Day: September 20, 2017

I’m due my next chemo tomorrow and we’ve had a bit of a fuss about it over the past couple of days. I get my blood test results now on the same or the next day, over the internet, so I’m as well informed as my medical team. And I found that my white cell count was lower on Monday than on the corresponding day before my last treatment, which they thought twice about proceeding with for that very reason.

So I suggested to the hospital that we should postpone tomorrow’s treatment for a week to allow the level to recover, as I’ve had two weeks of misery since my last chemo due the level being so low.

They’re a great team at Périgueux and instead of looking down their noses at the patient of all people for having an opinion about their treatment, as I knew they wouldn’t, they suggested a compromise. This was for me to have two more Tevagrastim booster injections yesterday and today and then to attend as usual tomorrow, when as last time, they’d do a blood test. Then, depending on the results, which take about an hour, we’d decide whether to go ahead with the chemo or not.

So I had my second booster this afternoon, as planned. They’re amazing over here how quickly things can be laid on and made to happen, without delay, unlike what seems to be the general experience now in the UK when it seems usual to have to wait weeks for your next ‘appointment’.

OK, there’s a high degree of patient involvement over here and it was up to me to take the prescription to the pharmacie, order the Tevagrastim, pick it up later in the afternoon, place it in my fridge and take each dose to the nurse in the ‘Cabinet d’Infirmières’ at Rouffignac at the scheduled times for her to do the business and inject it into the wall of my stomach (sorry for any readers of a nervous disposition).

So I received the second one today and as I was already feeling better than I had for most of the past two weeks, I thought I might take the afternoon off and slip into Malbec, which is only just down the road from Rouffignac.

And am I glad I did because it was absolutely gorgeous there today, with a clear blue sky and lovely warm sunlight that was just right for me without being too hot. As I stood outside the hangar and looked around, I felt that I was coming to back life again and I had a genuine feeling that today was a kind of watershed and that I’d turned a corner.

Yes, I know that there’s still a way to go with my treatment and that I’m unlikely to get little, if any, respite before my next scheduled scan on 30th November, but I have this really positive feeling now that I really am closer to the end than to the beginning.

If any other sufferer of this repulsive disease is reading this and is still at the lowest point of their cycle, please take that thought and hang onto it. I’ve now had feedback from several other people who’ve all been treated and cured and they’ve all said that the same thing happened to them. So even though it might seem a distant objective, take heart because it will also happen for you.

Anyway, onto other things. I took a few pics while I was at Malbec and although unfortunately I only had my phone with me, they show what a truly joyous afternoon it was. First, the runway from outside the hangar, straight into the sun I’m afraid so the quality is especially poor.

Here’s a shot that I took after I’d opened the hangar up.

Victor and Madeleine are away for a short while at present so I thought that I’d have a go in Victor’s absence at doing the work to secure the Savannah’s nose wheel cowling. Here’s a shot of it standing in the hangar.

Victor and I had been struggling like mad to get the fixings to align the last time we worked on it and Victor had left me with a long screw before he left. Would you believe it, it went in like a piece of cake this time and when I established that all was well, I brought it home with me to cut down to fit it permanently.

Here’s a shot of 77ASY from the other side with 28AAD in the background that I took after I’d fitted the screw.

And finally, a shot of 28AAD itself, my lovely little French Weedhopper standing at the back of the hangar.

The way I feel today, I can’t wait to get that little beast back together and ready to fly. That unfortunately probably can’t happen until 56NE, my X-Air has been sold so space is vacated in the barn. But never mind, I can wait, and it’s just great to have these positive feelings again and the knowledge that yes, never fear, I will be back up there again. Maybe not tomorrow or next week, but sometime not too far away, I just know it 😉