Travels to (and from) Sydney - and beyond!

Heading down to Sydney again this weekend - just for one night. My brother-in-law John is having a big birthday on Saturday night. It'll be a lovely evening I'm sure - being held at his mother's place which is the same place as where Jo and Emma got married.

Apart from going back down to Sydney for tax purposes in August, I am now also having to fly out to Bali (via Thailand) from Sydney. The airline has changed its schedule since I booked, and if I wanted to fly out of Brisbane I'd have to leave a day later (which = one day less in Bali!) I seem to be doing a lot of backtracking in the first part of my trip!. I fly south to Sydney so I can fly north to Thailand, from where I will fly south again to Bali!! At least this time the flight leaves in the afternoon (as opposed to the middle of the night) and Thai Airways will put me up in a hotel in Bangkok before the flight to Bali. So that's probably a better deal, all in all!

And I'm interviewing the last (hopefully!) couple of potential housesitters in a few days' time, after which I hope to be able to make a firm decision, and tick it off on my list of things to do!

This evening I'm off to the (new normal) Wednesday yoga class, which is good. I haven't done much since last Saturday so I really need it!

Met some old workmates for coffee yesterday ... from the group that were 'restructured' last year (god it seems like much longer than that!) We had a good time being rude about the old place etc. We're all heading off overseas in the next few months. Beth is going to another 'old' co-worker's wedding in Canada next month. Emma is off on a 5 week trip round the States in August ... And then she comes back, and I go!!

And finally, back onto cooking ... on Sunday I made a spinach tart/quiche (again using the rich French pastry recipe taught to me by my Mum) and a tuna pie - both to eat during the week and/or go in the freezer. it's wonderful that you can freeze quiches. One day I'll get it together to take photos like Susan does on her Open Mouth Insert Fork blog. I do enjoy being able to cook on the weekends - there is very little time during the week for culinary exploits!

Posting from the iPad ...

I got an iPad ... My rationale was that it'll be easier (lighter) to carry overseas than my laptop. And if I don't like it I can always sell it afterwards. I'm still getting used to it. I haven't (yet) had an iPhone so I'm not used to this style of typing! Or apps etc. But a workmate who also got one ( sooner than me) assures me that you very quickly get used to typing on it. It must be easier than on an iPhone as the screen space is significantly bigger!

Yoga yesterday afternoon ... Am still trying hard to bind in marychiasana C. Richard has got me putting in 5 breaths in plank in vinyasas (not every one!) to help build up strength. I'd really like to be able to do urdva dhanurasana (wheel?) but have never had the strength to push myself up. Yet!!

Healthwise things aren't too bad! I'm coughing again now I'm off antibiotics but, fingers crossed I haven't been feeling sick or anything. See the coughing doctor in a week and will see what he thinks.

Celebrations

Been a busy few days ... Had the big birthday long weekend for Mum down in Sydney and Bowral, which went very well. Lunch in a Sydney club, drinks with various different friends, then a big family lunch on Sunday at a very nice restaurant in Berrima. It was a very nice few days, and no one got too tired or anything!

I did give in and go back onto antibiotics on Thursday evening ... I don't like doing it, and I do know the danger of over-using them, but in the end I didn't feel I could get through the weekend without them! Thanks to them I am now of course feeling fine (just a little bit of a cough) and intend to make the most of the few days more I am on them before the downhill slide starts again! I did manage to make another appointment to see the chest physician in 3 weeks (not the 3 months I had to wait last time!) and I will stamp my foot and just demand that he find something to do! Even if it's another antibiotic that I can take for a long(er) time ...

And hooray - I'm going to yoga class this evening! Last Wednesday I was feeling too rotten to go, and of course I was away in NSW on the Saturday.

health and yoga (what else!)

Well, I've been feeling a bit off since last Friday. Mostly it's to do with the coughing (bronchiectasis). It was so bad on Saturday that I didn't end up going to yoga - had to give myself permission not to beat myself up about that! But I have been feeling gradually better since then (though still not 100%), and so will go to yoga this evening. I did a few stretches/hip-openers at lunchtime today, as it's been a few days since I did any yoga (last Friday to be precise!)

To be honest, I've had to push myself a bit today to commit to going, but I have reminded myself that I do want to strengthen/move my yoga practice along in the months leading up to Bali. And one of the ways I am/was intending to do this was by trying to go to class twice a week. As I'm not singing in the choir for the next few months, I have Wednesday evenings free and that's good as it's really the only evening during the week that I can go timing-wise.

Apart from that I'm gradually ticking things off on the list of things to do before the big trip. I've organised to stay in Bali at the same place as the workshop for the 3 nights I'll be there before it starts. I had thought I'd go and stay somewhere else cheaper and then move in when the workshop starts. But really, I haven't been to Bali or Ubud before, so I don't know it at all. And it will probably be 5pm or later by the time I arrive there, so I've taken the easy (but more expensive!) option. And I've also put an ad for housesitters into a web-based housesitting place, and a couple are coming this Sunday to meet me (and hopefully Jedda!) and see if we all like each other. I've 'short-listed' another couple of applicants as well, and hopefully this can be firmed up soon.

I've also decided I'm going to post recipes etc. here sometimes. I made a really lovely cauliflower soup on the weekend (Jane Grigson recipe from someone else) and I will post that later on (I'm at work now).

And here's cute but somewhat disturbing cat photo from Flickr ... I cannot feel that this ended well for the wee mouse!

much better now!

It took me till the middle of the week till I felt fully 'over' the previous few days, but now I'm feeling great again and have a much happier frame of mind!

Had a lovely practice at the shala yesterday. I was still a bit under-strength (having only managed 2.5 practices during the week <grin>) but it felt good. And I managed to bind in marichyasana B again (first time since I lost it after the whole lymphoma episode 3 years ago!) On one side only, but still great!

Today I've been doing things around the house/garden, including some cooking. Pretty pleased with myself as I made a good pastry case (for an onion tart). I never used to be able to make pastry - when I was living with Angela I always used to say - oh Angela is the pastry-maker. But that was a long time ago (10 years - can hardly believe it!) and I finally bestirred myself to learn from my Mum, who has always been the best pastry-maker I know!

I have lately become much more interested in cooking. Not that I wasn't interested before - I like food, so it follows! But for years I'd been in a real rut, just cooking the same few dishes. A year or two ago I started to get sick of it all, really wanted to cook/eat different types of food. Somehow it felt time to try different / new recipes - and by new, I don't just mean new to me. I mean recipes developed recently by new young chefs! (And no, I'm not talking Heston Blomenthal, or those mad chefs creating dishes in a test-tube!)

I did try buying a new cookery book or two, but somehow they didn't spark any great interest. Then in the past few months I've gotten sucked into a couple of cooking shows on TV - currently Master Chef. I remember when it was on last year for the first time, I never bothered. But because of rave reviews from people I respected, I started watching. And they have really caught my attention/inspired me!

Now of course, my Mum's onion tart is not a new recipe! It's one of the things she cooks that I have loved for many years!! But I've never even tried to make it before! And only started making pastry this year.  Now I've got quite a few cookery books on my wish list at the Book Depository (that wonderful place to order books online that doesn't charge any postage)! Just have to be careful what I'm spending money on, when I'll be going on a long overseas trip in just 5 months!!

And haven't even mentioned the Choir concert next weekend. Carmina Burana - I really love that music! I've sung it twice before, so I know it reasonably well. Just as well because I seem to have missed a lot of rehearsals this year. I think this will be the last QUMS (Queensland Uni Music Society) choir concert I'll be able to sing in this year. I'll be away (Bali and Europe - hooray!) for the 2nd Semester concert. I will try and see if I can sing in the Messiah concert at the end of November, but I'll have missed more than half the rehearsals, so it'll be up to the conductor to say yay or nay!

Here's a YouTube video (5 mins) of Carmina Burana 'highlights'! Have a listen - it's wonderful!!

health, not yoga

That's what this (long) post is about :)

I've had such a 'torrid' few days not sure if that's quite the correct word but it sort of sounds good! So, can't remember if I've posted about this here before, but after I'd had the chemo 3 years ago (for the lymphoma) they wanted to collect stem cells from me so in the (hopefully very unlikely) event that it came back, I could have them transplanted back into me. But I guess my bone marrow had been damaged too much and try as they did, they just weren't able to.

So, flash forward a couple of years and there's this new drug around in trials that is supposed to 'mobilise' stem cells (see, they are created/live in your bone marrow, and all your blood cells are created there and and then migrate into your bloodstream - amazing!) And this drug is supposed to be really good at bringing the stem cells out into the bloodstream so they can be 'collected', in association with the other drug they normally use (and which didn't work or work sufficiently for me). It got passed by the US FDA and also had to go through trials here in Australia. My doctor managed to get me into the trial as a 'poor mobiliser' (!) and get the drug before it too came off trial and was approved here.

So, on Thursday of last week I had to start 5 days of self-injecting the original drug (Neupagen), then roll up to the hospital on the Monday night for the night so the trial drug could be injected into me, ready for the stem cell collection on Tuesday. If all went well, it would only take one day, but if they didn't collect enough stem cells that day I'd have to come back the next day for a second round.

What could go wrong? What didn't go wrong!!! Let's start with side effects. I think I'm a magnet for side effects! The Neupagen gave me nausea and exhaustion and back ache/bone pain. I didn't mind the bone pain - that was the stem cells forcing their way out of my hip bones, so I could forgive them that!

Of course, that weekend was the big choir camp weekend - rehearsals all day Saturday and Sunday. I managed to make it for the mornings but had to go home and collapse each afternoon. Then on the Monday night when I turned up at the hospital they couldn't find the trial drug! The nurses tried to contact my doctor but his phone was turned off! I knew where it would be - in his offices on the ground floor to which only he had the key! So, this drug had to be injected 12 hours before they start the collection (a 4 hour process). And I was spending the night in the hospital knowing that nothing could happen the next day (Tuesday). Eventually went to work on the Tuesday morning, and the side effects of 6 days of the Neupagen drug were such that I only managed to stay for a few hours before going home (the opposite direction to the hospital). There I fed the cat, collected another day's clothes, and went back to the hospital again to this time successfully have the injection.

So on Wednesday they did the first stem cell collection. It's very weird. Your blood is taken out of a vein in one arm, fed into this enormous machine with a centrifuge in it that separates the different components of your blood. And they attempt to collect only the stem cells. Then your blood is fed back into a vein in your other arm. Your whole blood supply is cycled through this machine about 3-4 times apparently. And, for this 4 hour process, you have to sit on a bed and absolutely cannot move the arm that is feeding the blood into the machine. Even leaning forward, bends the arm. I can tell you it is very difficult to sit still, only moving one arm, (and not drinking anything for obvious reasons!)

So, finally got to the end. The stem cells were couriered over to the big Brisbane hospital that stores them for people (for years), and they checked to see if enough stem cells had been collected. No, they'd got about half the amount needed! By the time I hear this it's about 4pm, and I'm told I'll have to sleep at the hospital again that night (and have a second trial drug injection). I freaked out! I'd somehow thought I could sleep at home and come back in the following morning, forgetting about the need for the injection 12 hours before. Had to drive home again, get more clothes and feed the poor bewildered little pussycat again, before driving back to hospital. (Did I say it is about an hour's drive from the hospital to my place?!)

Anyway, 2nd stem cell collection on Thursday. This was the last attempt - I think I'd only been allowed two vials (worth $8,000 each off trial, no charge on the trial!) I wasn't sure whether we'd get enough the second time. There were apparently less floating around in my blood. But still, we'd all done our best. If it didn't work, at least I'd done everything I could to get these elusive stem cells put away for a rainy day. (Or so I told myself!)

Got home yesterday evening not knowing the answer (it takes a few hours for the results to come through). But when I rang the hospital this morning it was SUCCESS!! Apparently they'd collected more the second time. And I was soo relieved! At least all the stress and illness of the past few days had been for something!!

I hadn't even mentioned the fact that I'd also had a perfect storm situation of an increasingly complicated conference website I was supposed to be doing at work, combined with a deadline told to me at the last minute of smack bang in the middle of stem cell collection! Luckily I was able to hand that over to someone else to finish off - but until I did that it did nothing for my stress levels!

And now I'm at home recovering. It's amazingly stressful being in hospital. I'm not doing anything - not going to yoga on Saturday. My platelets are very very low and I can't afford to do anything that might bruise me. But I will get some yoga (at a slower pace) in on Sunday morning when my friend Helen comes over ...

And a big Gold Star to anyone who gets to the end of this very long post !!! Looking forward to happier, more normal days and posts coming up!

Bali heat and Swedish cool

It was incredibly hot at yoga on Saturday afternoon - even though it's now well into Autumn, it felt  like it was hotter than the heights of Summer! Richard was helping me into Marichyasana C (nearly got it back now after 3 years of that pose lost in the wilderness!) Anyway, I told him I was going to Dena's workshop in Bali in October and he grinned and said - well, this is the temperature it'll be there! I, of course smiled like I already knew that (not!) But it's good to know now, so I'm mentally prepared ... :)

Went and saw the (subtitled) Swedish film of 'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo' - first book of Stieg Larsson's wonderful Millenium series. It was such a wonderful film - really brought the book even more to life. And it was really true to the book too ... Lovely to see that icy brooding Swedish landscape. And the 2 actors who played Lisbeth and Blomquist were just wonderful. They've merged with whatever pictures I had in my head (from the books) of those characters now. Can't wait to see the other two films - they've all been made ... Highly recommended!

I'm still struggling with the cough from hell! I was on antibiotics, came off them on Sunday or Monday, but by last Wednesday evening I had a temperature and it was back onto them.  I actually saw my 'coughing' doctor (!) on Wednesday afternoon (an appointment I'd made months ago which fell due at a fortuitous moment!) and he again said that the IV-IG infusions was the best/most effect/only(?!) treatment. Basically he repeated that if I get a bad cough or cold or similar, it is very likely to get to my chest and start a whole coughing cycle that can go on for 2-4 months (huge sigh!) This is what happened at the end of February ... I'm feeling pretty good again now, with another 5 days of antibiotics ahead of me. But - last time I only lasted about 3 days off antibiotics! Oh well - I know I had this a year ago and it did go away - just have to hang onto that thought!