Thinning Thursdays - week 9. Another month gone.

It's Thursday again. Another pound lost. I'm not going to make excuses, I know I haven't been as active as I could have been. Mike has had a couple of hospital appointments this week, I had a blood donor appointment another and that with a couple of days of rain has stopped me getting into the garden as much as I would have liked. Hang on I think I just made excuses. Oh well.

I have been trying to get Mike to post on his appointments. You will all have to ask him nicely what was said.

On the subject of blood donation, I would like to encourage those who can to give blood too. I feel so guilty that I used to give regularly, but what with pregnancy and the 9 month wait after, I got out of the habit and hadn't given for 20 years. We worked out that during Mike's illness 14 units of blood donated by complete strangers have been used. Fourteen people gave the gift of life. It doesn't hurt and in my case took 15 minutes not counting the wait for a bed and the tea and biscuits afterwards. (Actually I can blame the biscuits for my abysmal weight loss!)

Thinning Thursdays - week 8 posted on fry-day morning.

Please let me know if you are getting bored with this topic. I'm not sure whether the lack of comments the past week have been due to lack of interest / you've all gone to sleep / nobody looks at the blog anymore.

After a busy day digging the garden (we've only done about 1/8th so far) I was too tired to post last night. I think all the soil moving has helped with the weight loss, four and a half pounds last week, my BMI is finally down below 30. I know I still have a way to go, but it is definitely progress.

Toni is enjoying the beautiful weather and spends most of her day sunning herself on the lawn. I have tried using the special sunblock we bought from the vet's for £15 in a bottle that we could carry in our hand luggage if we were taking the dog abroad! She isn't too keen on holding still while I spray it on her delicate skin and more goes on me than on her.

I think I've been here before

Mike is having a wonderful day at the hospital having a much needed top-up of little red things. We're not sure if last Tuesday's results were a blip or someone else's, we just know that by Friday his Hb was 10.1 and creatinine 178. His platelets were down to 70 as well. So while Mike relaxes/sits bored stiff, I've been painting fence panels. It's not as easy as I had hoped. So far I have painted three panels in three hours.

The weather here is glorious. The sun is beating down on us, which is why I have had to give up painting for a while, the sun is too hot on my back and my face is starting to burn. I realise now that I should have put some sun cream on, I just didn't think I would need it in March! It feels like it did last May, when Mike had his long holiday and I spent all my spare time tending my vegetable patch. I just hope we get plenty more sunshine as the Summer approaches with evenings and nights of showers for my plants.

All this hard work is making me hungry, I could do with a Chorley cake (currants in shortcrust pastry) not to be confused with an Eccles cake (currants in puff pastry), as eaten by a lad from Southport who I met while at uni in Lancaster. He would toast his and eat them warm spread with butter. Delicious.

Gardening for the 21st Century

Well to be more precise, another way to bore you all with my garden. Like Paula's monthly photo of the view from her house I thought I could have a monthly pic of my garden and the plants as they grow. I actually planted the first of my seeds a month ago, chillies and aubergines.


Chillies after 10 days

 A week ago I planted sweetcorn and courgettes.

Courgettes today



Chillies and aubergines today

Today I started digging over the vegetable patch ready to plant the carrots, leeks and beetroots next weekend. There is still a lot to do before then though.

Vegetable patch





Thinning Thursdays - week 7.

After last week's success comes this week's mediocre offering. A measly one pound, despite all my efforts down the gym and continued healthy diet. Oh well, a pound is one small step towards my goal. Despite my slight disappointment, I will continue to work at it. That way, when the special day arrives, I will know I did all I could and any way my size hardly matters really. It will be the words that matter, not my dress size.

On that subject I am pleased to say we have started getting things for the big day. I'm not sure how much I should give away beforehand. Wouldn't you all like to wait for the photos? Inevitably there will be few, if any, surprises for either of us. It's difficult to hide a whole outfit when you share a wardrobe. Worst of it is, Mike's skirts are a size smaller than mine.  

False alarm

It turns out that yesterday was a false alarm. I know I could have got back to you all straight away (well when Mike finally got home at 2 o'clock in the afternoon), but by then I was busy doing other things so you have all had to wait. In fact Mike's Hb was actually nearly normal, back to 11.7 where it hasn't been since he was first referred back in December 2009. Even better news was that his creatinine level was 120, yes 120!!!! It hasn't been that low since....... well again December 2009. He has an appointment for Friday to pop back for another blood test ready to see SB on 28th. We will all just have to wait and see what the outcome of those tests will be.

For those who are wondering what the cause of Mike's "My blood feels low" moment was, Dr AB happened to be on the Day Unit and she reckons may be Mike had over done things in the garden on Sunday. I must be more careful with my slave driving in future.

Living in Oz

It is extremely conceited of me, but I like to think that on the whole I have been like Glinda, a good witch. I certainly tried to do everything I could to help and support Mike during his treatment.

Today however I feel more like the wicked witch.

Mike has gone off to the hospital to have his Hb checked and I have stayed at home. It is the first time I have voluntarily not gone to the hospital with him. I do feel guilty, but in reality, what is the point of me sitting there for hours, only for us to be told the same thing as three weeks ago? I do worry about the fact he feels he needs a transfusion yet again, it is only two weeks since his last one. Does it mean his SCT was a failure? Are we about to start the roller-coaster ride of treatment again? May be those worries are the very reason I chose not to go today. If when we see SB in two weeks time he tells us Mike has got to go back treatment, we're both going to be spending a lot more time back at NX.

I'm sure some of you will understand that I need some me time before that happens. I love him dearly, but I have put certain areas of my life on hold. We drive when Mike doesn't feel up to walking, take lifts instead of stairs. My health and fitness have both suffered and I'm just starting to take control of them again. I need more time to build myself up both physically and emotionally. For those times when it suits him, I know Mike is seriously ill and for those times when he is feeling great, together we will conqueor the world.

Thinning Thursdays - week 6.

As requested by Paula I am taking the opportunity to share the photos I took while sewing the curtains. I had meant to post them on Tuesday, but I couldn't find the lead for my camera! Well you've waited long enough. So here we go:



I pinned



And pinned some more



I sewed

I checked the seams

Finally they were finished

Here they are in all their glory

So that done, I can get back to my knitting.

Back to the title of today's post. It is Thinning Thursday again. Gosh the weeks roll around quickly. I went to the hairdresser's today and had my hair cut again, I think that is why I lost two and a half pounds today, bringing my total loss to one stone! I think I'll go out and celebrate at the weekend.

Did anyone notice my little helper?

Drawing a veil over things.

Well the first pair of curtains are finally complete. I'm not sure if it was my lack of experience or the sheer size of them that caused the project to take so long. I know it took the two of us to hang them, one to put the hooks in the other to hold the weight! They did cause a few heated discussions too, there were moments when methods were questioned and suggestions given. Some were taken others were not. Any way they are drawn now and look very impressive.

Talking of veils, I am beginning to start thinking seriously about what I should wear for my big day in fourteen weeks time. I'm definitely not going for the meringue dress, I'm too old and it just isn't me. (Phew I hear you all say!) I'm not even sure whether I'm even going to wear a dress, may be I'll wear trousers (yes Mike I know, I already wear the trousers...hehe hehe.) I'm actually contemplating doing something really different and would love to at least make the little touches myself. I'm definitely not up to making my own clothes, but I do have some ideas which I will share with you all as the weeks go by.

I wonder if may be I should start a new blog, or change the title of this one. We certainly don't mention the dreaded M word much and I feel a bit of a fraud! Mike still has very itchy skin and is still Fred Bear. That's one thing I might have to make for June if Fred is still Bear.

Thinning Thursdays - week 5.

Well it is week 5 and I have lost another one and a half pounds. I'm bitterly disappointed, especially as I've been trying so hard and exercising to the point that I thought my knees would seize up and I'd never be able to move them again. I doesn't matter how much I try to oil them, they just won't move these days. In truth all I wanted to lose was two pounds a week to achieve a decent weight-lose for the big day, but that missing half a pound for the last two weeks has really made me mad.

My creative space is still piled high with curtains. Hopefully they'll be completed by next week and I'll be able to post pics. One good thing about having my machine out the loft is that I finally got round to replacing a zip on a denim skirt that broke about 4 years ago. Funnily enough it doesn't even fit me anymore. Mike says it will soon. He also kindly pointed out that if the weight took a year to arrive it might take a year to shift, which is great if you consider I've got four years to shift!!!!

The jumper I'm knitting continues to grow very, very slowly. May be by next Winter it will be completed. (I'm not saying which Winter though.)

Mike is currently suffering from an extremely bad case of itchiness. He has either been playing with poison ivy (who ever she may be) or lying down with dogs (not Toni or Bud because they are both clean and flea-free). Talk about ants in the pants, he scratches all through the night, it's like sleeping on a vibrating bed.