Cycle 3 in the Tao of Tash, more Chemo and Herceptin

Today's menu

Aperitif
Sodium Chloride (saline flush)

Antipasti
A selection of fresh steroids served infused in a light Sodium Chloride
Dexamethasone Injection
Granisetron Injection
Chlorphenamine Injection
Ranitidine Injection

Primi Pasti
Lightly tossed Paclitaxel (Taxol) 500ml in a Sodium Chloride Juis

Secondi
Fresh Trastuzunab (Herceptin) of the day

Refresher
Sodium Chloride (saline flush)

Dolci
A selection plate of our desserts
Domperidone Tab
Granisetron Tab
Dexamethasone Tab
or
Arthrotec
Hyosine

Coffee and Mints
Movicol Sachet
Bisacodyl

There is only so much that you can write that makes sitting in a cubicle with your wife whilst she is pumped full of chemicals sound interesting. Apart from the occasional moment of excitement (see Cycle 2), things are as boring, as well, being at work really.

Our last two visits to the LOC have been sub-tropical affairs, today there was no Air/con for the first part and only a small apology that 'the A/C people are here and they are looking at it' which from my experience means 'it is very broken and they have come to all stand around the control panel, wondering how it has managed to do that'

Last week was insanely busy for me and very social for Tash so we really didn't get to see each other much until the end of the week. On Friday night we got to spend the evening together doing normal coupley things, drinking, arguing and then later on rubbing olive oil unto her naked and sore scalp. Come on now, don't tell me that you haven't done that too! (not to Tash, I hasten to add, she is not that type of girl)

Also while we are on the Charity front Mr & Mrs Vince are running the Toronto leg of 'CIBC RUN FOR THE CURE' breast cancer research fund raiser, in the name of Tash. Though this is only 5Km's, those of us who know Vince greeted this with the sort of shock and physical concern that should have been reserved for Fiona's ultra triathlon. Obviously being my mate I wish him and Mirelle luck and I also hope that down town Toronto can recover from the sight of those spindly legs.

The website for his event is here

Tash has asked me to mention that our chum Fiona has recently triathaloned her way to Paris in the name of Charity ('Char-iddy Mate' - some English jokes are too complex to explain, so I won't bother here), though not one directly connected with us, but seeing as Tash has never stopped being an adolescent, raising sixty grand for the UK Teenage Cancer Trust seems a good reason for a mention. She and several other 'highly competitive motivated corporate individuals' from Canary Wharf based banks Credit Suisse and Morgan Stanley relay raced down to Dover on foot, swam across the channel and then cycled in to Paris. Personally I would have taken the Eurostar.

The website for the event is here

It has been a bit of a slow news day here at Chez Dean. I have spent all my time running around trying to buy and fix stuff that has gone by the wayside over the last six weeks, namely the wing mirror off the car that Tash remodelled recently (see Cycle 2...)

Tash equally has had a fixing day, hers slightly less successfully than mine (you should note that I had only one thing go right today). She has spent most of the day trying to track down a parcel Francesca kindly sent to her from Italy. In another fine example of this country's magnificent postal service, it has been mislaid some where between Verona and London Bridge. More London Bridge than Verona I suspect.

In the time that Tash wasn't arguing with the ParcelForce automated call system, John Lewis and Tower Hamlets Parking Enforcement Office, she spent some more time sewing and generally making things. One of her recent creations can be seen left, modelled by Sarah, striking quiet a 50's housewife pose.

Sickness 0%

Tiredness 30%

Sunday 11th September

Lacking a sense of humour

It had to happen at some point, neither Tash or myself have been particularly cheery this week, maybe it will turn out to be "Cycle 3 Blues", or maybe work responsibilities and her continual tiredness are getting to us both.

Despite our glumness, we have spent the entire weekend having sugar rushes from Francesca's parcel that finally got tracked down on Friday.

It is quiet odd trying to sit still and watch/support your country/cheer at the mishaps of the opposing team/bicker about whether Geoff Boycott should be aloud on TV/have an argument about how we are winning - they are loosing/generally have both of us display a fantastically poor grasp of Cricket - whilst we can't keep still due to the "Sicilian box of tricks"

If you have never experienced a Sicilian sweet, you need to be aware that they are;

A) shaped like cute'sy little fruits which is ironic as they could never be mistaken as being even the most remotely healthy for you and

B) ohh yes, they are about 95% sugar.

I don't have a particularly sweet tooth, but ummm can I leave them alone...........no

In other news......

There is a new "Cycle1, Cycle2, Cycle3..etc" button system, I only tell you because it is made in an application called Flash, some ones idea of a joke surely, but it is not a Microsoft application, thus there are circumstances when it will not work for some people, if it doesn't, please tell me.

Likewise and much more interestingly, Ladies and Gentlemen may I present The Rules of Cancer Club, at last......

This took a lot longer and was much more complicated than I first imagined, so there are a couple of rough edges, some timing is a bit off, that sort of thing. The biggest being that there is no pre-loader, so the screen will be blank for the couple of minutes that it takes to load. If you are doing it over a telephone line, it is only 856k, so shouldn't take too long. Enjoy.

Wednesday 20th September

Missed me?

There comes a time in every man's life where he has to admit that sometimes his life isn't really that interesting and I am afraid that I may have reached that this week. I am still working a lot, so haven't been hanging out with the girl so much - this means less humorous stories for you.

When I have been home, I have been press ganged into more work, of an unspecified nature -this however may become available next month some time in between the standard 'Mr Fix-it' role that I play to Tash around the house;

'ohh gosh I seem to have removed the car wing mirror',

'...the printer didn't work, so I threw it out the window ’,

'does the TV want a drink of water'

..............and that sort of thing. You note I have edited these to remove Tash's usual Anglo saxon embellishments.

So the only times I am seeing Tash at the moment is when she wakes me up for snoring or when she is standing over me shouting 'code, code for your life, code that webpage or you'll be for it' and as the Flying Spaghetti Monster is my witness I do. You'll note the new extra entries on 'that therrrr yonder Photos panel arr jim lad' (if you read the FSM page, you'll get the joke there)

We might have some more interesting news in Sunday's update, then again we might not, so you might never know.

Ta Ta Cycle 3

Well doesn’t time fly…….

Whilst not wishing to make this blog too much like Gwyneth Paltrow’s Oscar acceptance speech

“…I wanna thank <sniff> my momma <sniff> and God and I also wanna thank Jim the Barman from the pub, hey luv ya mate!...<sniff> I want to also thank our Onco’ and all those lovely nurses…and did I thank scruffy the dog from next door, no! <waaaaaiiiiiilllllllll>”

I will do the thank you's first and then move on; my Aunt Betty, well technically not, but within those odd family naming conventions she always was (be an Aunt or an Uncle, one size fits all and you don’t even have to be related to anyone), even though as she points out, she is really my Father’s cousin. All this is completely lost on me unfortunately as I have never felt comfortable enough with my family to use such names, but there you are.

Betty has been following our exploits through the medium of paper and postage as her computer has decided that it doesn’t want to play ball with this website. She has spent a considerable amount of time charting the Dean family tree and posted us a lovely letter, chockies and… hmm…. a mouse related fridge magnet from her recent trip to see my Canadian second cousin who was in Paris recently.

Despite moaning a lot recently about how busy I have been, I did manage to get out last week to see my accountant Paresh. Now I appreciate that this may not seem like a bundle of fun, but he was kind enough to come and see me in a show of support as his wife also ‘works for the same company as Tash’, if you get what I mean.

Though my work colleagues and friends do a very good job of helping me get to the pub as much as possible (Men, you appreciate have only two methods of emotional support, taking you to the pub or helping you fix or build something. As there is a shocking lack of broken cars and unfinished DIY projects to be found at work, it is mostly support by booze.)

It was nice to be able to talk about things and have someone there who has been in the same boat.

I felt a lot better afterwards, except for my hangover, which obviously made me feel very un-good.

Big news of the week has been the first lot of scans. In considering that Tash and I use the ‘moving goal posts’ method of defining good news, anything other than the most negative results were going to be treated as good news, things as it turned out aren’t too bad.

We have 4 friends, Tom, Dick, Harry and Dave. (I have named them; this is not normal medical procedure)

Tom and Dick have shrunk to half their pre-treatment size, Harry has not changed, though the Radiologist suspects that he may be faking it and isn’t really what he seems to be and Dave is bigger than before, though equally, the Radiologist’s notes suggest that he may not have grown, as we didn’t get a good view of it last time.

Tash has now seen some scans of her liver and we will try to get some for this webpage at some point.

In the meantime I have produced a helpful graphic to assist you in visualising them.