Location! Location! to a room with lake views

Canberra, Australia snusher@gmail.com

Message from Lynne

The CT scan was done on Mon and we went afterwards to Canberra Hospital where Peter told the nurse in charge of the trials that he wanted to be taken off the trial and stop taking the drugs.  This was agreed and the unused tablets returned.  We were both relieved that this decision had been taken. On Wed we were given the results.  We know this is an aggressive tumour. As well as being located in Peter's stomach, it has now spread to the lungs & the liver.  (With this outcome, Peter would have been taken off the trial drug anyway).  Now we know that it is just Peter and the cancer in the equation; as we were never sure whether the trial drug or the cancer were responsible for side effects.

I rang the Palliative Care Support team on Wed and said that the medications Peter was taking were keeping him comfortable during the days, but pain was moving in nightly, with 2 or 3 break thru tablets needed to stop the pain.  The doctor was consulted we were told that a bed was available at Clare Holland House (the ACT Hospice) and Peter checked in early afternoon.

Peter has a comfy room to himself with a sunny area outside his sliding door. We can sit there and take our daily dose of Vitamin D in gentle Canberra sunshine of around 12 degrees with a view of Lake Burley Griffin ahead of us.  There is a stand of tall bare poplars on the far bank and cows graze there in the afternoon.  Fairy wrens, the males with their brilliant blue tails, and the females in dowdy brown come & visit us and we had a pair of black swans by the lake bank showing off their 3 baby cygnets proudly, as fond parents do, and moving on to further shores. There is very well fed magpie which strutts up and down the adjacent wall.

Last night was better for Peter with more sleep and his break thru pain managed, and I had the most beautiful sleep in my comfy bed snuggled under the doona.  A better night for us both, and this is the ideal arrangement for just now.

One more sleep and tomorrow I meet Jeremy & Finn's flight!!  Peter will have a pass and we will all go home, with Peter returning to CCH for the night.  We will spend Sat together & Finn can check out the CHH playground.  It will be home to Mel for our Special Visitors on Sat afternoon.