Taking in the sea air

You'll remember me writing about my love of maps. Since January the only maps we've needed have been local ones as we haven't left the southwest, concentrating instead on Nick's treatment interspersed with some healing visits from friends and family. Until now... 

I came home from work yesterday looking forward to a week off but feeling uncertain what that week would bring as we still didn't know what the next leg of the treatment trip would bring. The only thing planned for next week was a very special run that I'm doing with my sister Esther and one of my nephews, Andy. It's called the Stone 5 and is being held to raise money for The Lymphoma Association, organised by a keen runner who is in remission from lymphoma himself. We have our charity vests at the ready, flags and balloons for our supporters (all provided by the charity) and plans to eat a lot afterwards!

But yesterday Nick announced that she had booked a last minute holiday for us in Norfolk!!!! We used to go to Norfolk a lot and always thought of it as a peaceful haven, a place for long blustery walks on endless beaches, long lazy breakfasts with the papers, long cosy evenings with a stack of books to read, long-beaked wading birds and long drives across the flat, flat fens and broads. So last night we packed the essentials; books, boots, maps, binoculars, wetsuits, cameras and of course my running gear so I can nip off for 48hrs to visit my family and run the Stone 5. While I'm gone Nick's mother will head to Norfolk for a couple of days to take in the peace and quiet.
We are so excited to be getting away, we really need a break, a change of scenery and I'm sure this will do as much good as any chemo could ever do!

So this is a short and not very interesting blog just to let you know that we're going off-radar for a week, off on a road trip across the country to eat freshly caught seafood, explore the vast expanses of sand picking up shells along the way, maybe have a swim in The Wash, have picnics in the dunes, watch the oyster catchers flash from black to white and back again. Hopefully the sun will shine but it really won't matter if it doesn't, the dogs will still chase across the beach and then sleep for hours, we will still have a lovely relaxing time and I'll tell you all about it next weekend when we get home!

But before we could get away we had to meet Nick's consultant, Dave Veale, today to find out the results of yesterday's MRI and to make a treatment plan. It turns out he was in on the Norfolk secret and went out of his way to make things happen today so that we could get away for the week! Unfortunately 'making things happen' meant organising a last minute surprise for Nick in the form of a bone marrow biopsy which is not a nice surprise at all. The MRI showed a few new pockets of lymphoma in Nick's pelvis explaining the recent hip pain so the biopsy is to check exactly what is going on. It seems the CHOP has been side-stepped by the disease so rather than have the final round next week as planned we will wait for the results of the biopsy and probably start the ESHAP treatment regime in a couple of weeks. This meant a very painful 30 mins for Nick as a needle was forced into her bone to extract bone marrow and also to take away a small segment of bone for analysis. Dave said she'll feel like she's been kicked in the back by a horse for the next couple of days. At least he's honest! And to top it all he did press ups with her before the procedure as did our cancer specialist nurse, Dawn. Amazing people!

We're not being sponsored for the 5 mile run this week but it's for the same charity as our Great North Run in September so if you'd like to give money to a very worthy charity here's the link again.........Thank you x

https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/run-or-die

This photo was taken on a wonderful Norfolk beach on Nick's 50th birthday last October, just before we found out about the lymphoma.