Day 7, and I am feeling fine!  By Friday, I began to feel much better.  I have not have much pain in the kidneys since then.  Maybe the fresh orange juice helped?  All in all, I have been feeling pretty much the way I was before the chemo.  I am back to not sleeping again, but steroids keep me going, and I can continue do my normal activities during the day.  I am being weaned off from steroids since yesterday.  I hope, I will not have some weird withdrawal symptoms, after five weeks of continuous high dose of steroids.  

One thing that has been worrying me since the chemo, is these cramps I keep getting in my left hand, particularly in my thumb.  It is around the same area where I had my first cannula, and I have a feel a nerve may have been damaged during the infusion.  Apparently, this can happen.  I need to speak to Lucy, my nurse at the Royal Marsden about this.  Bernie from Maggie’s said I should think about having a central line as my veins will not be able to take the whole course of chemo.  A central line is a long, thin plastic tube that would be put into a vein in my chest under general anaesthetics, and it would stay there until the whole chemo is over.  I think, I agree with her.  I already struggle with the cannulas, and have the problem with my hand.  This is only the first chemo I have had, there could be five or more to come! 

The weekend was lovely.  Except, Friday night when my sleep was disturbed even further by my housemate Phil’s party, which went on until 8.30am in the morning.  That was when I walked into the kitchen to make my porridge, and these guys went off to a café.  Yet again, I was making my porridge with the smell of old booze around me.  Nice. 

After breakfast I had a lovely snooze, and woke up feeling really good.  No pain, no temperature, and not tired.  This meant I was able to go the Field Day festival!  And, I still got my own hair.  Bonus!

The festival was lovely, although it rained again, like last year.  Luckily, I had a VIP ticket, and got to hang out in the VIP hospitality area where they had a big tent with sofas and other seating.  And, good toilets!  My main goal was to see Minna, Lori, Michelle and Jodie performing with Keiran from Four Tet.  The girls had been practising with their lit hula hoops for a month.  I got to go back stage to see the gig, so I had an excellent view to take some pictures.  The lit hula hoops looked amazing in the dark.  And, the audience loved it! 

I had a chat with Keiran, and he said he could pick me up with his car from my next chemo.  How lovely!  It would be nice not have to travel by District line straight after chemo…  People are so helpful, and generous! 

Yesterday, I caught up with Stephanie, and we had a lovely couple of hours in the park.  I have not noticed that I am any more photosensitive than before, as this is also one of the side effects of chemo.  Maybe, it will get worse in time.

By London Fields, where we had been, a guy came and asked if would consider doing hair modelling, and that he would love me to go to this casting this Thursday for a photo shoot which would pay £150.  He gave me a card and the details.  The photo shoot would be in end of August.  I do not think I have hair left by then!  I did not tell him that.  How funny though.  Shame it did not happen sooner.  I could have used £150.

The lovely Ruth and I in the hospitality tent.

The view from the stage before Keiran's gig.

Keiran

Minna on the stage performing.

This is what the lit hula hoops looked like in the dark. Pretty amazing!

Minna after the show, back stage.