Quick update on the weekend

The weekend went very well for us all, but as usual was very busy in the Marsh household. In no particular order:

Freja spent most of the weeknd working, both earning money and also preparing for her A* exams. She got the results of a sociology mock exam, which she did not really studdy for, and she got an A.

Max had two football matches, playing for Perrywood. The first was against Merstham, who are bottom of the leaqgue, one place below Perrywood. Max's team won 4-2 after a sloppy start, going 2-0 down inside 1o minutes. Yesterday they played Caterham, who are currently 3rd. and they got a great 2-0 away victory. That's 5 matches unbeaten. As a pretty much new team this year, they had a slow start, but since Christmas they ahve played like league winners, so I hope they stay up. Max also started his first job, delivering a free local paper, he's already turning into a tycoon, as he has offered to outsouce some of the deliveries to Leisha for £2 a week!!

Anya spent all Saturday at a photoshoot for a new ballet company, soon to be launched in the Redhill/Reigate area, which ius being set up by one of her teachers. She, and a few other girls, had a great day, doing a wide range of shots, from classical to contemporary. We are really looking forward to the results.

Leisha had her final football match of the season for South Park ladies. They recorded a fine 14-1 win, which to be honest was not flattering at all. This secured them 3rd place in the league. However, next week they play the Premier League winners in the league cup final, so they probably could have done with a harder game to keep them on their toes. The cup final is being played on Sunday at Merstham FC, so if you are free, please come down to join us.

Lastly, Sarah and I played taxi to all these events, as well as sorting the house/loft extension. Today we have the plasterer's starting, and we hope to have it all ready for decorating by the end of next week.

Now ....  rest!

Radiotherapy over

Last Wednesday I had my last treatment of radiotherapy and I am pleased to say all went well. So far no side affects, and I am feeling much better every day, although if I overdo it one day I am still paying for it the next!

We had an extremely busy weekend, and I must say it was good to get involved. Firstly we finally found the tiles for our new shower room, which is in the loft. We saw so many tiles we struggled to find anything good, then we popped into The Extra Special Tile Company in Reigate. After some really good customer service, which started with Sarah saying she "had a rough idea what she wanted, but would not know exactly untill she saw it". The guy found some really great samples and within 15 mins we were sorted, highly recommended. We ordered them there and then, and had a call wednesday to say they were in.

Saturday we choose the new bathroom suite, as well as doing the food shopping. Now as I am not working at the moment, I should really do this during the week, but never mind. We also had a quick trip to the allotment, and I was really pleased to see my grapevines I had transplanted to the greenhouse coming on very well. It all looks a bit messy but nothing a little hard work won't sort out. In fact we are having a "help Dene with his allotment" day on Saturday 4th May. Free bacon roll's, tea & coffee and a cardio-vascular work out to anyone that wants to help out. Please email me or post a comment if you can help, so I can sort the catering.

Sunday was also busy, with Max playing football. It was a pleasure to see how well the team has come on over this year, they had a 2-2 draw with a team they lost 5-0 to earlier in the season, and to be honest they should have won. The highlight of the weekend for me however was the visit of Kate, Christian and Addison. Addison is only a couple of months old, and is a real little sweetie. I thought Sarah might get broody, but no she was ok. It was great to see them, and you can see the love and affection in Kate and Christian's faces.

This week has also been busy, although I have had to take it easy on a couple of days. The loft extension is now only about 2 weeks from being finished, and we are really pleased with it. I also managed a little work down the allotment, including cutting the grass on my new lawn mower. The 3 I have at home all died, so a new one had to be purchased. thanks also to Ross for clearing all the wood for me. today I had my first 2 weekly check up following my change in treatment, and all seems good so far. Well good in the way that they told me I could go after my blood test, and they would ring me if there were any problems. Well the phone has not yet gone, so I am assuming all is ok.

Next week will also be busy, but more about that another day ...

2 down, 3 to go

Friday night, chilaxin after a bath, thinking about how today has gone, and as usual in the Marsh household, it's been hectic! Where to start, ok, lets start at the beginning ...

So my appointment for round 2 was for 9.06am. Now why do hosppitals, or anyone, set a time for an appointment for such a random time as 9.06. We all know that things never start on time, and usually run late. Now a 9.06 start(?) means leaving plenty of time to travel round the M25 in rush hour, so we set off at just about 7.45. The plan if we are early is get breakfats somewhere as i haven't yet eaten due to my new tablet regime requiring at least an hour clear of food after taking them, and more worringly 2 hours clear of food before I take them. So they are the first thing I have when I get up. No surprise but the M25 was empty and we arrived in Guildford just after 8.20, so we had loads of time to kill. Now next to the hospitla is a 24hr Tesco, so breakfast was had there. Now unlike most large Tesco's, the one in Guildford does not have it's own cafe, it has a Costa instead. So spending nearly £10 on a breakfast roll and hot choc for me, and a tea for Sarah, we settle down for 10 mins before we drive the last 1/2 mile or so to the hospital. Here we have our first, and probably bets laugh of the day. From our seats we could see the car park, and then we saw him. On a mobility scooter, going past fast in the rain, is an old boy driving past. Rain mac on - check. Flat cap on - check. Ski googles on - check. Did I say ski googles, yes I did, and bright blue ones at that. They kept the rain from his eyes, either that or his brakes had failed as he flew past the window!

After breakfast and treatment it was time to come home and today we had no punctures or other mechanicals to slow us down. We had to get home quickly as Max was at the dentist today having a couple of teeth removed, ready for his brace. That went fine, no pain at all, for me anyway, Max of course had a bit of pain but he has recoevered enough to go to Air Cadets tonight.

We also had a surprise with the loft, the first Velux window has gone in, the loft hatch has been sealed, and a new one created, and finally all the floor joists have gone down and a couple of the floor boards. So things are continuing apace.

So what does the weekend have in store. Well nothing to do with treatment of loft for a start. We are having a clean break. Saturday, Jake, Alison and Garry's youngest, has a football cup final, which we try to go to. Then in the evening, we have Rachel and Stuart's wedding reception. I truly hope the weather stays good for them, as they deserve it. I am sure they will have a great day whatever, but it would be the icing on the cake. Sunday see's more football, Leisha has a game, then so does Max, and for once we can go to both games. I am looking forward to 2 good wins for them.

Then Monday it all kick's off again.

1 down, 4 to go

So Thursday night, and just had first round of radio therapy. Well that's the easiest treatment I have ever had. Take most of your clothes off, lie down here, don't move, machine goes whirrr, 15 mins later, up you get, get dressed and go home if you want. That's it. Very easy. Then off to Tesco shopping and lunch - I know how to treat a lady, let Sarah have a £3 meal deal - back to car to drive home and ..... puncture.

Now as you know the loft started this week and Sarah has the car filledwith loads of stuff for the charity shop, and guess where the spare is, that's right, underneath the whole lot. So there we are, in Tesco's car park, unloading loads of boxes and bags, finding the spare wheel, which I only put back a couple of days ago, Get it and all the tools out, change wheel, which took quite some effort as I am still very tired, load all the gear back in the car, now with a full size wheel, and off we go home, at last. As usual nothing is easy and my chemo brain kicks in, Where is my wallet? We stop in a layby to check Sarah's bag, as she say's it's in there, but it's not. So we start to empty the car again, and then I find it, it had fallen down the side of my chair.

We finally get home safe and sound with everything we should have and nothing we shouldn't. The guys doing the loft have left for the day, but they have made terrific progress, and hopefully are ahead of schedule. It's pretty impressive what they do, and we are all getting excitied about the future, except Sarah and I who have to finally sort all the junk/stuff/momentos we took out the loft, as currently they are filling my Mum's back bedroom, Sarah's Mum & Dad's conservetory and one of my good friends spare bedroom's, and we have space for about 1/10th of all this.

Tomorrow I am back for round 2, then Monday - Wednesday next week and then, hopefully, that's it. Let's hope the next 4 treatments are a little less eventful. Have a good weekend all!!!

The Good, the Bad & the Ugly - Part III

I have receoived lots of very positive comments following my post yesterday and I re-read my post and realised it could be taken in a couple of ways. So to clarify:

The Good

The good news is the chemo has finished - for now at least. So no more tiredness or side affects. I am now moving onto a tablet based medication, which should make life much easier.

The Bad

The bad news is that I am coming off chemo as it was not working as well as we had hoped.

The Ugly

The ugly is that the tablets are the next form of defense to try and contain everything.

Now I am not down about this as it will enable me to, hopefully, have a much better time of it, and really get stuck into all the things I want to do, but have be unable to recently. As the song says, "Always look on the bright side of life" except my names not Brian!!!!

The Good, the Bad & the Ugly part II

Just back from the hospital and have an update on my treatment. It seems as though I now don't need my little op, as everything seems to be settling back to normality. I will still need to see my specialist when he is back from holiday next week, but things are looking good.

I also have finished with chemo for now, and instead will be having a course of radio therapy, 5 sessions over 5 consecutive days and also a new drug, which comes via 4 horse pills I need to take at the same time, oncee a day. This will last for the foreseeable future. And that's it. So hopefully no more tiredness, no more hair falling out, and no more needles.

To say we are looking forward to this is an understatement. Apart from decorating the new loft room and all the other bedrooms, Sarah has a little list of other jobs to do, which bear no relation to the jobs I had planned, such as golf etc, but I am sure we will sort it out.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

The Good

Well since the last update, there has been a lot happening. Sarah finally got to Iceland with her sister Jackie, and the two girls had a great time. They saw the Northern lights a couple of times at night and even on the bus back to the airport at 5am whihc they were told is very unusual. They also enjoyed an island tour, to see the glaciers, the volcanic geysers, and some great waterfalls. They also enjoyed a really good day at the Blue Lagoon, a volcanic spa, where they enjoyed the hot natural waters and mud packs. they also visited the world's only penis museum, I wonder if that's why mum's go to Iceland?

Freja had her driving test this week, and despite everything, she passed with flying colours. Well done Freja and well done Aunty Emma, her instructer from JEM Driving School in Redhill - if you or someone you know needs some lessons give her a call. Now I don't have to do the school run and we have an extra taxi in the house, it will make things much easier, and as we are paying most of her petrol bill, she has to earn it. Max is currently in Belgium in Ypres, where his Air Cadet group are parading tonight to the Menin Gates, and where they will play the last post, which is played every night of the year. I am a bit annoyed as I planned to go and watch, but hey ho.

We also had a visit from Duncan and Sara and their family from Lydney, for the Easter weekend. We enjoyed a really good night with them, along with Alison and Garry and Alison and Ross, and all their families, it was so good to socialise again. On Easter Monday Sarah and the kids joined Duncan and Sara on a visit to London and the Sealife Centre and Madame Tausauds, great time was had by all.

The scaffolding has started to go up today ready to start our loft extension on Tuesday, we really can't wait for this to be finished and have even bought our new bedroom furniture last week, albeit it is in storage untill needed, but we saved £100 by getting it over Easter.

The Bad

The bad news is that as Sarah left for Iceland, I had a recurrance of my very first symptom, ie very difficult to pass water. So the week she was away was spent in and out of hospital, having more scans and tests to see how bad everything was/is. I have just got back from the follow up meeting with my consultant and this is due to the continued growth of my tumours. The treatment is not fun,hence the ugly!

The Ugly

Joy of joys I have to have a small op on 24 Aprii. This is to basically bore a new improved hole, wo't go into more details, but I think you get the picture. I will be in for 2-3 days and the recovery might be a little painful, but it will be well worth it. I dont know how this will affect my other treatment, but will find out on Monday, when I will post my next update.