Long Weekend

Last week I had two radiotherapy sessions on Wednesday because the machine delivering the treatment has to be serviced. Today was the day it was serviced, so no treatment today. Yay, I get a long weekend!

I had an amazing sleep, obviously knackered from my swim session yesterday. I slept from when my head hit the pillow at 10.15pm until I opened my eyes at 6.30am. Didn't wake once and was still in the same position I fell asleep in. Wow, more of the same please.

I had boiled eggs and a hot cross bun, followed by an Up N Go drink for breakfast. After this I did a bit of work and around 8.30am went outside to mow the lawns, trim a few bushes, clean the pool, water our new roses and make a few minor repairs to our pond.

Then I went inside to have a shower and go through my now normal mouth, face and neck hygiene routine.

My day consisted of an appointment with the Vario Clinic at ECU Joondalup. My appointment was at 1pm, but I left home at midday because I wasn't sure if I would find it difficult to locate, Joondalup being such a large campus.

The instructions I was given were pretty good, but I walked around the corridors of a few buildings for a short time before I managed to find my way to their front door.

The Vario Clinic has been working with ECU Joondalup on exercise programs for cancer patients. Research undertaken by ECU confirms that continuing exercise during and after treatment helps you get through your program but also with your recovery. I was keen to get involved, so asked my GP for a referral. Today was my first appointment.

The below video of ABC's Catalyst program explains.

The appointment today was to familiarise myself with their facilities, and understand exactly what they do, and would be doing for me specifically. We discussed my current health, any side-effects or lifestyle issues being experienced because of my treatment, checked my height and weight and basically discussed the sort of program I might be on.

They have full equipped gymnasiums that patients can utilise, but only by appointment and generally in supervised group classes. My first 5 sessions are private sessions to build my routine and show me how to use the equipment, this is followed up with group sessions or I can train on my own at a gym closer to home. It's obviously popular because my first training session appointment is two weeks away.

One thing in particular, stood out for me from my conversation with the exercise physiologist at Vario. He mentioned that I needed to do a moderate aerobic session within 48 hours of my chemotherapy cycle as this helps the effectiveness of the drug and rids the body of toxins, thereby helping alleviate the onset of side-effects. Good news as this means I should be programming a swim session every Thursday afternoon or Friday morning. I was also told that exercise helps stave off chemo-induced fatigue and resistance training keeps your muscles strong in readiness for post treatment recovery.

This appointment only went for around 45 minutes, so I was back home by 2.30pm. I had a chicken sandwich for lunch, had my salt-free solution mouth wash and cleaned my teeth, then I laid down for a rest a I was feeling pretty tired.

I must have been tired, because I woke up at 7pm, nearly 4 hours later.

Vicki cooked up a fantastic meal of salt and pepper squid and steamed vegies, yum. I had an ice cream and a cup of tea tonight. I was pretty much wide awake after my long afternoon sleep, so I found a movie on YouTube to watch called "Five Thirteen". Not too bad.

I messed around for a while trying to find something to watch on tele, but didn't find anything worthwhile, so I completed my mouth, face and neck hygiene routine before going to bed at 11pm. However, I couldn't get to sleep, probably because I'd had long sleep earlier in the evening, so I got up again and laid down on the couch. I turned the tele on and watching nothing in particular, I dozed off intermittently throughout the night.

And now I get another two day's off.

My weekend comprised nothing much, until Sunday night that is. Sat around doing nothing mostly, bored. My mouth was dry and my lips felt like they had been burnt to a crisp, the rash was under control and my sore throat had eased a bit. Everything I ate still tasted like metal, but otherwise I felt ok.

My darling wife, Vicki had surprised me with last minute Bruce Springsteen tickets for Sunday night. When we go out we try to incorporate a dinner meal prior to the event, and this was no exception. She booked Millionchinos. Sat around doing not much until Sunday and we left to go for dinner around 5.45. Dinner was booked for 6.30 and the show was due to start at 8pm. I had beer battered fish and chips with salad. Salads with oil based dressings still taste great, and the fish was good but the chips were just ok. All went ok and we were seated in the Arena at 7.30.

Bruce and the E Street band came on at or around 8 (I'm not sure to be honest) and the show was outstanding. Ok, the songs were somewhat politically based, but so what - he's known for being outspoken on social issues. He certainly has no love for Trump. The music went non-stop, seriously one song followed directly into the next without a break in the music (although there were some breaks in vocals). Fantastic for a 67 year old to be singing so well I reckon. He moved around the arena, touching and holding hands with fans, taking a drink off one, sharing the stage with an older gent, a young lady and a young man of around 10 years during Dancing in the Dark. The boy stole the show at that moment and Bruce and band for genuinely appreciated his joy. Bruce even gave the boy one his guitars to pretend to play during the song, and coached him in the typical Springsteen poses. The boy then proceeded to walk off stage after the song with the guitar still wrapped over his shoulder (until the roadie grabbed him and took the instrument back).

We got away after the concern ok and were home around midnight after 31/2 hours of fantastic music. Great night.

Finished the night with my face, neck and mouth hygiene routine and went to bed around 12.30am.