Update: July 2026

2026 07 02

All aboard the chemo merry-go-round!

We’ve just confirmed that my chemo will start tomorrow. Gail and I will have a consultation at 11:30 with one of Garth’s medical officers to sign consent, and then it’s straight to the chemo room for between 2 and 3 hours.

As before, the cycle will be a longer session on Day 1 (tomorrow), a shorter one on Day 8 (hopefully next week Friday), and a two-week break (with “quarantine time” for about the first week of the break). All going well with blood tests, each cycle will start 3 weeks after the previous start, for a total of 6 cycles. Last year, we saw the pronounced effect of having had chemo previously, and this will probably be the same. So the whole series could take up to a month extra to complete.

The next CT scan will probably be towards the end of Cycle 3.

I’m hoping to dance as much possible during my non-quarantine times, although there will also be days of post-chemo ‘crashes’. We’ll address it all, one precious day at a time.

Thank you for riding this merry-go-round with me!

May whatever merry-go-round you are each riding, of your own, play the best possible music and not make you too dizzy!

So much love to all of you. 🌹❤️

(Photo credit: Jagoda Lalik)

 

2026 07 03

Thanks for all the lovely messages of support!

It all went well today, and the merry-go-round played good music.

And both of the women I chatted with, today, had read and enjoyed the copy of my book that’s been circulating in the chemo room!

Although the day was quite tiring, I enjoyed demolishing a huge slice of carrot cake afterwards, and am feeling fine to dance – which is great, as Sunday is the 11th World Circle Dance Day and we’ll do the three selected dances tomorrow and next Thursday.

The Carbo-Gem that I’m having is a combination of two chemos: Carboplatin and Gemcytabine. On Day 1 of each cycle, I have both together – hence the longer session – and on Day 8, only Gemcytabine. So if the blood counts from next Thursday afternoon’s blood test are high enough, I’ll have the shorter session next Friday.

As you can see from the photos, after fetching Neria from doggy daycare we stopped at the water round the corner from home, as the sunset was pretty and Neria also enjoyed being there.

Lots of love 🌹❤️

 

2026 07 10

Hi everyone –

Well, the merry-go-round did make me dizzier than I would have liked, this week! 🎠🎠

Saturday was wonderful, with lots of dancing; Sunday was fine; but Monday onwards was not great, with a post-steroid crash that lasted and lasted. (After feeling so very well, my body just wasn’t used to being zapped by all those substances!)

By yesterday, I was convinced that I needed a blood transfusion, and said so when I went to the hospital for the blood tests I needed for today’s chemo. Astonishingly, the results were really good!

They told me to test again this morning, which I did. After the usual long wait for results: still fine, with some of the levels even better than yesterday.

So we were able to do the Day 8 chemo today.

I’m still feeling wiped out (with persistent itchy skin rashes that have been around for a while now – a common side effect of both the hormone injections and the chemo). Daunting as this is, there’s nothing actually amiss.

Now begins my time of high susceptibility ... so there will be a lot of rest and no proximity to anyone other than Gail.

I’m waving to you 👋🏼 from this merry-go-round and wishing you all the best for whatever your current merry-go-round 🎠 is.

Lots of love 🌹❤️

(Collage: sunrise on chemo Day 1, by Heather; Layla – watching over me – surprised when I threw the sheet over her by mistake on getting out of bed.)