Down

Not been a good couple of days for the good guys - well for this one at least!
I toddled off to Wales and saw the new house - the next generation are getting settled now, there is the same amount of stress but I think it's more positive stress - when they find a problem they can do something about it, which has been a frustration while they have been in rented property. At least they can put up shelves and bolt things to the wall, which has always required written permission in triplicate before... And they seem to have ended up with a glut of fridge-freezers, the one installed in the new house being preferred to the one they had, I have ended up with a rather whizzy German fridge-freezer to replace the very tatty elderly one I inherited from my Mum some years ago...

We went off to London Tuesday afternoon to do some clearing at the Aged Aunt's house which is being sold - everything must be out by this weekend as the sale will complete next Monday. I didn't feel that I did much, spent much of the day up a ladder pulling dusty crockery and greasy saucepans out of cupboards that haven't been touched in years - AA has been confined to a wheelchair for getting on four years, so her ability to get at stuff in high cupboards has been limited. I think there were about 20 saucepans, of which she'd used 2 in the last 2 years... Most of the furniture has now been shifted to storage in Sussex, where it will be decided what is to be kept, what to be sold and what to be dumped... It wasn't a great fun job, as the house has been empty for some weeks and there is a gap about 2 inches under the back door, so the place has been overrun with mice - all the saucepans and crockery were full of mouse pooh, which wasn't so nice, particularly for those of us with a bit of an infection phobia! However it's all mostly done and I think there is one more trip scheduled for Saturday to get the last few bits and clear the rooms upstairs that the nephews have been using as their London pied a terre for the last couple of weeks... They were just getting settled too, and now they are evicted, poor lads!

I spent yesterday cleaning out two fridge-freezers so was pretty worn out by the end of the day - the one from Wales wanted a bit of a wipe over, ours was well overdue for a proper clean, so that kept me busy for most of the day. The older one has now been advertised on Freecycle - it still works, it's slightly scruffy and 12 years old so not worth money but will do someone a turn for a while.
The trouble is when one gets involved in a job like cleaning fridges, one might just forget that one is on a three-hour painkiller cycle... I took the pills in the morning and got all enthusiastic about spray cleaners and rubber gloves - by the time I got both of them clean, the new one in place and switched on and the old one out in the carport with the freezer defrosting I was a bit weary. I then made the big mistake of jumping in the car to go and take the library books back, rushing before the library closed at 6, and on the way home thought I would pop round the supermarket... It was half way through the fresh veg aisles that I realised I hadn't taken any painkillers since 10am and that my legs were protesting and close to refusing to function, which would have been a tad embarrassing. Retail therapy was therefore cut rather short and I got home with only just enough energy to get myself into the house. A long hot bath and many drugs were required before I could face even heating up ready-made pasta... which of course I can't taste at all. I am in mouth-ulcer mode this week, my poor tongue is very sore indeed and my whole mouth feels as though I have drunk boiling acid. Not fun at all - I can't even enjoy a G&T at the moment, which is really quite depressing.

Today has been rather difficult as well. Himself had a driving job today so was out early - I felt fairly ropey so went back to sleep. Should have taken more painkillers... Got up just after nine to go to the loo and was hit by crippling pain - this is day seven of the chemo cycle and of course that means I have been taking the GCS-F (to boost my immune system) for six days. The pain that hit me this morning (on top of the fact that everything aches anyway) was the reaction to the GCS-F, which manifests as a massive pain in the pelvic region which then spreads all the way up the trunk and down the legs. I was told recently that this is because it's stimulating activity in the big bones which have marrow and create blood cells... I can take painkillers to damp it down, but they took quite a while to kick in, so in the end I was lying abed whimpering until after 12. I have run a couple of loads of laundry through but my ambitious plans to continue spring-cleaning (ok, autumn-cleaning) the kitchen have all come to naught. Just to add insult to injury, as I sat in bed feeling sorry for myself my nose started to bleed uncontrollably - this has happened a couple of times, it stopped eventually but still wasn't very nice!
I am starting to feel that I need to go and take more drugs now as things are starting to ache rather. The mouth has been reasonably settled for a couple of hours, but I should probably go and rinse with the Gelclair mouthwash (which forms a coating to protect the sore skin) quite soon, otherwise eating supper will be difficult - and I have an idea it's going to be pasta in tomato sauce again as it's a) quick and easy b) cheap c) soft on my mouth and d) in the fridge already.

It must be getting late in the day, the radiators are gurgling... I have been really brave and not put the heating on this afternoon, it's been blooming chilly though - this time of year with no hair is not much fun!