We had a good night last night but Jon was awake at 6.00 and so decided to go down and watch the Grand Prix. I woke up to take the dog out but went back to bed for an hour.
We had an appointment at Tauranga Hospital, Cancer Clinic this morning at 9.00 and saw a very nice doctor, Michelle, who is the medical oncologist in charge of Jon's chemo. She kindly went over the treatment plan that Hermann spoke about last week and thankfully wrote it all down for us as we told her we were getting a bit confused by it all. Glad to say she has decided on chemo tablets for Jon and so he won't have to have the 'bum bag' and 'condom'!!! He will have three or four tablets twice a day for six weeks along with the radiotherapy but he will take them every day as opposed to radiotherapy where he has a break at weekends. He will also have another course after the surgery to 'clear up any spills'. All in all his treatment will take 8 months. She said it would probably cause diarrhoea and possibly nausea and so he has tablets to take for both of those if they happen. If it gets too much they will 'tweak' the dose to try and control it. Talking about Jon's bowel habits is becoming a normal part of conversation these days!! Hopefully, at the end of the chemo/radiotherapy treatment the cancer will be gone and the surgeon will just need to remove the debris and the tumour further up the colon. We are lucky it has been caught at an early stage.
Jon will see Michelle every two weeks on a Monday morning before he goes across to Hamilton. He is now coming round to the idea of staying in Hamilton and Michelle said that driving could be a problem if he decides to travel everyday as he will be tired and so it would be dangerous and he will be able to work over there as they have Wi-Fi but we will talk about that tomorrow and go and have a look at the lodge.
He will have to have a blood test every two weeks so after our appointment this morning we went to Central Med and he had his first one. Next time he goes he will be given a book to log the results - a bit like a coffee loyalty card!! I put his prescription in to the pharmacy there and they say as it is a very expensive drug they have to order it and so I will need to collect it tomorrow. We will need to make sure we don't run out and order the next two weeks in plenty of time. Prescriptions here in NZ are very cheap and we only pay $3 per item (1.50 no pound sign on this new computer keyboard!).
We then went to the supermarket to get a few things and save me having to come out again. We picked up some coffees on the way back and when we got home Jon watched the end of the Grand Prix and then went to work.
A couple of friends phoned during the day to see how things are.
I looked into the garden and saw a jumper hanging over the back of one of the chairs. It belongs to Heather and I remember she left it there when she went out on the kayak and she obviously forgot to bring it in. Never mind it wouldn't have fitted in the case anyway!! I will post it or take it when we go over.
I sent some emails and then did some housework and put the house to rights again so it is as if the girls were never here!!! It was such a horrible day today and the rain at times was lashing against the windows and you could not see across the bay. I decided to light the fire and then the house feels better. I had to use the dryer for all my washing today as I had all the bedding and towels from the girls. I feel a heavy bill coming in this month.
I did manage to get Tot out for a walk this afternoon between showers. We were forecast to have thunder and there has been a lot around the country but so far we have been lucky.
Jon came in at 6.30 and I more or less had the dinner ready and I was so hungry tonight.
We watched TV, listened to the rain and then it was bedtime.
WEATHER
Strong winds and heavy showers for most of the day 18 degrees.
No comments:
Post a Comment