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Saturday, July 22, 2017

Museum visit

There were some problems with the port-a-cath so I had to go back to the hospital for some tests. Everything was ok according to the EKG. After some discussions, both with the doctor on duty and the doctors who inserted the device, it was decided that I will have to endure it. Once the port-a-cath is in they can't make any adjustments. It seems like it's situated a tiny bit too far down in the vein, so it affects my heart in an unwanted way. My heart races occasionally. This was very noticeable the first week but it has calmed down now.

Wednesday my mother and her boyfriend came to stay for a night. Thursday we went to the Kulturen museum in Lund. It is both an outdoor museum with old buildings and halls with arranged exhibits. I hadn't been there in quite a while. We saw exhibits on fashion history, glassware and a comedy duo called "Hasse & Tage". For this last exhibit they had borrowed archive material from my library. All was very interesting to see. After this we continued on to a mall for a herring lunch and some shopping. I was also able to get rid of some junk from my attic. Part of it was handed over to the charity shop and the rest to the recycling place.

Yesterday I got another chemo injection. It's a new kind that has other side effects. I have already noticed some of them. I have stomach problems. Not nice at all.

I hope that the attendants at the Nelson Family Reunion in Milaca tomorrow will have a great time!

Wednesday, July 12, 2017

Operation

After just a few days at home for doctor's appointments I returned to the summerhouse this past Thursday. On my way I stopped at Hörby to go to the annual market fair. It was quite fun with lots of stalls selling all kinds of things like toys, hats, candy, craft items, jam & marmalade, clogs, clothes, sausages and much else. I got a book and some licorice, and a langos with shrimp for lunch. I was also surprised by seeing my father and his girlfriend there, I didn't know they would visit this market.

The weekend at the summerhouse was nice. Saturday we went to Åhus to the Lions second hand store. There were minor purchases made there. Sunday my mother and I drove about an hour north to get to a friend's 70th birthday party. There was a quiz and I won a box of chocolate. At this party there was a woman I had met before and I knew she is interested in research, so we spent some time talking about that. She is currently researching the history of a building and I was able to make some suggestions for further information.

Early Monday morning I had to return to Lund for some tests at the hospital. Tuesday (yesterday) I crawled out of bed at 5 AM. A transport service picked me up and brought me to the hospital in Malmö. After some preparations I was wheeled into an operating room. The doctors inserted a port-a-cath just underneath my skin, with a tube into a vein. This last part was the most complicated and they actually had to ask another doctor for assistance - he did it on the first attempt. This port-a-cath will be used to give me the rest of the chemo injections (at least three). I was awake during the entire operation and was very fascinated by the big screen showing x-rays of my body. The x-ray was on all the time so it was live images, I could see my bones and everything else move as I was breathing. The doctors looked at the same screen, to see where my veins were and to correctly insert the port-a-cath. Very interesting. Afterwards I stayed for a few hours and was then allowed to go home. There is some pain of course but the biggest problem is the substantial pieces of plaster they attached to me. I'm allergic to it and it only took 24 hours before I went to the medical center and asked the nurse to replace them. She knew me from before and she was appalled when she saw what it looked like even after such a short time. She helped me so that it's a lot better now.

Tuesday, July 4, 2017

Rainy weekend

This past Friday I was supposed to get another chemo injection. However, the nurse called in the morning saying that the blood tests I had done the previous day were not good. They didn't want to give me the injection. This changed a lot. I called my mother right away and said I could help out at the fleamarket at Furuboda, which was that same afternoon. I packed very quickly and then travelled by train and bus and managed to get there an hour before it started. I was not scheduled to be there but I assisted the others selling books, paintings and lamps. I also stood in the doorway, trying to prevent people from leaving without paying. We have had problems with that other years. This year we didn't notice any problems. The weather was really bad with lots of rain but I think the sales went pretty well despite this. We also had after-sales on the Saturday and there were still things we could sell.

The rest of the time I spent at the summerhouse, taking it easy. I am not used to hard work since I have done basically nothing for several months. I had to rest. Over the weekend it was also incredibly rainy so we were really not active. The only activity was playing catch with the small dog my mother was taking care of. After going shopping in Kristianstad I returned home today by train and replacement bus (there were big problems on the train tracks to and from my town).