98. It IS the 7th today isn’t it?

I’m beginning to wonder if I’ve lost track and it’s Friday 13th! First we got to the hospital with ample time to spare even tho I was not quite ready when Lisa arrived - drying a bald head is so time-consuming! No, to be honest, I was faffing around trying to get a semblance of respectable eyebrows. Never having done anything but pluck before, I make a bit of a pig’s ear of them. Lisa is a genius at locating parking spaces (and at parking) so in we went, taking our time, sat down...then I saw in the distance “50 mins.” I went to check and it was an apology, informing us that machine 9 (mine) had broken down earlier and they were running 50 minutes late.

Big decision: do we stay put in case they’ve caught up or do we go somewhere more pleasant and hope for the best? The matter was resolved when a radiographer came out and announced in the quietest voice that they were running an hour and a half late now. I felt so sorry for her - a sea of blank, controlled faces, no one wanting to express their frustration because everyone is so grateful for the treatment we get!

Fortunately, one woman was obviously an old hand at this and asked if she could have a patient bleeper so she could go out to be with her kids. So I asked for one too and Lisa and I went up to Costa where I had a gorgeous lemon curd tartlet and a cup of tea. The woman was there with her young children but, surprisingly, I got the bleep first.

Radiotherapy was fine - I’d done a lot of breast muscle stretching and massaging which looked a bit iffy but, believe me, is just painful. The radiographer was going to write happy birthday on my noob but they were running so late I didn’t remind her.

The doctor of course rang while I was at the hospital and I’d left my phone charging at home so I got a message to contact her if there were any problems - no use when I wanted an increase in dosage. Fortunately she also tried the landline and D told her I was at the hospital so she rang back around 6 and has increased my dose. Fingers crossed.

This evening, I’ve done more proof-reading. The deadline is very short but it can’t be helped so I’m doing what I can when I can. Thank god chemo-brain is fading. But when I tried to email the documents back so she can work on them tomorrow, my email account had acquired a pop-up despite my laptop security and I couldn’t even open an email. I tried my personal account and no pop up - but it wouldn’t allow attachments.

Brainwave: I tried Chrome instead of IE and it was plain-sailing. I’m currently running a full scan but, 45 minutes later, we’re at 6%!!

Further ‘crisis’ - I sent Trina some belated birthday flowers for delivery today. She’s waited all day. I got an email saying delivery by 6.42. That precise. Then an email saying 9pm. It’s now 10.39pm and no flowers. Guess what I’ll be doing tomorrow! In the meantime, I was waiting for the flowers she had arranged for delivery today since I’m not celebrating my birthday tomorrow and said NO PRESENTS. This was a compromise. Have they come? No. She got an email this evening saying they’d be delivered tomorrow. Is it me or is all of this rather poor service??

Yes, birthday tomorrow. 68! But, as with Christmas, it’s postponed till I’ve got all this behind me. Ironically, when I made the decision at Christmas, I believed I would celebrate it alongside my birthday. How naive. Another few months at least, I think now...