47. 2,017 hexagons

Yep, latest count for my fabric covered hexagons is 2,017 as of last night. I actually worked out that I probably won't need 6,080 as it's the sides of the hexagons that are one inch, or about 2.5cm. Across they are about 5cm one way and about 4 cm the other way. A king size mattress is 183 x 203 cm according to Google. So depending on how I set them up, if they will be the long way across or down it'll depend on how many hexagons I'll need to do. I'm going to do 3,000 and then have a play with the design side, putting them all together to see how the colour wash type thing will go. As it's all my scrap fabric it will probably end up nice and scrappy but also sort of like a watercolour wash too. I'm hoping anyway. I need to cut some more templates soon as I am running low. There are 22 to an A4 page and I've just printed 30 pages. That'll give me another 660. I'll put on a movie or two that I have seen and get cutting later on. I also need to cut out more fabric too. I think I'll go through all the reds from my stash this time.

This past week hasn't quite been as crazy as the week previous. On Monday I went and saw Paula in the morning and then afterwards went and had my blood test. The nurse said the vein up in the inside of my elbow where I usually have it done (and I've had lots of cannula's in when I was sick) still felt a bit hard to her and so she took it from the vein in my hand, just below my ring finger. I stop off on the way home and get some more contact solution (Priceline has it cheapest), have lunch and then get some groceries as well. I had run out of money as the dentist was expensive and so was down to the dregs of what food I had at home until I got my Centrelink payment today. Good thing I have some meals in the freezer I can defrost if I need to.

I was having a chat with a friend on the phone when another call came in, No Caller ID, that usually means it is the hospital. So, I say I'll ring my friend back and pick up the call. Yep, it's one of the nurses from the oncology clinic. They had gotten my blood test results (that's less than 3 hours!) and my neutrophil count was 0.95. It should be over 1. That's one of my white blood cell counts and if it's under 1 then I am not allowed to have chemo. She asks me how I was feeling, how was my temperature - 36.9c - bit higher than my usual - but I feel ok, tired but that's not unusual these days. She says that I need to keep an eye on my temperature a couple of times a day and if I feel off or sick at all then go to emergency as maybe I am trying to fight off something. I'm not surprised my immune system is struggling after last week so I'm fine with the idea of having a week off chemo.

That means Chemo VIII (Taxol IV) will be next Tuesday the 11th. The thing is, I need to have a blood test before and Easter Monday means the blood place will be closed. So, I will go in for my normal appointment at 9.30am, the nurses will take my blood and send it off for urgent testing. That'll take about an hour. Then, depending on what it says I'll either have chemo or if my count is still low they will need to figure out why. So, I could be at the hospital for a while again on Tuesday. Another reason to make sure I'm all stocked up on hexagon templates and fabric.

On Tuesday morning the top of my right ear was hurting and a bit hot. Yes, my RIGHT ear. Mither said that there was a little bit of a cut there and it was a bit swollen. Hmmm, maybe that was why my count was low? I only noticed it as I as lying on my right side and unless I push on it it doesn't hurt or throb. Who knows where the cut came from? Anyone's guess it as good as mine.

I go through my emails and see one from Optus which had come in last week saying they were getting rid of the plan I was on which was $30 a month and 15GB data and were putting me on $49 a month and 100GB of data. No option to say no. I barely even use 5GB of data so I don't need 100, and $30 is already a stretch. I talk with someone and they weren't that helpful, only giving me even more expensive options and didn't seem to care that I said I couldn't afford more. I did some searching online and TPG was having a sale, $10 a month for 6 months and then up to $20 a month and 13GB of data. Sure, I'll swap. Optus didn't seem to care that I was going to dump them. I had dumped Telstra years ago as they had basically done the same thing that Optus had done. So, I call up TPG and talk with a guy and he signs me up. I'm meant to put in my visa card details by using the phone keypad but it doesn't work. He tries FIVE times and then finally says he can do my bank details. That's my preference anyway and why didn't he give me that option first? Hmmm? So, I go through all that, get the email confirmation and once the first payment goes through they'll send my sim card in the mail and then I can active it on their app. Let's hope that is straight forward. I'm guessing the sim card will come on Tuesday because no mail Fri/Mon because of Easter. Temperature is 36.5c and 36.3c and I still feel ok.

Wednesday me, Donna and parents have brunch down at the Audley Cafe for Donna's birthday. After that it's exercise class with Lewis. I had a lot of energy (compared to usual) and so do some heavier weights than I have been. I do some more hexagons, watching videos on YouTube on The Last Homely House channel. Kate is a lady who lives in the north of England and has a lovely voice and I really enjoy watching her videos. Often they are some sort of sewing or craft project but sometimes they are cooking ones, gardening, or she reads from a book, or she films herself cleaning out the kitchen shelves or some other project that is happening. Go check her out, she is very fun and from what I can see a really kind and loving person. We need more of her in the world that's for sure. I also do some Procreate drawing and realise around 7pm that my head feels weird. Oh yeah, I haven't eaten since brunch. Not the best thing! I also am a bit headachy and body achy. Temperature 36c so that is alright. It's probably because I need food. I eat some dinner and then after not being able to really concentrate on a movie I go to bed early.

Thursday I feel much better after a nice long sleep with only one interruption to pee in the middle of the night. I made another size 6 dress this week, out of some fun random fabric I found in my stash. It has little preserve jars on it, apple butter, strawberry jam and peas. It just needs button holes and buttons. I sort of need to psych myself up to do button holes. I'm not the best at doing them as neat as I would like and I need some good strong brain power so I don't go the wrong way or do them too small or too big. I also did 205 hexagons today, fabric covered ones. I didn't forget to eat today and in the evening it was choir practice. Last one for the term. Just after 7.30pm when we were about to start the power went off. At first we thought it was a fuse but then saw the whole street was out too. After a bit of chat someone remembered where there were candles (we are in a church hall and this person goes to church there) and with some people using the torches on their mobile phones we had a very fun choir practice with soft light. The other fun thing is many people in the street came out of their houses, kids and adults, played and chatted because their TV's and internet had stopped working. It was so great that people were actually having face to face conversations again and were off their screens.

Friday Ange, Jon, Evie, Rachel, April and Ash came over. We were going to make some chocolate covered peanut butter eggs (like homemade Reeses Pieces type thing) and decorate them but I didn't have some of the ingredients. I totally forgot that it was Good Friday and that the supermarket shops (and most others) would be closed all day. So, recipe plan changed to banana and oat choc chip biscuits. We needed some choc chips and the petrol station at Loftus was open and had some. After lunch the kids all helped make the recipe. First the bananas needed to be mashed. I think they kids were a bit surprised at the force you need to mash the bananas, even though they were pretty soft and ripe. Ange got up the YouTube video of John Kanell making the biscuits and the kids watched that so they knew what was going on. Ange stopped it after the wet ingredients were put in the mix master and the kids decided who was going to put what in. Luckily the kids all wanted to do different things. Ash put the butter in, Evie did the sugars, April cracked the egg (no shell well done April!) and put that in, then Ash did the vanilla. While that was mixing they finished watching the video. The banana goes in, dry ingredients and then put them on the trays. That was a bit messy but April and Evie had a good go of it. Once they were cooked they were going to decorate them. I had some cream cheese which I whipped up by itself for the "buttercream" and we melted a bit more of the choc chips and then there were sprinkles and silver balls and pink hearts. The kids had a fun time decorating them and eating them too. I tried a bit of one and even though it had sugar in it the banana and oats, cinnamon and nutmeg balanced it enough that it didn't taste like rotten pineapple like sweet things have been.

I wasn't quite having all that of a fun time like the kids. I had a headache, pressure headache as a storm was coming in the evening. When I was in my 20's I had been knocked out on a water slide during the day outing at one of our church camps in Victoria. It's the left side (yep, not the right), about 2cm higher than my eyebrow, just above the outside corner of my eye. If I press on my head there it still hurts and it's been at least 25 years ago. Drs said that can happen, bruised bone sometimes doesn't fully heal. Anyway, I love storms but sometimes the pressure change in the atmosphere gives me a headache. After everyone goes home I go for an hour nap around 4pm and then suddenly it's 7.39pm. Hmmm, my phone alarm. says it's gone off but either I didn't hear it, turned it off or something weird is happening with my phone. I restart it and it's been working fine since.

We did get a fantastic storm around 8pm for about half an hour. The lightning was both sheet and fork lightning. The fork lightning was often going horizontal across the sky which was unusual. Unusual for what we usually see at our house anyway. We had some great loud thunder claps and for most of the storm there was always some constant rumble of thunder going on across the valley. I took some videos and sent them to Mel as she likes storms too and doesn't get as many in Ballarat as we do here. Once the storm was gone my head started to feel much better.

I am still getting joint pain, stabbing or general aches. Currently the outside of my left foot is feeling like it's being stabbed with a hot wire. I did exercise with Lewis this morning and I had to do some lighter weights even though I felt ok energy wise but the pain and aches have been worse today. Tired and fatigue at still a thing. Sometimes I feel like I am doing ok and then bam, really tired suddenly. Even though I had a big sleep yesterday afternoon I didn't have an issue sleeping for almost 10 hours overnight.

I've also lost my fingerprints. This is part of the peripheral neuropathy symptoms. My iPad doesn't recognise my fingers anymore so I have to use the passcode to open it. My phone has facial recognition - which only works about 50% of the time if I am not wearing my contacts. I find that pretty fascinating that it is that sensitive with the facial recognition. Sometimes when I was typing on my phone or iPad the screen doesn't recognise my fingers and I have to tap a few times, sometimes using the side of my finger.. I'll let the nurses know on Tuesday as this is a new symptom. About 90% of people I told about losing my fingerprints told me to go rob a bank. Interesting statistic. My thought wouldn't be a bank as the first place to commit a crime. Maybe somewhere without cameras or security guards would be better. Also, there are many other ways to be caught for a crime that just fingerprints!

So this past week has been ok, especially compared to other weeks I have had. I'm off to do Week Two of my TBI MOOC (Traumatic Brain Injury Massive Open Online Course) now. The new module opened on Wednesday. There will be five weeks for the course. A concussion is a mild traumatic brain injury. Things to remember is that you don't have to pass out to have a concussion, you also don't have to physically get hit in the head or have your head be hit to have a concussion. Repeated concussions (which almost all football players get pretty much every game - I'm talking rugby mainly but other sports are a danger too) is very bad for the brain and can lead to a dementia called CTE - Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy. There is more awareness of this in society now but still a lot of push back from the sports industry to not take responsibility for their players, especially when they are retired. There is also higher risk of Frontotemporal Dementia as well. The brain not only will hit the front and back of the skull with a concussion, but it twists, both sides of the brain go in opposite directions and can essentially sprain the corpus callosum (the nerve bundles that join the two hemispheres of the brain together) which leads to secondary injury and longer lasting or permanent damage. You know, maybe I'll do the MOOC tomorrow. I suddenly just got hit by the tiredness and don't think I'll be able to concentrate well enough.