'Up'

I am happy to be back on my feet and possibly owe this to the steroids that have been introduced to my cocktail of drugs. Last week I was in hospital having a small operation on my back. It went well and morphine is now targeted specifically to the nerve sensors for the lower body. In other words, my head is a lot clearer. I have developed a tendency to headaches which is possibly a temporary side effect of the recent operation. The solution is to lie on one's back . . . tricky in Betty’s. On the subject of my head, my consultant is not fully persuaded that my brain is clear of the disease and as a result I had an MRI scan on Monday. I am awaiting the results and will of course let you know.

We are continuing to receive great support from our friends in Poppleton, meals, lifts, dog walkers and flowers have been forthcoming in adundance. We have also been very touched by messages of support from so many of you as we try to live as normally as possible in the circumstances.

Pancake day

Forgive the dreadful analogy, but I have just been reminded by my children that it is pancake day and ,like the famed pancake, it has been a time of highs and lows.(You see why the poet in this house isn't me...) Last weekend and the days that followed were very rough for Mark and I took the week off work as he was so frail. However, at the end of the week he improved dramatically and began to eat, and get out of bed. It seems that after the initial bad reaction the steroids began to do their stuff.
Mark's brothers all arrived in York on Friday for their relocated 'brothers' weekend' and after some take-away/movie/Betty's therapy It was felt that a great weekend had been had by all. A definite high.
This morning Mark had an operation to have a morphine pump fitted via a spinal catheter. This allows the morphine to get into the system directly without the side effects of the oral morphine. The operation went well, although it is trial and error to get the right dosage etc. so he needs to stay in hospital for a further 2 nights.
In the mean time Mark's parents are staying in town and are poised for hospital visiting/cooking/child care activities. The girls are performing in the Poppleton panto Sinbad the Sailor this week and Gran and Grandpa, myself and Joel will all be in attendance for the first night tomorrow...Oh yes we will!
Thanks for visiting the blog and may all your pancakes be perfect.
Mary

Hi all

Mary and I met with the consultant on Thurdsay so that he could give us the latest news, and I am afraid that it isn't good. A couple of weeks ago when I met with the palliative care consultant she asked me if I wanted to know the prognosis(ie.how long I had left). I said that I would talk about it with Mary, which I did, and we agreed that practically it would be useful on many fronts. So Sebag Montefiori asked me what I thought my prognosis was and I gave an estimate of a year. He said he thought that, unfortunately, I was being optimistic and that we should probably be thinking more in terms of months, although he acknowledged that it was impossible to be precise in these matters. He has delayed the chemo as he felt I wasn't able to tolerate it at the moment. He has also booked me in for a more detailed brain scan as he still has concerns about my periods of confusion. We have told the girls and they are obviously very upset, as are we.


(Mary writing)
I have just taken over the blog for now, as we wanted to get this out to you all but Mark is still a bit too weary. We had plans in place to get away this weekend to try and get to grips with everything. Our friend Rachel came down from Glasgow to be with the children so that we could escape nearby to a hotel but, unfortunately, an adverse reaction to some steroids meant that we had to call out the emergency GP and Mark was bedridden. On a positive note, the good people of Poppleton are proving to be tremendous and there has been a relay team of meal providers, dog walkers, lift givers and supporters. Naomi was whisked away to an audition yesterday at the Theatre Royal and is now one of a team of twenty munchkins to be seen somewhere near Oz in May. Martha has been away on an outward bounds prefect-training residential course this weekend and Joel continues to take pleasure from Spongebob Squarepants...We will update in due course. Many thanks for visiting the blog.