The 16th & 17th; Nine years since I was diagnosed with leukaemia.
The 16th of August. Today is nine years since I was diagnosed with leukaemia. I still remember it like it was yesterday. Mommy, Daddy and I were taken from my bed space on Ward 9 to the nurses’ staff room, the only private place, to sit down with my doctor, Mark Velangi. He told us that from the tests they’d done that morning (a bone marrow trephine and lumbar puncture), they had found leukaemia cells in my bone marrow. I looked at the wall and started to cry.
Today has been very different. We didn’t get off to a great start, finding just before we went out that my chair was still in Daddy’s car. Then, when we went to collect it from him, he was late in appearing, which made Mommy late for her blood donating appointment. They wouldn’t let her donate in that session, so she was going to have to go back at 12.30. To kill time, we had coffee at Joe and the Juice, then browsed in Foyles until she had to leave. I bought three books that were on offer: The Invention of Numbers by Peter J. Bentley, Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut, and The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick. Then I had a bimble round John Lewis where I looked at wool which I liked but had no use for, then got two cute cat pins that were reduced and a Levi’s shirt that was on sale too! By that time, I thought Mommy would soon be finished, so I went to find a table in Crêpe Affaire, where we were going to have lunch. It didn’t take her long to arrive, and soon we were having tasty pancakes. I had a crêpe florentine, she a superveg and they were really good. On the way to the car, I bought a Nutella doughnut from Krispy Kreme to eat at home.
That too was incredibly delicious, not too much filling which I like or I find them a bit sickly. And apart from eating that, all I have done is crochet because that is what I do.
The 17th of August.
I have stopped reading my book at a critical moment to write this. Like, a child is about to get shot. Or not. Hopefully not. I’ll find out soon, but it’s 6 o’clock and therefore writing time.
It’s because of clinic this morning that I’m so far into the book now - just over halfway through. We sat around in the exceptionally busy waiting room for two hours before Ram called me in. I wasn’t in with him long, just updated him on all the pain relief I’ve had and he suggested that we just wait for me to see Mr. Harland before doing anything else. I wonder if I ask the chiro, whether they can get him to chivvy me up the list a little? Although the MRI will have to be reported on first. Anyway, then he prescribed all my drugs for the next three months, and we went to sit in pharmacy and wait for those.
On the way home, we went to get some toothpaste and hamster food (from different shops), and I saw a small girl carrying a pug puppy in her arms and it was so hard to not rush over and wrestle it from her. So. Cute.
I have spent the rest of my afternoon crocheting and reading. There is not a great deal on the Olympics tonight that we want to watch so I will probably get through a lot more pages then.
