Lindsey newsletter # 109
El Campello Thursday 3rd of May, 16-00
Everyone is enjoying the afternoon siesta… In el Campello, half way between Alicante and the (in)famous Benidorm.
We flew in yesterday. Not that easy with Lindsey very tired. She also suffered (as we were driving to the airport) from a nasty tummy failure. The sort of thing you don’t write about in a blog. But also the sort of nuisance which makes flying even more complicated.
Anyhow, we did get here and Lindsey was of course delighted to meet up with her great friend Luisa. Even if not much has happened, just getting here gave us a sense of achievement.
I managed to get my first swims of 2018; first in the swimming pool and this morning in the sea.
For lunch today, Arroz a Banda. No, this is not a rice band. The recipe involves cooking together a great number of fish which are then thrown away. What matters is the broth which is then used to cook the rice.
We did have a walk in el Campello where we lived some 16 years ago (help!). And we argued about which window corresponded to the flat we rented. The flat gives on the beach. Every morning we could see the sun rising. It was very spectacular.
Later this afternoon a number of friends are coming round. I am not sure how and if Lindsey is going to cope. She is very weak and we really haven’t found the right medicine to help her cope with the headaches.
Lindsey newsletter # 110
Nantes Saturday 19th of May, 16-00
So, so…
Very so, so…
After a few great days in Campello we flew back to Nantes. It had been lovely but also very difficult, with Lindsey suffering from headaches a great part of the time.
I had little time to rest and left for Brussels on Monday (7th) morning.
This started a particular period of the year, which you could call “the bridges”. This consists in a series of days off. This year we had the 1st of May, then the 8th (end of WW2), followed by the 10th (jeudi de l’Ascension) and ending with Monday the 21st. When the festive days are on Tuesdays or Thursdays it is a well established habit of taking the corresponding Monday or Friday off.
In practice it means that one out of two emails receives an OOO answer.
It means that work is very difficult: no one seems to be taking the same bridges, so the person who is not taking time off will try to get some project moving, with little success. And if you do take some days off you find that enough people have been working to fill your letterbox up.
Medically it can be complicated too because if there is a difficult moment to deal with, it may be impossible to get medical attention.
Lindsey was scheduled for a Chimio on the 8th, but the pain (headaches) was proving too exhausting and the doctor decided to allow her to rest for one week.
I did take one of the bridges: Jacques and Thierry, with whom we have been barging in the south of England for the past few years, came to visit on the 9th. I then went with them to a cottage by the sea for a couple of days, essentially to talk, walk and play games.
Boris, Vikki, Lali and Lindsey came on the Thursday and we all had a lovely meal out.
Following their departure a few days rest. But the medical agenda was heavy.
On Monday I spoke with the Oncologist and we decided to change painkillers.
On Tuesday we saw another specialist about the shoulder which had been an absolute nuisance around February. She thinks (now) that the issue is neurologic, meaning that the brain is sending pain signals which don’t necessary correspond to anything physiological. On the other hand (some good news!) the blood test was extremely positive.
On Wednesday we had the Chimio. Exhausting of course.
On Thursday very little activity. We are really trying to find the best rhythm for the pain-killers. And I am not sure we are doing very well.
On Friday we went to see our local doctor to check things before the “pont”. We agreed that the morale was becoming a question of concern. Anti-depressors would probably be better suited but seem to take 3 weeks to kick in, so we went for anxiolytics. Starting now.
On Saturday (today) I went to the market. When I came back Lali told me that Lindsey had tried to get up but was very wobbly (and thus nearly fell over). She did manage to get up and sit and watch the royal wedding. But the mixture of medicine, the overall exhaustion and a very low morale are making her very lethargic.
She is now sleeping a bit. I hope she will be better later and that the arrival of Luis and Corinne will help a bit.
Lindsey newsletter # 111
Nantes Tuesday 22nd of May, 17-30
Luckily, it was only an overdose.
Admittedly, that doesn’t make a good start for today’s entry. But there are cases where the only way to lower the tension is by saying something slightly provocative.
Let’s retrace the events of the past 2 days.
The so, so from Saturday degenerated into a very worrying situation. On Sunday and Monday Lindsey got up for a maximum of 2 hours each day. And getting up involved a team of us helping her to do everything, from getting dressed to feeding. She just seemed exhausted all the time. When walking -if we can call that walking- her arms would just fall and there was no strength anywhere.
Yes, the anxiolytics were working and she was less pessimistic, but just because she had hardly any reaction to anything.
Today we had an appointment at the hospital with the pain specialist. Or so I thought. Because when we got there and I showed the paper it was clear that the appointment was for tomorrow. But we were there and I managed to see a different doctor (who had already examined Lindsey a month ago). And he was not impressed when I gave him the list of all the items she had been prescribed.
It seems that most of them have a similar effect: to put you to sleep. So if you have 4 different pills all with the same effect (sometimes a side effect, sometimes not) the result follows.
In this case it would seem that the worse one was the last one, prescribed on Friday afternoon and which we started on Saturday: the anxiolytics.
So we have come home with a « negative prescription », i.e. a list of products that have to be taken off at various rhythms.
Oh, and of course, there is also a new one.