Birthday celebrations and a very special dinner

November seemed to pass in a blur, and finding the time and right space to update the blog proved difficult. 

Een speciaal welkom aan Tante Nell die nu deze blog en veel dank volgende aan Fred voor het verstrekken van Nell met updates.

The first week of November we were busy at the office each day, and at home Alex put the last couple of rows of floorboards in by hand in the front room.

It was Alex's birthday on Sunday 11th November and he decided to celebrate by asking about 50 of his friends and family around for a late afternoon BBQ.  Thankfully the weather behaved and the rain held off while everyone arrived with the requested smile and sense of humour to enjoy a great afternoon & evening celebration.

 

I had made a canvas montage for Alex's birthday - it took a while to edit the photos but the montage provides reminders of the bike trips we've had so far and the milestone birthdays.

Alex had his scans on 15th November.  He wasn't looking forward to the long process, and this time it was unfortunate that he did not have a good reaction.  His body certainly let him know that it wasn't impressed with the whole process.  The following day was "tiger in the tank day" and that morning, we were given the results of the scan.

The good news was that Alex's neck seems to be holding its own and is healing much better than the doctors thought it would.  The neck brace still stays, but at least we know that it is doing some good!  The doctors realised though that the first set of scans that they were comparing this current results with were taken just prior to the first sessions of radiotherapy, and therefore well before the chemotherapy treatments started.  They did find a couple of new tumours, but the doctors stressed that these were very small.  They were unsure if the tumours were there in the first scans or not (they would have been too small to register on the early scans they did).

This meant that they could not provide a full and complete feedback on the effectiveness of the chemo treatment, other than to say that in their opinion, Alex looks remarkably well (considering the cancers, heart problems and neck fracture that is) and he is coping with the chemo with - thankfully - very few nasty side effects.

The doctors have decided that Alex's next chemo "tiger in the tank day" on Friday 7th December would be his last for this year.  After that, they will do another set of scans and then they will compare all 3 sets of scans and they should have a more accurate picture of exactly how Alex is responding to this chemo regime, and decisions will be made from there regarding what treatments and how often he will have them in 2013 and if he will still have to wear the neck brace.  We will also need to have an appointment with the heart specialist.

It was a very long wait for the chemo drugs to be made up, and we were one of the last patients for the day for treatment.  Alex made himself comfortable with his laptop and another James Bond movie to watch while the chemo dripped through.  

Sydney has been blessed with a stunning array of Jacaranda trees this Spring, and the one outside the window above was no exception.  Unfortunately it has not come out very well in this photo at all, but it did make a wonderful backdrop.

This time after chemo and the scans, Alex needed plenty of rest.  Visits to the office were still made almost daily, however he needed plenty of rest.  He spent quite a while with some side effects to this dose of chemo and again his taste buds and appetite took another holiday, destination unknown.  This meant that visits to coffee shops were rare.

The silver lining here is his new chair. This is very comfortable, as a few 2am wake-ups prove - stretched out and feet up on the footrest, it provides an extremely comfortable alternative to bed.

We finished the month with a dinner at our place with Erika, Celina and Leon.  Huge Thanks to Erika who organised this.  We both enjoyed the night very much, and we hope the three of them did as well.

This will be a treasured photo - we couldn't have asked for a better ending to the month.