59. Medals and prizes

After you cross the finish line and want nothing more than to collapse on the ground, someone will be after you to hang a medal around your neck. You might be given a goodie bag, hopefully with some edible treats and a drink. If you are really good you might find yourself called to the prize-giving a little later, but for the likes of me the best I can hope for is a spot prize of some shampoo.

Monday involved the dentist in London for, believe it or not, a four and a half hour session preparing for my implants on the right-hand side. I keep biting my cheek on that side now. I have a couple more visits planned for April to work on the left. The dentist is very concerned about any future extractions now that I have had five infusions of Zoledronic Acid to strengthen my bones, so we will have to wait and see whether that becomes an issue.

While in London I only used one crutch and, even though we didn’t walk that far, I think that whilst pottering around the shops at St Pancras I put too much weight on that side. In the days that followed I had a very painful back, and although my chest infection is better now, the occasional cough was agony.

By the end of the week I seem to be recovering and my walking is improving, although I still have a way to go before the limp disappears. I’m still using two crutches when walking outside although I can hobble around the house unaided. I even managed an hour of gardening, clearing ivy from a tree and chopping up fallen branches, and Sue and I together managed the first cut of the grass as a team effort.

—oOo—

Wednesday’s trip to the hospital was for the start of my maintenance treatment. After bloods were taken we waited for the results, before I was given my new low dose of Lenalidomide – 10mg now rather than the 25mg dose I had at the start of my induction treatment a year ago. I have not noticed any side effects this week and it was nice to sleep at nights and have a Saturday without the hangover from Dexamethasone. I could become used to this. Next week we will have to decide what to do with our free Wednesday.

There was a new patient at the hospital for his first visit this week and he kept going to the desk to complain about the time he was being kept waiting. We have been ground down now and can easily sit reading our books for hours while we wait (for three hours, this time).

—oOo—

Last weekend I was busy printing a couple of entries for the camera club’s Photo of the Year competition. This is an opportunity for everyone to enter the pictures that have scored well over the year for a final competition to see how they fare with a different judge from last time. I mentioned before that preparing an image in Photoshop can take ages, and that printing is another level, deciding which type of paper is best and cutting the mounting board with perfectly straight bevelled edges.

The image I chose for the Monochrome Print category was the one of the BT Tower. It has special relevance now, looking back. It was taken in a tiny side street at the back of the tower on the day of my Melphalan injection at the start of my Stem Cell Transplant, when I could still walk around. While I lay in the hospital bed for the following two weeks, all I could see through the window, day and night, was the purple banner message at the top of the tower. (I have heard that the tower is to be converted into a hotel – I’ll have to book a room and have a look at the hospital.) I subsequently spent hours, as Sue calls it, “mucking about” with the original blue image in Photoshop while I was recovering and couldn’t do much else.

Excuse me for repeating myself but here are the before and after images.

We were home from London too late for me to make it to the club but when Glen, who had kindly taken my prints along, gave me a call to let me know that I had won first place, I had a coughing fit in surprise and couldn’t speak.

I also entered the pictures of the Mods and the bluebell woods.

I can’t wait to attend the club more regularly and be fit enough to go out and take some pictures.

—oOo—

Sue’s Art Course came to an end, and we went to her exhibition at Ditchling Village Hall. That was fun, she and her classmates are a talented bunch. It was good to bump into some friends from the running club while we were there, who told me they have enjoyed my blog.

We swapped Easter Eggs with my sister Liz and her partner Alan, enjoying a lot of coffee and cake, then did the same with the boys on Easter Sunday, so we are well supplied with chocolate and my dentist will no doubt be delighted.

We also went to see our friends Martin and Emma, now proud grandparents. Sue enjoyed a good half hour cuddling baby Sylvia.

Lastly, I can’t decide on these.

Thanks for reading and take care.