24. Drug testing

Mile 21 – Nice and flat.

Occasionally elite athletes make the headlines with doping scandals, but it’s not something you hear about at my level. Running clubs aren’t like gyms, full of pumped up bodybuilders swapping steroids. Still, I’d better give it a few weeks before I let anyone test me.

That’s it for the chemotherapy for a while: I have finished my last week of cycle five, and my tablet consumption is now next to nothing. I’m just on a low dose of the steroid Prednisolone, and I’ll be reducing that over the next couple of weeks. I’m feeling more normal, I have more energy, and my gastric system no longer needs the laxatives.

I’m looking forward to telling you about the next stage, the Stem Cell Transplant, but I’ll save that until I hear from the hospital with a date. At the moment, I still don’t know when it will be.

We celebrated by booking a short holiday at a Warner Leisure hotel on Hayling Island, close enough to home that we could return if I had any medical emergencies. It was good to be away from home for the first time in ages, and to eat too much in the buffet restaurant. There were views over Langstone Harbour where we could watch the tide come and go, and the seabirds feeding. There were also some unexpected facilities.

On the way there we visited Arundel. We have sat in the traffic on the A27 and looked at the castle and cathedral in the past, but not stopped to look around. We found a good bookshop, this one just kept going up and up as we climbed the stairs. 

I’m not saying it’s posh, but as we sat having a cup of tea we saw the local taxi service picking up some passengers.

The cathedral was worth a visit, dedicated to Our Lady and St. Philip Howard, who is mentioned in ‘Prophecy’, one of the S.J. Parris books I recently read.

We did a lot of walking this week, over 12,500 steps a day, and my hip is greatly improving. We visited the Weald & Downland Living Museum near Chichester on our first day away, and walked around for five and a half hours. The museum has a fascinating collection of old wooden framed houses that have been saved from destruction in Sussex, Hampshire and Kent, and rebuilt at Singleton. It was inspired by the destruction of similar old buildings when Crawley New Town was being built (about the time my Mum and Dad moved there during the 1950s).

—oOo—

After all that exertion we took it easy for the next few days, with more sitting about at the hotel, reading and watching the cricket, and the odd stroll to the beach. The weather was very kind, and we both topped up our tans.

—oOo—

By the end of this week, as the last effects of the Dexamethasone have worn off, my appetite is calming down. I enjoyed my first Saturday in five months without a ‘hangover’, and went to the Claire parkrun in Haywards Heath to help marshal, and catch up with some friends. I can’t wait to start running again.

In the afternoon, there was a ‘Pants to Leukaemia’ event held locally at Danny House, which, I understand, had been publicised nationally by Zoe Ball on Radio 2. It was well supported in the village, with all the shops decorated with blue and orange bunting. Although intended for families with small children, we enjoyed ourselves, and had a chat with a friend as we ate our hot dogs. The lady who organised the event was inspired to do so by her very young son, who is undergoing treatment for the disease. It means much more to me now, of course, and I was happy to go and support.

On Sunday we went to an art exhibition in Hassocks. Sue has been thinking of joining an art class for a while now, but my treatment has put her plans on hold. We saw what they had been doing, and it was very encouraging. 

In the afternoon I unleashed the bike from the confines of the turbo trainer, slipped into my bib shorts (don’t worry, I don’t have a picture of that), and went for a short ride along the country lanes. That’s more fun than being inside the garage, so I’ll try going a bit further next week, in between the showers.

Thanks for reading and take care.