Dirty detox..

So here we are with some alternative treatments. To be honest there was nothing good or enlightning to say about the Chemo months, hence no photos or posts. The month of January was spent in Aberdeen however having radiotherpay every morning and the rest of the day to experiment with other therapies. Most of them were a bit new-age for my tastes but I did try Aqua Detox. The theory is that salt water conducts a positive and then negative charge from the electric device through your feet. Red blood cells have a negative polarity and after the treatment are less likely to cling together and better blood flow results in improvements, removing the toxins from the chemo. (You can tell I didn't do physics!)
  However the toxins do rather turn the water murky. Better out than in
                                           

Radio killed the radio stars.. and rogue cells apparently

Beam me up Scotty! This was my feeling every morning as I lay beneath the radiotherapy machine, while it whirred and buzzed around me. Very clever kit. Installed, I think, by WEC colleague Viv Whitton before he retired. 20 minutes under this every morning and that is you cooked. They treat 100 patients every day in three machines at ARI. Very grateful, even when it hurts.

Boy Sprouts

Christmas day with the boys was like old times, playing with toys, Andrew getting distracted in some deep thought and forgetting to take his turn opening his stocking. Donald getting up to daring do and flying his drone into a loch and later the sea, muddy jeans, then what is this? Exploding sprouts?

The wee egg cup

The Lord provides. Full stop. I could regale you with stories this year of places to live, funds appearing from all sources when required and clothes, books, flowers and food being delivered. All that. However at 3 in the morning I saw a provision that just caught my breath and I thought this was the one to share here. 
As we have mentioned we were able to move to a wee house in Stromness in September and have been able to settle there during the last 3 cycles of chemo, living with Donald and being a family. We have lots of things we were ale to take with us from our loft in Finstown so as you saw below we have our very own bed and lots of bits of furniture from family who were having a clearout as well.
During our time in Orkney Auntie Chrisabel passed away and when the family offered us to have a keepsake I asked for her baking tins, mine are in Spain obviously and hers have many happy memories and, as I use her recipes, they fit the quantities. They came in a carrier bag with other random things from her kitchen. The night after I got them I was up on a steroid-induced-midnight-feast rampage of the fridge and opted to have a boiled egg. Yum! However how to eat it without the necessary tools? I had a wee look in the carrier bag and noticed one plastic egg cup. These tiny details tell us more about God´s care and provision for our needs than some of the huge answers to prayer we worry about. Never has an egg tasted so good.

BLOG 300 - and so to bed

So this week we got back into our own bed - it has been a long time in coming and we were both ready for it. This is blog number 300 and in that time we have used 127 different beds but just think - every couple of posts and a different bed if you include the repeat visits. It is too much. Goodnight.

A CAVA-eat

Here we are in another house, we have been here a month and are about to leave again. We had a little celebration last night with our hosts Janet and James. Just announcing a caveat.  the subject of which we  cannot yet tell you what we were so happy about but hopefully soon. This chemo malarky is not really much fun but certain other chemicals along the way do gladden the heart!

Please Sir...

This post is not really about us, but the fact that our youngest has qualified and started work as a teacher is really a significant step forward. Donald is the guy at the top of the stairs (as is often the way for male teachers we hear!) We are so happy that he loves his job and that he gets to stay with us for a few months.