Yarnivorous

G'day all! Here I display Proof of Knitting! Yes this almost pair of socks demonstrate that I am still knitting madly, when I can. I knitted most of the heel whilst waiting for my tests yesterday and have zoomed up the leg of the second sock. Only a centimetre of "pattern" to go and then I do the ribbing, weave the ends in and bob's your uncle! Finito! Hmm, have I blogged the second chemo cap? The blue cotton one that is enormous and covers my head very well (a good thing cos I'm going to be bald as bald can be unless I try cold cap and even then it might not work. Yep they literally put a cold pack on your head to save the hair). I have to say, the thought of being totally bald, completely naked of hair everywhere is rather intriguing. It is likely to happen with the chemo I'll be on. I don't think I'll look forward to the regrowth though - I get really bad ingrown hairs (which is why I don't wax any bits of me!). We are going through mone...

G'day all! Jumped through more hoops today. Had to have another mammogram today. I don't mind the frontal mammogram, where they grab the boob and plonk it just so and stand like that and head up! It's uncomfortable but not eye watering. But oh my the 45 degree angle one is a little more painful and the way you have to stand is quite difficult. I don't know how older women cope with it. I also asked about older ladies with a certain floppiness to their front porches - how do you get all of the boob on the xray plate? The answer? They don't! (That's a mammogram machine. Indeed that is the very machine that viciously attacked my right boob. It also attacked a man's boobs before mine. Yes, one poor chap had to have a mammogram done. He wasn't exactly well endowed with chesticals if he was the bloke I think he was. You can see the markings for where boobs should go on the upper plate. The xray plates go in the slot in the bottom plate.) Then we d...

G'day all! Our house is ours again. DH has been busy sanding floors and rubbing sealant into them. The only tung oil we can get locally is liberally doused with petrochemicals and smells quite bad. We've been up to Bunnings and got some sample paint pots for the bedroom. Green, ranging from almost white, a minty/eucalypty green to a full on LIME! The lime isn't the right colour though, it isn't clean enough and even at 50% is a bit brighter than I want, not the right shade of green. The greenish white is too white. The midway colour is still too grey. What is it with paint colours being grey these days? So few of the colours are true, clear colours, they are all dull. Dull and dirty looking. I don't want dull and dirty looking. Whoever started the taupe and bone and stone fashion should be shot in my books. (If they were, I'd be peeved because then my books would be covered in blood and possibly unreadable.) Anyway, when I overpainted the white green w...

G'day all! Today I am a different one of the Seven Dwarfs. Today I am Grumpy. I think it is because the little car we've been lent has a terminal case of leaking water pump and the cost to repair it is somewhat more than I expected it to cost (over $500 vs the expected $100). $500 is a lot to fix a car but if it isn't fixed, it can't be driven more than about 25km in one hit and I was looking forward to driving up the hills and across to stuff on the other side of town. DH assures me some of it can by done by PT but that is tedious - eg 45 minutes into town on one train, 45 minutes out again and then a 2-3km walk to the plant nursery I'd like to visit. Then I'd have to lug plants back home again walking and PTing. (Some not very restful water to calm me down - the Pacific Ocean just south of San Francisco) So I've had a couple of requests to talk about Medicare in Australia. Our Medicare is nothing to do with the US version. I am going to call it Medi...

G'day all! Currently, life seems to be rushing off to appointments interspersed with great periods of nothingness. Admittedly in the nothingness I am doing things like visiting our house and doing weeding and planning and stuff, harrassing the cats, or knitting (Showing longer brim on back of hat) (Sock now completed, second sock started) spinning or reading up on stuff, but I am still in a holding pattern. This time next week we will be back in our own place and getting established there again, learning what the cats' habits are now (and they will have to get used to us again!), finding out what we need to buy, etc etc. I went and saw the head of the study I am a participant in. I signed myself up then discovered that I have another week of heavy duty testing to go through before I can start chemo. Blood tests, gated heart pool study, 12 lead ECG, PET scan, MRI scan, umm what are the other things? More, more, more! Some of the tests are necessary for the chemo, some are f...

G'day all! I saw the multidisciplinary clinic today (I don't think I've managed once to type disciplinary out without making a boo boo or taking five minutes to type it). They've discussed my case and agreed that I am an excellent case for chemo and also for the study. So tell me something I don't know! George, the oncologist I saw (who just so happens to be of Asian origin and looks about 15 but given he's done 12 years of higher education to be an oncologist means he has to be at least 27, assuming he finished school at 15 cos he is a clever clogs), outlined the first lot of treatment (chemo, four cycles of taxotere and four cycles of FEC, possibly not in that order). He said we are going for a CURE! Why? Cos my CT scan and bone screen yesterday were clear! HOO-BLASTED-RAY! I have been living in fear that my liver has mets or my bones (especially since I have a lump on the end of a floating rib but the chiro says that is likely to be because the ribs on the...

G'day all! Thought I would share with you the pic of the quilt top that I finished a week or two ago. Wonky blocks sashed in Kona cotton (something like pacific blue or similar name). Nearly died when I discovered Kona cottons are $15.50 a metre here. Yikes! I was buying them on special in the US for $3.50 a yard, and apparently you can get them cheaper than that too. It really makes me think I'll cough up for shipping for material from the US, particularly if our dollar level pegs with theirs later in the year. The quilt backing is done as well but is in desperate need of a good pressing. I took some pics but it really needed ironing and I do have some small standards in my picture taking. I naturally forgot to send the quilt backing home with me (a lime green sheet) and the first lime material I came across either was already faded in a strip across the middle or faded when I washed it and hung it out to dry. I ended up using some green strip and yellow polka dot to mak...

G'day all! I am still alive. Still kicking. Breast clinic went well. More on that later. But I need to share this with you. DH developed it from something I said the other day. indelicate smells waft across me, nose crinkles my husband has farted Is there any woman who prefers blokes who has not had this problem? anon!

G'day all! I would like to thank all of you who have commented or sent emails over the last few days. I am touched (in the good way, though I may be a bit crazy in the other sense of touched too!), truly really touched, and humbled. Thank you for your messages of support. I really appreciate them. Please excuse me if I do not respond privately to each and every comment (blogger doesn't send me your email address and also, I'm a little overwhelmed). I went for more scans today - chest xray and a liver ultrasound. Can I just say the liver ultrasound was more uncomfortable than I expected cos he pressed down a lot to get good pics, and I had to hold my breath whilst he did so. If my liver wasn't annoyed before, it is now! The ultrasonographer took lots of pics of my liver and gall bladder. Apparently when you lie down, your gallbladder flops anywhere it pleases, and when you stand back up it responds rather well to gravity and slithers downwards, making it hard to f...

I don't have much good to say today. I don't suggest you read what follows. . . . . . . . . . . I really do mean it. . . . . . . . . I went to the doctor today to get the last part of the puzzle of my cancer. I am a complete mess. I am trying to think of positives - I need some positives. My breast cancer is triple negative. Along with the grade III, poorly differentiated cells and aggressive nature of my cancer, I am losing hope for a good outcome (ie a cure). Tamoxifen will not help me. I was so hoping that it would be estrogen positive cos everyone I know who has had tamoxifen has done well. I have to set my sights lower. Heck, I'll be happy if I am in any shape to make it through next Christmas. It will be a miracle if I am still around in five years, let alone still around and healthy. Every box that can be ticked for a bad outcome is ticked on my pathology report. How much more of this can I take? I have serapax to try to calm me down but I am not game to ...

G'day all! I said I'd show off the pretties I got for Christmas, didn't I? I'm still enjoying Christmas, even though it is over a week later. I'd show you the amazing things DH bought me but umm see the space above? That is what he bought me. Why change the habit of a lifetime? I got a rose from one sister and a houseplant from my brother. We seem to have a bug about plants. My SiL rolled her eyes as three out of four siblings got together and started talking gardening, particularly growing our own food. She grew up on a farm and had to do it for real. Dreamcatcher sent me a heap of yarn and a lovely little address book (which I promptly did not include in the pics). The address book has botanical prints throughout and is very pretty :-) In that lot is some bamboo/merino sock yarn , "some" white merino laceweight , some lovely mauve/blue laceweight from the Yarn Yard, and two different lots of Regia sock yarn, one of which I've just started kn...