it.) One shock for everyone is that the school I teach at doesn't have a 100% immunisation policy.  So that means the folks at Wake Forest don't want me going back to work until at least April as a dose of measles would do me no good at all. We have a couple more dates lined up on Days +60, +90 and +100, each of which is a step in the right direction assuming everythin...

It's amazed me how much a couple of weeks more or less in a hospital bed, a dose of nasty chemicals and a touch of kindergarten snuffles has knocked it out of me.  Susan has kept me on my back legs tromping up and down the path at JBL - we're now up to a lap and a half (the long half, the clubhouse not quite being in the middle) a day now as well as much tromping up and down the basement stairs to retrieve things and put things away. Yesterday I decided to upgrade the speakers on our main television.  Oddly enough, Samsung (and, I suspect, all television makers) don't put external speaker sockets on their televisions.  Maybe they regard that as confessing that their built in speakers are crap.  So Plan B was called for - disembowel a pair of computer speakers to get at the amplifier and hook up a decent pair of speakers to it, bypassing the cruddy speakers that are in most computer speakers.  Then plug it into the headphone socket.  The sound is noticeably...

Had a lovely walk at JBL (the local soccer park) today.  It's a pretty flat half mile walk except for having to scale the north face of the Eiger to get from field level to concession stand level in the middle of the walk. Be that as it may, I thought it might be a help to you if I were to translate part of a recent medical report for you.  This is the surgeon's report on the removal of the catheter through which I received chemo drugs and gave blood samples while in hospital.  I was more than happy to have it removed. IR CVC REMOVAL TUNNELED, 1/10/2017 10:12 AM    CONSENT: The specific risks and benefits of the procedure were explained to the patient, including pain, bleeding, infection, and damage to adjacent structures. The patient and present family members expressed understanding of these risks and subsequently provided written consent.    SEDATION: None. ( Make the bastard suffer)    TECHNIQUE:    The...

Please note that the title of this page isn't "My number is up."  Susan and I have just returned from Cancer Care in Asheville where my latest blood sample reveals that all the numbers they look at to judge the quality of my blood are now in the "acceptable" range.  I even have enough hemoglobin to let me give blood though, given all the other crap floating around in my veins, I think my blood giving days are over.  I also apologise to anyone who's been given a pint of mine in the last couple of years.

Now that most of my hair (mostly the dark ones) has fallen out and my beard, with the exception of the moustache, has decided to do likewise, I get told who I look like.  Some I take as a compliment, some I don't.  Here's the offerings thus far :- Basil Fawlty Neville Chamberlain Me Tom Selleck

Now that the drama is over, I'm backing off the daily bog entries.  I'll keep the blog going and record any significant events (like today's farewell to what was left of my beard) but, other than that, it's going to be an occasional update. Today saw my first serious venture outside since Christmas - about a half mile walk on the concrete paths at J B Lewis soccer ground.  I've spent many happy afternoons there, reffing soccer, and doing around 10 miles on a good afternoon.  Today's half mile walk darn near did me in so my fitness has a way to go.  At a more appropriate level, I started the 4 dimensional map of London (it includes time) that Susan gave me for Christmas.  As I lived there, using the picture this time really would be cheating though I'm hanged if I know where various companies' head office buildings are unless they are vaguely notable / ugly (talking to you, Lloyd's Bank). I also forgot to thank someone very important yesterday but n...