Hi. I’ve been mucking around tonight with the themes and fonts on my blog so to anyone who is a regular (and I use that term in the widest possible interpretation!) and notices something different-it’s not you it’s me! I’m not super happy with it. The font is bland and the blue background is not quite the shade I was looking for but, my blog is merely a hobby so I won’t fret about it too much. I did put a nice photo as a background, one I took myself of autumn in the nearby suburb of Gowrie but other than that, it’s a bit ordinary. I’ve also included on this post a photo I took of downtown Wyalong a few months ago as Linda and I were tripping around. Nothing significant in it-but it’s nice decoration for this post.
I have thought about buying a domain name and getting the extra features that come with it but it’s a subscription service and I can’t really justify the expense, however minimal it is so matthewsumnersblog.wordpress.com will have to suffice. Drop me a line if you have any thoughts or suggestions about my blog design-or if you just feel like saying hi!
The major news for anyone who is following Linda’s progress with cancer is that she has started a new therapy treatment today after the Capctibene tablets, (the chemotherapy treatment she has been on) finally failed her. It’s not bad news and we certainly aren’t treating it that way. For some time now her cancer markers have been climbing and although that is some cause for concern (it’s a sign that cancer is circulating in your body) the medical professionals don’t use it to measure the cancer’s progress. It’s monitored in conjunction with scans and other blood results to come to a diagnostic conclusion. There are things besides cancer that can elevate the markers but evidently, after two and a half years the old professor has decided the treatment wasn’t doing Linda much good anymore.
There has been a noticeable, shall I say, “winding down” in Linda’s physical performance over the last couple of months and she has certainly been feeling worse and having to take more pain killers than she has before so it’s not a surprise that her former therapy has ceased to be effective. The remarkable thing is that it worked for twice as long as expected-cancer sufferers usually only manage it for twelve or eighteen months-Linda has manged two and half years which she is really pleased with. But, we reached the tipping point, turned a page and another chapter in her story has commenced.
The therapy which began today includes taking a tablet called Verzenio twice a day-morning and night-permanently, or until of course it fails. It is accompanied by two injections in the hips once a month although it is front loaded at the start of treatment and she will have her second injections in two weeks and monthly after that. Then of course blood tests and scans will be required to monitor her health and we move on from here-hopefully well into the future. I do think she has picked up a little already although we are at the very earliest stage of the new treatment.
As for me, I’m going okay. The use of my sleep apnoea machine at night seems to have brought my blood pressure down to normal as my doctor predicted it would so props to her. It’s a bit of a pain having to wear a mask at night but it doesn’t take long to drift off and honestly I feel much better during the day as a result.
I have my yearly bladder check on the 20th, an annoying little Christmas gift I could do without as it involves day surgery at the hospital and an invasive procedure to check things out. Not that I know about it-I’m well sedated but no one likes undergoing these things but it’s better to be safe than sorry.
We are quickly approaching Christmas and the end of the year. This time can be stressful so I hope you are all taking it easy as we count down the days. Take care and I will be back again soon!
Strange Notations From a Laborious Life 