Well – I’m back home again after thoroughly enjoying myself on the roadtrip that OH and I took to take the remainder of MD’s stuff to her. I think it was just what I needed to take my mind off going back into treatment. There were lots of times in the past week I was having so much fun I could forget all about it.
heading down the Marleborough Sounds
OH has never been more south than the middle of the North Island so it was great to show him some of the places that I had visited as a child. Even though we left on a long holiday weekend OH found the driving relaxing as once we got south of Cambridge, there wasn’t much traffic compared to Auckland.
travelling down the coast of the South Island towards Kaikoura and Christchurch
I had problems with my truncal lymphodema, spending a day driving in a car will do that to you and got a bit of pain from my affected nodes but other than that and a persistent headcold I was in good spirits for most of the trip. We drove to Wellington spent the night then drove straight to Christchurch the next day we spent a few days visiting with MD,SB, Bro and family then headed to Akaroa for a night.
The Giants House, Akaroa
We returned to Christchurch for 3 more nights including niece B’s lovely birthday dinner and a wonderful evening spent with my old friend A and my new friend C. I had met A through ante-natal classes 25 years ago with our first babies but when she moved to the South Island we had lost touch over the years. I had met C on an online forum and become friends as her brother had prostate cancer at the same time I was first diagnosed with IBC. When I found out A’s new address and talked to C – I realised they knew each other and only lived a few miles from each other. It was wonderful being able to meet C and have dinner with her and A, and their husbands at A’s house.
We took a day longer to come home from Christchurch breaking our journey at Picton (top of the South Island) and Tokaanu (the southern end of Lake Taupo). Some of the scenery we saw was spectcular and the photos we took don’t do it justice, both OH and I had taken our cameras and those of you that are my friends on facebook will see a good selection of them there.
Old University of Canterbury buildings now the Arts Centre, Christchurch
Road into Hamner Springs looking back to the bridge we had just been over
Lake Rotoiti -Nelson Lakes
Hot thermal spring at Tokaanu
peacock at Wairakei Thermal Walk
I have my Radiation Oncology appointment tomorrow which I look forward to with both eagerness and trepidation. I am eager to start treatment and get on top of Gertrude once more, but nervous as to what they are going to say regarding treatment and ability to target only unradiated areas from before. I also hope to get a clearer understanding of exactly what node/s are involved. I will write a short update on that tomorrow. YD is coming home for the weekend for Guy Fawkes fun so hopefully I will have enough time after appointment to write a quick update as well as upload my second installment of road trip photos to Facebook.
3 Comments
November 4, 2009 at 10:48 pm
It was so great to meet you in person too. It sounds
like the road trip is something we should all do from time to time. Take care and we will catch up with you again soon.
November 5, 2009 at 12:19 am
nice photos
November 5, 2009 at 4:50 pm
Was great to see you – just as well you don’t have to print out all your photos eh ??