Norwood Park - directions to Alison's rock

Hi everyone,

Apologies, it has been nearly a year and I had overlooked the fact that many people would not know where to find Alison's memorial rock at Norwood Park.

Alison and I spent a bit of time together looking around for the right spot and we ended up deciding that this place on Pioneer Walk, towards the back of the park, was it. She wanted a place that was peaceful and easy to get to so people could come and visit. There is a picnic table nearby to sit and enjoy a coffee and it's a lovely area.

Please feel welcome to go and visit. The yellow star in pictures below shows where to find her.

Andrew

New website - https://alisonmpike.wordpress.com/

Hi - I've started up a new website which has all the existing posts and I think is easier to read.

You can either type in the address above or simply click here.

All new posts will be going up on the new website.

Thanks

Short version of current situation - no further treatment :(

Hi It's been a hectic few weeks as some of you will know.

Back in early July the doctors told Alison that further chemo on the tumours would do more damage to her body than good and so her treatments would need to cease. Unfortunately this means that as the tumours grow we are no longer able to stop them or slow their growth.

Alison has cancer in her ribs, spine, pelvis and lungs however, the main problem area is the liver where the tumours will eventually cause her liver to fail.

Despite this news, Alison continues to make the most of things and take life head on. She spends much time sleeping due to fatigue and manages the pain and nausea through medication.

The Clare Holland home-based care team are watching and providing much appreciated help as needed.

We also have some great friends providing assistance and have received many offers to help out. Realistically, there is not a great deal that anyone can do now but the thoughts and kind wishes are very generous and warmly welcomed.

Not surprisingly, I've been receiving a number of calls to check in on Alison and to ask about visits. Ali is not really up to seeing visitors and as no surprise, would get frustrated if people started fussing around her. I'm very happy to give people an update if you want to call me but please understand, if I have to cut short the conversation it is simply a practical matter of time, I mean no disrespect.

I will be updating the blog more frequently and hope that this will help you all keep up to date with Alison.

Thanks all for your keen interest in Alison and for your kind thoughts.

Andrew

Hi there.

Been a while as per usual.

Ali had her last treatment on Thursday 9/1/14. It was a double dose, carbo one.

It really knocks her around. The doubles always do.

Her birthday was on Saturday, 11/1/14. Happy 41st!

We had a great weekend heading up to Sydney to see the Lion King. I love the shows and Ali and Harry saw this one a few years ago and enjoyed it. Great hospitality at Colleen's house a with a special birthday dinner before we went out.

Scans happening tomorrow (13/1/14) and I hope that they are showing positive results. Visit to Dr on 14/1/14 so we will have to wait until then.

That's all for now. I will update after we get the results.

Port inserted

Alison had a 'port' inserted into her chest yesterday. It provides easy access for the nurses when she is getting her chemo which started up again a few weeks ago or has blood taken.

Seems that the surgery went well and it was a day surgery, in at 6:30am and back home again by 8:30pm. Bit of a sleepless night for her last night but she managed to get up and was driving the car today which was pretty incredible.

Unfortunately Ali has missed her last two chemo treatments as her neutrophils were too low (neutropenia). Seems that her bone marrow is pretty shot and not working as effectively as it should be to help her recover from the chemo. Happily we found out today from her doctor that one of the pharma companies (Amgen) agreed to provider her with two free doses of neulasta which should help with production of her white blood cells. We'll have to wait and see how it goes.

Home at last!!

Very happy to say that Alison is now home. Safe and sound (more or less).

First of all, it is great to have her home. A day or two earlier than I thought but great news nonetheless. Without wanting to waffle on about how happy I am, she is now settling in back to the lifestyle of living at home. The hospital bit was necessary but you wouldn't wish it upon anybody.

Basic stuff like reading a menu and delivering the right food seemed a little out of reach.

From here, Ali will have some tests to assess how effective the treament was.

In hospital

A few eventful days. On Saturday morning Ali decided that she'd had enough and it was time to go to hospital. I drove her in and she walked into the Emergency area. Luckily she was triaged quickly, taken to a bed and hooked up on a drip within the hour.

One of the nurses arrived to take all her details, and heard about how Ali couldn't eat or drink and how much pain she was in every time she tried to swallow something. After the nurse had finished taking her notes she turned to Ali and asked if she would like the nurse to arrange a sandwich and some juice for her lunch as she was likely to be there a while! Without repeating verbatim what Alison said, it suffices to say she was not impressed.

Throughout the day Ali received fluids via IV and they started to improve the way she felt.

After waiting until around 9:30 pm Ali was then moved to the renal ward with a prescription for some morphine to help her with the pain. Problem was that she was prescribed oral morphine while at the same time was 'nil by mouth'. Eventually this was all sorted and And she managed to get some sleep.

Sunday was spent pretty much lying in bed resting and trying to recover.

By Monday Ali was hoping that she would have been booked in for a gastroscopy to take a good look at what was wrong with her and work out what to do. But alas, nobody books diagnostic tests during a weekend so she had to wait until today before she joined the queue.

It now looks like she may get the tests done either Tuesday or Wednesday.

Latest thinking is that her problems are related to her earlier treatment and most likely that she had ulcers in her oesophageous. No idea yet on when she will be allowed out.