Eating chocolate in Lent

I suppose if I happened to say one day 'Tuesdays are for Chocolate' you'd all go 'yeah yeah' and it wouldnt have quite the same impact. (By the way, did you notice our birthday fell on a Wed, how useful was that!)

Anyway, I'm taking this challenge to put on weight very seriously and today I was accused of having a belly! Chocolate, cakes, sweets, children's leftovers it's all going down. We saw Justin our Registrar for our first 3 week check up on Friday. They weighed me once and then re-weighed me without my boots on because I'd put on so much! He decided that I looked so well that they'd get me back in for a check up in 7 weeks rather than 3!

I was delighted!

There was a time when I was a bit worried at the prospect of time out from the fight but in fact it feels great - a real gift. I was washing my face this morning (and checking the new hair do) and for a just a moment, I virtually forgot I was poorly. I do inevitably remind myself immediately, I can't help it. It feels wrong to pretend something so threatening isn't really that bad, but at least there are some moments when the illness isn't right in front of my nose.

Friday's appointment was also funny because I think Chris and I both went wanting a Do's and Dont's List for how to live through this next phase. Chris pointed out to Justin that chatting late into the night, skipping meals and being at the beck and call of two kids (he didn't mention running events at church and treking all round the country to see friends too) was probably not helping my recovery from the effects of chemo. Basically Justin plus the colleague medic sitting in on the consultation, said 'whatever she's doing seems to be working, let her be!' He said at one point 'if all our cancer patients had a handle on how to do it as well as Ali, we'd have it easy'

So I went home and had an afternoon nap, to prove to myself that Doctors aren't always right - I think I could actually use some more sleep! And anyway I was tired.

So, just to be clear, my blood test last time didn't indicate anything alarming (3,520 up from 3,250 at the time of the scan, and a long way off the scarey 45,000) . They were therefore confident enough that I don't need to see anyone till Easter time (Thurs 13th April to be precise). I did another blood test on Friday and will do one the week before I see them. That way we can build up a picture of cancer activity post chemo. Obviously we all know that things won't stand still, but what we dont know is, how long it'll take to get bad again. More chemo at some point is a certainty but this respite in the treatment is for now. That's good enough for me.

Better blog off to bed. 'Rest is my friend, rest is my friend...'