19. Hole closed!

This week was a busy one. New Years Day I made a trip to see a GP, not my GP as she is on holidays, but a GP that is open. There is a clinic that isn't too far away, bulk bills and open from 7am to 10pm every day. They don't take appointments but you rock up and they tell you how long it will be. You can either go away and come back, or if its isn't too long then wait. I had about an hour wait and had brought a book to read. The itchy bumps on my arm were still annoying me quite a bit, even with the antihistamine tablet once a day, and I had some arm pain on the inside part of my upper arm. I ended up only waiting 45 mins and saw a lovely lady who ran through why I was there and a brief medical history ('brief'!). She did think that it was a reaction to something, probably the moisturiser, and it could take 2-3 weeks to clear up. Perhaps having the lymph nodes out it might take a bit longer. Keep taking the antihistamine for the itching, no soap, no oil, no moisturiser, nothing on the area that is annoying. Lukewarm water for the shower and use an ice pack if it gets extra itchy and red and hot. The pain is my muscles and tendons waking up from the surgery and being used again with the exercises and stretches I'm doing every day. Ok, good to know. It's now a week later and I haven't taken an antihistamine tablet for 5 days now, some itching but the ice pack helps that, bumps have gone down and today they are much smaller and haven't been red or hot for a few days. It's been about 2 weeks since they first came up so maybe another week they can be gone. Here's hoping.

The drain hole has closed up!!! I went to the community nurse clinic on Jan 3rd and Brendan took the dressing off and said it looks great, nice new skin, no redness. I've been discharged from the clinic now. A whole month they looked after me, every day for 2 weeks and then every couple of days up to Christmas and then the final visit. I highly recommend Southcare for their lovely staff. I will fill in the feedback form and send it off for them. The hole is probably the size of a 5c coin (or a dime for my USA friends and family). It was itchy for a few days but now it's fine.

Stretches and exercises. I have been doing these every day, a few times a day. As well as playing the piano a bit as well. I have got quite good mobility back and can almost get full movement for all of the exercises. Reaching out or up with my right hand to grab something pulls tight sometimes and I have to remember to not push it too much. I occasionally get a weird 'rope' or 'cord' feeling on the inside of my arm from my elbow up to my armpit and into my boob. Not painful really, just weird! I even could see and feel it once. I can lie on my right side of about 20 minutes now. Under my right arm/armpit it feels like there is fabric or something bunched up, probably scar tissue. It's getting less. I wonder how long it will take to go away.

I've had some fun times with nieces and nephews, cousins and friends this past week. Erik and Anna were over a couple of times this week to play. Anna decided to "jazz" up my hair by putting a My Little Pony clip with extra mane hair into my hair. It just hung on and didn't fall out. It was a light blue plastic clip with a light mauve synthetic hair she put slightly off set on the top of my hair so the mane cascaded over my right ear. Many giggles over that photo! Evie came and helped make a lemon/lime olive oil cake for Grandma (her birthday is on the 9th). Evie is a great baker, I have a lot of fun with her. She is very good at following the directions and is getting better at cracking eggs. By the third one there was less smashed to smitherines shell and more cracked shell only. The kids helped decorate the chocolate rum cheesecake I had made for Rach and Evie decorated the cake she made for Mither all by herself.

My new UV protector hat and shawl arrived. I went for a walk with a friend along Botany Bay (from the Dolls Point end up and back) and used them, even though the sun wasn't out it was a strong glare to start. It was also blowing a gale which I love. We had to duck and take cover a few times as rain showers blew across the water from Kurnell but it was really great catching up in person.

My cousin Sonja and her daughter Jolie came down for the weekend, they live up north, almost to the QLD border. I spent a lot of time with them. I think it's been almost 4 years since I'd seen them. They joined in with our family get together for birthdays on Saturday (Mither and Rach) and we had a delicious Mexican feast which Jon made on Sunday and then a swim in the ocean at Woonona. There were some late nights and that's one of the reasons this blog post is a bit late.

Talking about late nights, many of my friends live overseas so there is the whole time difference thing to contend with. Many times it's easier to text using WhatsApp or Signal but sometimes it's just better to talk. One of my best friends sent me a message just before 3am on Friday and we decided to have real talk for about half an hour or so.....3 hours later the sun is coming up and the birds are chirping. Probably best if I get some sleep! Totally worth staying up as it had been many months since we have had a real catch up.

I had another appointment this week, Dr Man, on Friday. He'd read all my blog as was up to date apart from the last few days. Asked if I wanted to add anything else, I gave him an update won the itchy bumps, by this time I could tell they were starting to get better. He told me my heart ECHO was fine. He gave me a prescription for Gasto-stop, just in case I get the runs with chemo. Here's hoping I don't, but I think I would rather get the runs than vomit...or womitting as Zaeli says. Stay tuned for what side effects will showcase themselves in my life next week! The nurses at the reception said I need to get a referral from my GP so all my oncology appointments etc can be bulk billed to medicare. No one had told me that yet so I made an appointment with my GP for Wednesday. I had another blood test, ready for the PORT instalment on Monday. He also said that when I start chemo to text him every 2 days to tell him how I am feeling. It was POURING on Friday and very windy. Got quite wet going to and from the appointment. We got 88.5mm of rain at our house. Haven't had rain like that since before Oct last year when it was basically constant for the whole year. I'll see Dr Man on the 20th again, and probably once more after that before he goes to another position and I get a new oncologist. I hope they are as nice as he is.