Flat Moving project

Well it is now 3 weeks to I move into my new flat provided for me by the local council.
I have the keys to it already and have been busy planning away and it has been good for me.

As I had four weeks to the actual moving day form my current flat, gave me the chance to plan my move, packing and any work on the new flat around my chemotherapy treatment and tired spells.

My new carpets are being laid tomorrow (Thursday 8th Sept) and my new (second hand 50s style wardrobe), then my boiler needs fixing and my window (all free by the council)
Then I am of to buy a new bed and mattress, I have seen a lovely metal frame bed and mattress in a sale.

I have got a budget to use and have really enjoyed balancing the budget.
My fridge freezer and washing machine have been delivered and I will buy a gas cooker next payday.
I have been packing away bits at a nice gentle pace and this moving project has given me a good focus away from the chemo and illness and tiredness.

I am on my second course of chemo and this time it is form home as I now have a portable pump and travelling bag while those lovely chemicals pump around my body.

Monday (5th Sept) was a long day I had to be ready from 7am to be picked up by the hospital car ambulance service, I was up at 6am to be ready for 7am and was picked up at 8am for my 8:30am appointment (whew still with me) as I was the slim one (or only one out of the other “bigger passengers”) who knew who to count calories I got the uncomfortable middle back seat!).

My second chemo was due to start at 11:30, the first chemicals, steroids and glucose take about 3 hours (which is as a inpatient) then I go home with the 48 hour heavy chemo stuff)

I had to be at the hospital for 8:30 to have a “Hickman line” put in, this is due to my veins disappearing at the sight of a needle, lots of scar tissue due to all the needles I had while I was in Whitechapel hospital.

So this line is inserted under my skin (near the collarbone) and stays in until the end of my treatment (March 2010) and also it can be used for taking blood.

I was given a local drug to numb the area as the surgeon has to make a cut and insert the tube with the guide of an x-ray machine.
So you are awake in the theatre and feel the cut but not the pain (strange feeling!) like something from a Robin Cook novel.
The surgeon (Mr Tosh) was lovely, he had visited me before the procedure to explain it, and while I was in the theatre he said “ok Lucy the important question”

“Strictly come dancing or X-Factor” so I said strictly and he was a strictly fan, so we spoke about the show and I forgot I was in theatre and then it was over!.

The staff in Southend hospital is so wonderful.
I was ready to go home at 7:30pm, so by this time it had been a long day and despite reading 150 pages of a wonderful Ian Rankin book was very tired.

My drivers shift had finished at 7pm but he still come to take me home and stopped at the all night Tesco store to buy some milk, and chemo food supplies as it does funny things to my eating! So bought cream cheese, skittles, chocolate and milk.

Will be back on my fruit diet Thursday.
He was wonderful about stopping as he understood I would be tired over the 48 hours of chemo and Southend hospital make you feel looked after.
Thank you lovely Southend Hospital Staff from this grateful woman.

I have been relaxing watching DVDs (lots of geeky sci-fi stuff) reading and little bits of packing and making lists!)

I feel more relaxed with this new flat as I also feel more secure about a roof over my head in the event I could not return to work (Alexander Maslow knew what he was talking about in the “hierarchy of needs”) most important one “shelter”

Also I realised I have gone through my own “bereavement process” let me explain, this is things I covered in “change and loss” in my training as a counsellor and bereavement is not only about physical death but also loss in life, a partnership split up, losing a job etc.

My own is the change in my status and now I realise I am changing my life and pattern to my physical demands and at times limitations, but it does not limit me, only makes me take my life at a different pace and I can’t be so impulsive as I do not know how I will be in 7 days time.
This flat move has really lifted me, I mentioned the main reason of security of my shelter, but also I can now focus on getting well.

Also I can do things more for myself.
My new flat, usually when I moved it would have been over a weekend, with a few days booked of work to get straightened, then back to work and doing bits over the weekend, well don’t most people?

Now I got time to set my flat as I want it and entirely at my own pace.
So I will use this as a focus and it will also give me a structure to my day.

So I am doing different little themes in each room, a warm sultry style for my bedroom, in my living room tributes to my favourite sci fi programs, and as well as buying from EBay I can create my own layouts from magazines I have collected over the years, my creative mind, some cheap frames and some art shop stuff. Hey I am thinking this is fun.
I have adjusted to my treatment and just feeling more upbeat.

I have worked full time for 30 years and now I can do more things for myself.
I am really enjoying meditating every day and finding a peaceful self focus.
I do think if I can do this, why can’t people who don’t have a critical illness do this?
Signing of now peeps
Love, peace and hugs to everyone.

OO I nearly forgot, the photos are of my portable chemo pot, yes that little jar holds 48 hours of toxic chemical to pump through my body, and the other is the natty little pouch to walk about in, I couldnt get a bright pink colour :-)