A good Guide.

I’m here again, even tho I said I would take a break, but I keep finding things to tell you about.

No. 10 done and dusted.  Although my treatment plan is to have 16 treatments, the drug I’m getting at the moment is called Taxol, and I am only getting 12 doses of that, then I will move on to a mixture that they call here A/C, I don’t know the clinical name for those drugs yet, but I’ll fill you in on that when I’m finished the Taxol and know more about it.  It will be administered bi-weekly and will finish sometime in March.  (There will be celebrations!)  All this will be featured in my upcoming novel, 'A reluctant users guide to the Chemo Cocktail entity'!

I think I explained in a previous post about some of the side effects of Taxol, one of them being tingling or pins and needles in your hands and feet, the clinical name for which is peripheral neuropathy.  I'm getting good at these names, that what happens when you ask questions.  I don’t suffer from the feet bit of this, but I have had trouble with tingling in my fingers and lately it has become worse and the tips of my fingers now feel numb.  This is all normal for anybody on Taxol and they assure me that the feeling will come back.  When something like this is raised in my initial assessment by the nurse of the day, I’m always checked over again by a Doctor before the treatment and if they think it will be a problem for me in the future, then they won't treat me.  They treated me today, so nothing to worry about for now.  

For someone who is normally an avid reader, I haven’t been reading at all since my treatment started. I did receive quite a few books as presents when I was diagnosed and made some initial attempts to get started but so far I can’t seem to focus on anything in any of the books and have left them aside for now.  Instead, I am trying to knit a bit and was in the process of sewing something I knit together on Saturday when I noticed that my fingers just wouldn’t work as I wanted them to.  I realized too that they were actually hurting me.  For the first time I was starting to get really pi**ed of about this peripheral and chemotherapy thing, when in walked Tall Kevin with this bag.

My peripheral vision jumped into action, nothing wrong with that!

One of Tall Kevin’s colleagues in work, Arlene, is also a leader with the Buion Naomh Pol Rangers, Eastern Region Girl Guides in her spare time and she sent this package home with Kevin for me.  Once again I’m completely overwhelmed by the kindness and generosity of people, especially by a bunch of young girls that don’t even know me.

Never having been one myself, I know very little about the Girl Guides and what they do.  My one and only experience of what they do was last year when my niece, who is a Girl Guide, was going for one of her merit badges and needed some help from a family member with attaining it.  My brother (yes, Fergus again!) called me and asked me would I be free to help as he and Michele were both busy on the night that assistance was required.  Of course I didn’t hesitate to say yes as I'm always happy to help, nor, at the time, did I question why neither of them were available on a school night to go with their daughter.

As it turns out, Rachel was going for her ‘Helping the Aged’ merit badge!  Suddenly, the fact that Fergus and Michele were not available all made sense.  I really must remember in future not to agree to any requests for help without first getting all the information on the task involved!  Anyway, turns out the joke was on them, as I was (despite being the youngest ‘aged’ person there) royally treated by not only my niece, but by every other young merit badge contender who had all made cake and were eager to make sure that everyone tried every type of cake, biscuit, bun, flan or tart that was on offer.  Some of the cakes were so brightly colored I needed my dark glasses to shield my not so bright any more eyes!  Needless to say, merit badges were awarded left right and center, and I didn’t bring home any cake for Fergus or Michele.  

The Guides from the Buion Naomh Pol Rangers certainly deserve a merit award, or several.  The bag was full of everything a chemotherapy patient could ever need.  I suspected they had done this before, and after consulting with Tall Kevin, I was told that they do do this for other cancer patients, but this one was specially put together for me.

Just look at what’s in the bag:

Tissues for my nose problem.
A super sparkly toilet bag for the 'far too many pill bottles I now have to carry with me everywhere' problem.
Sweets for the dry mouth problem.
Lip balm for the dry lip problem.
Hand cream for the dry hand problem.
Soft mittens and cosy socks for the cold hands/feet problem.
A cushion for the ‘my neck is always at the wrong angle when I’m lying on the couch’ problem.
A water bottle and a coffee cup for my drinking problem!Love hearts, cos they fix any problem!


And these!

Anti-Stress Coloring books.  They will fix my 'I don't know what to do with myself whilst lounging on the couch problem'!  What a thoughtful thing to give to me.  I will really enjoy coloring myself calm.  And if my Girl Guide niece really wants to put her ‘Help the Aged’ merit badge to good use she can visit me and give me advice re color combinations etc. as she is really good at this sort of stuff, and I could use the help.

I just hope the numbness in my fingers doesn’t stop me holding the pens, or making mistakes and going outside the lines.  

I now also have a 'where am I going to put all this stuff' problem! Ha!

Lastly, I want to extend a HUGE HUGE thank you to each and every one of the Buion Naomh Pol Rangers, Easter Region Girl Guides who helped put this pack together.  You don't know me at all but you got everything in it so right.  I’m absolutely delighted with the pack and you made a cranky (not so) old, dry handed, numb fingered, stuffy nosed, always thirsty chemo patient very very happy.  If I can be of help to any of you in achieving any of your merit badges in the future, count me in, I’d be more than happy to help, and of course, I do have previous experience, especially if any of the merits involve eating cake!

Is there a merit badge for sitting on the couch, eating sweets?  I'm good at that too...

Is there a de-merit badge for brothers?

**Disclaimer: Rachel's merit badge may not have been called the ‘Help the Aged’ badge,  I think it's title was actually 'Hostess', but that's just a technicality.