PS. Whilst we were out aqualungmyfriend trashed the tree. And whilst Derry could have dealt him a severe thrashing, given him his marching orders and saved our lovely tree he instead took pictures with his phone and sent them to all his friends.
Here he is very close to the top of an 8ft tree...

Am I tempting Lady Fate by having a countdown? Hmmm, I’m not much of a believer in anything let alone destiny, yet counting down the weeks still seems like a somewhat foolish thing to do.

However, all being well, today marks his 32nd round with 4 more to follow. Today is FIVE.

It wasn’t a great day to be sure, his counts were really weird with a white count and anc extremely high and a very large number of immature and wacky cells. This is usually the time in his cycle when his anc is at its lowest; instead it was the highest it has ever been. It’s a little freaky, especially with a bunch of immatures, the nurse did tell me though that he is probably fighting a bug of some kind or is about to. This could very well mean a fever in the coming days and a trip to hospital. Hopefully not because Scott doesn't have simple 'bugs', he has calamities.

Later his port didn’t want to work which freaked Scott out no end. Boy does he hate having a port, after almost 2 years of having it attached to him it still makes him feel queasy. After a lot of attempts and jiggling it finally worked.

Later we headed over to the day hospital for his lumbar puncture with chemo – this should be the final one!! – and we waited and we waited and we waited. The doctor and anesthetist were ready, we were ready, but some clod in the pharmacy was being tight in handing over the chemo. 2 hours later it arrived and the procedure was done. The spinal fluid will be checked for cancer in the next few days so we just gotta sit tight and hope its clean.

After the procedure we head back to the clinic for vincristine. Vincristine must always given in a separate room from the spinal tap and chemo because if a mix up occurs and vincristine is injected into the spine instead of methotrexate and Ara-C then it would be fatal. This has happened on occasion but most hospitals now insist on not allowing vincristine into the room where the spinal is to be carried out. Even still, I always check.

So we get back to clinic he has his chemo, gets de-accessed and we say our goodbyes. Just as we’re heading out the door his port starts to gush blood all down his chest!! Grrrr.

What a day!

And there’s a hand, my trusty fiere!

And gie's a hand o’ thine!

And we’ll tak a right gude-willy waught,

For auld lang syne.

Happy Hogmanay and may you all be blessed with good willy warts in the coming year.

Today Scott had an appointment with an Orthotist to be fitted for braces for his damaged feet. It seems that his tendons have shrunk in two places from the chemo and this is what is causing him so much pain. When he is asleep his feet fall into an unnatural, yet comfortable (for him) position and the problem is exacerbated. So, for the forseeable future he must wear these instruments of torture to bed ...

He will also be getting a wheelchair in the next few days to allow him to get out and about a little more without struggling to walk.

Cancer sucks.

It is over and I am left with that deflated, post-Christmas feeling. All the preparations, the excitement and magic, the quest for “stuff”, it’s all over for another year. I hate those first few days after Christmas and loathe Hogmanay and the New Year. We have had such a wonderful Christmas, I don’t want to be sucked away from it, to be spun around and find myself back in the Coliseum facing the cancer lions again. Yeah I know, too many similes/metaphors … whatever.
Christmas was great. It was even civilized as I was a monster and insisted on clean bodies and teeth prior to the shredding of presents beneath the tree.
Santa was generous, the boys were chuffed to bits, I was spoiled rotten by David, the Yorkshire Puddings were a success and ROCK BAND 2 IS PURE DEAD BRILLIANT!
Only 361 days until we can do it all again.

Jake/Ozzie/aqualungmyfriend ... he loved his first Christmas too...

Scott had clinic today and I was so incredibly pleased to see good results. Lots of platelets, hemoglobin and a nice fat anc. I couldn’t help but worry that today’s clinic visit would in some way cast a dark cloud over Christmas. Last year he had been neutropenic for several weeks and I was holding off doing a bone marrow check for relapse, the Christmas before was when he first showed signs of being sick. Christmas with a happy, hungry, non-lethargic Scott will be wonderful!
Well I must go now, tatties to peel, poles to straighten, and such things. Merry Christmas dudes!

I just checked my temp, trying to decide wether to give in to the cold/flu meds or not, and it is 101.9. I feel like someone stuck a pick axe through my spinal column, so forgive me, this is going to be brief.

Counts yesterday were good. Scott had a high anc from the steroids and a multitude of platelets. Now we just have to hope he doesnt catch the dreaded lurgy off me.

Merry Christmas.

LOL...and Nana, dont tell me you didnt at least stifle a chuckle....

For my Mum, who admitted - in public! - to not celebrating Festivus ....

Festivus for the rest of us.

Thursday saw the start of another round of Dr Tebbi’s special poison. His counts were pretty awful but decent enough for chemo. The effects are in full swing, and boy is it a bitch. Scott is now going though round 31 of 36 and as long as he stays on track he will have his final spinal tap with chemo either the day before New Years Day or a couple of days later.
I hate to sound like such a manic depressive but its getting hard to get excited that he is only 4 months from the end. So many children are relapsing around us and my confidence in treatment is now at an all time low. Not only that but the side effects Scott has experienced these last 2 years have been horrifying … stroke, fungal pneumonia and swelling of the brain, he has not ever been admitted for a simple fever or virus. Again, we wonder what freakishly uncommon, what horrifying and life-threatening issue, might he be up against next??!

So anyway, we are now trying to prepare for a perfect Christmas. Today we erected our festivus pole much to the delight of Ozzie/Jake/Jethro/Aqualung-myfriend, or whatever his name happens to be today.

(cat laughing at Sandies twisted sense of humour)

Sadly Scott isn’t really all that interested in Christmas, he just wants a plane ticket to Austria and an appointment at one of those euthanasia clinics. Hopefully he’ll be a little more in the spirit of things in a day or two! He’d better be, we have the “airing of grievances” to look forward to.

Scott and I were out for our walk this evening when we came upon a strange and wizened old man. Half expecting him to produce from his coat pockets a purse containing five magic beans we were not in the least bit surprised to instead be offered a ginger kitten. It was holed up in his garage, bedraggled, unwanted and alone.
The young are engineered to be beautiful, endearing and to bring out the ‘mother’ in us all. I tried explaining this to Scott, “don’t look into his eyes Scott, don’t do it!” But it was too late, we were in love.
They say that cats find their owners so who am I to stand in the way of a long held feline tradition?
Meet cat with no name …

Derry loves him to bits, thinks he is "awesome and cool". David and our gaggle/herd/flock (what is the correct term for a group of cats?) of kitties are going to take a little time to be won over. Perhaps if he had a name it would be a start, he would be less of an outsider and part of 'us'.

So far we have ... Ozzy (after Ozzy), Sid (after Vicious) and Bob (after Scotts nurse). Fingers on buzzers and please cast your votes now.

Just a quick update on Scotty boy. Yesterday's bloodwork looked a lot better. All those sinister unclassifieds and immature cells were gone and replaced with a half-decent anc. His platelets took a huge dive and the hemoglobin was a little lower than I would have liked so Im still on heart attack stand-by but feel very, very relieved that things look more normal. I cant even begin to tell you how worried I have felt lately, its been one thing after another, anyhoo...

We have just returned from Give Kids the World in Orlando and had lots of fun and shopping but one of us will update on that in the next day or two.

And as it is almost Christmas, and as it is tradition (here and at "that other site") I will leave you with the best song ever written. No2 in the charts at Christmas when I was 18, beaten to the top spot by "two gays and a drum machine" (The Pet Shop Boys) according to Shane.