I’ve just watched Wales thrash Scotland at rugby, so, much as I love Scotland, I’m feeling very buoyant! We’ve just had such a great 2 days. My dear school friend Pam (obviously another Wales supporter) has been our guest. We visited Beer in the glorious but rare Friday sunshine, watching Neil swim for his Polar Bear club.

He swims 2 days a month in the sea without a wet suit. Some days have been freezing and rough, but Friday the sea was calm, the sun shone and the fishermen preparing their boats joked around as Neil stripped off. They thought he was mad, but Neil loved his swim. Beer is such a beautiful fishing village with some great art galleries. Later, we had a warm welcome from our friends back at our pub in Culmstock. We really miss it and it was sooooo tempting to stay and catch up with everyone, but I still need to steer clear of crowded places so we were sensible and moved on to the restaurant. It’s just a few weeks left until we can join them all again.

Anyway, despite feeling good now, I’ve had a difficult week and postponed quite a few meetings with friends and choir. Each chemo session leaves me feeling worse than the previous and the time seems to drag very slowly. It was so great having Cara to stay last weekend and we did all manage to see the Culmstock panto, which was the best ever. We sat quietly near the back staying away from the crowd and there were times when I contemplated borrowing a pint glass to throw up into, but it never came to that. We laughed throughout, despite my nausea. Cara was such lovely calm company during our quieter weekend.

Food and drink still taste awful and I get no pleasure from eating, but I am eating enough to maintain my weight. I googled when my sense of taste might return, which could start as early as 2 weeks after my last chemo. Everyone is different. One lady’s story made me smile. She commented that when her taste returned, she loved her food so much that she quickly put on all the weight she’d lost during chemo and more! I think I’ll be the same as the brief moments when I can enjoy food, I’m ravenous.

I’m wearing my wig a little more often, but I still have just enough hair to form a fringe around my face, so I’m not totally bald and I rather like my new short hair cut so I’ll probably keep it short when it grows back.

So I continue with these good days as we approach the next chemo and I hope that the blood test this Wednesday will allow me to go ahead with my final chemo on Thursday. I wont be too disappointed if it fails as all the others have, so I’m prepared for a week’s delay. As soon as I hear I’ll update the blog. We’re off to Topsham next for lunch with friends and I feel absolutely fine.