It’s odd, because even after just a week after the treatment I think I can feel a change in Big Lump. This is obviously great news. What I didn’t expect was sickness to hit me like a train in the middle of the night. It was too late to take the anti sickness tablets so the inevitable happened. This then meant that I was tired today so I’ve spent it in bed. The bairns dispensed their usual healing hugs before Ross took them to breakfast club.

Another weird side effect is the inside of my mouth feels funny. Like I’ve eaten too many sherbet lemons and that makes my lips feels cracked and dry.

We had a visit from Ally yesterday which was lovely. He’s been in the States so hasn’t seen us since the news broke. More hugs, more offers of help. It’s good to know we have such good friends around. Friends who will cut us a bit of slack, allow us to use them as a sounding board, and just understand that we need TLC and not pull us up on our shortcomings.

We’re starting to think more about Christmas. Ross has ordered the turkey crown from the butchers and lists are being made. We’re thinking about putting the Christmas decorations up at the weekend and then put the tree up the week afterwards. I’m not feeling massively festive, but now that I’ve got a follow from the Official Santa on Twitter, I’m hoping to tap into some of the big man’s magic. My Dad and Julie are going to be here for Christmas, as is Uncle Max, so I’m sure it’ll be great. It’s the Gin Club Christmas do the weekend after next, and I’m hoping to feel well enough for that. They’ll have to forgive me if I recycle a previous Christmas dress, I can’t be bothered to go clothes shopping. Although I have noticed Tesco have got a wonderful range of Christmas jumpers in… I wonder…

This evening was a bit of a logistical feat to get the bairns from Clair’s, to Catherine and Toms with keys so they could be taken back to ours later whilst we went to the hospital to see the Oncologist. It turns out the things that have been going on have been a reaction to the chemo. The doctor agreed that the tumour has shrunk substantially already which is very reassuring to know, but it’s that which caused the chest pains. The doctor is going to change the drug and cycle so instead of another 3 cycles every 3 weeks, I’ll be starting weekly cycles for 9 weeks. This’ll kick off in 2-3 weeks. I’ve got more steroids to take and more instructions to keep taking the anti sickness drugs. I’m annoyed that I wasn’t able to take the side effects from the first lot of chemo but equally, I don’t fancy feeling like this for long.

We got back home and the kids were in bed having their story read by Catherine. They bounced down the stairs when we got in and gave me some fantastic hugs. We ushered them back to bed, all listened to the story and then it was more hugs and bed.

Tomorrow is another day.