Friday 29th October

Today Helen's friend/cousin Dorothy came to visit for a week and they are enjoying catching up. I am going to fly down South for a wedding and return on Sunday afternoon. Louis plans to go back to Brisbane early next week.

Photos October 2010

Wednesday 27th October 2010

Well I think I will shortly have to resort to a photoessay having allowed so many days to slip by...

Happenings of note in brief: Louis arrived, Douglas departed, Umpherston and Jed are getting on ok (sort of), Bilha, Helen and I went out to see a band at the Darwin Entertainment Centre, Helen, Louis, Umphy and I went to Frillies with Kaye and Shirley, I had a birthday and we all went to the Wharf for dinner sans dogs then shared a birthday cake with pink glittery candles, H, L and I went on a nursery excursion and amongst other things bought a Grenadilla ( a kind of giant passionfruit I have always longed to grow), Louis took Helen for oncology review - uneventful in general - the plan being to keep going taking Iressa and have another scan on the 10th November, I have been still working 8-4 ish at Danila Dilba and Louis is doing sterling service with Helen and my dogs in his sole care...

Helen is pretty much the same. Sometimes sleepy, sometimes disoriented but generally pleasant, fairly well and taking an interest in life. Enjoying her contacts with friends and family both local and far away.

Has had some funny dreams lately and had a whole night where she couldn't stop herself rehearsing her old school song over and over (not something she had thought of much in the last 5o years or so)!

Photos to follow :)

Captain Umpherston arrives

Wednesday 13th October 2010

Doug and Helen have enjoyed a few visits and outings with Kaye and Shirley this week including a trip to see the Senior Territorian Portraits Art Display in which Shirley's self portrait is an entry. Of course Helen couldn't see them much but Douglas described them to her and then they all retreated to Speakers Corner Cafe at Parliament House.

Yesterday Helen was reviewed by Dr M at Palliative Care who was very happy with how she is going in general. A few fine tunings of medication but otherwise we are encouraged to continue as we are.

This week we received a lovely long letter from Peter and Joyce and also a few phone calls with friends and family.

Helen asks me to report that Jed has provided her with good company when others have been busy. I have been contemplating the slightly momentous step of getting a puppy so hopefully that won't be too outrageous for Jed and he and the new one will be able to share the task of keeping Helen companioned.

Monday 11th October 2010

I realised today that as I have never posted a postal address for us in Darwin since Helen returned to her own house we are a bit cut off from some of the people who used to write to us. For the time being her old Post Office Box - PO Box 1123 Nightcliff NT 0814 will still be a good way to reach us although at some point in the future I think we will cancel this one. Letters direct to her home at The Gardens will get here most efficiently but as I still feel a bit wary about putting this address up here feel free to email/message me if you want the full address.

Over the last week Helen and I continued on our path of the odd outing to cafes and visits at home with friends. On the weekend we have had visitors from down south and Douglas also arrived for a 10 day stint as the main carer while I start work at Danila Dilba.

Helen's cognition still varies a lot - at times she is quite disoriented, at other times quite with it. Sometimes she remembers all the things that happened the day before even though she had seemed not to really know they were happening at the time...

She has been listening to My Brilliant Career courtesy of Lil. She and I have finished watching/listening to Series 3 of When the Boat Comes In and I have been demurring over whether to buy Series 4 from ebay. Radio National is still a favourite - especially the Book Show which is fortunately available as a podcast.

She is eating well. Mobility is even better than before.

She does seem sleepier than she was and has had a slight cough and occasional shortness of breath. She is sometimes troubled by a rash affecting her eyelids - probably related to Iressa (the anti cancer drug). Still no pain and generally much more well than you might expect. A bit bored at times.

Monday 4th October 2010

Well, working my way backwards - the above photo is from this morning when Helen and I met her lovely friend Stephen at the Groove cafe in Nightcliff. She has taken to enjoying the odd weak latte again and being a coffee aficionado myself I am keen to encourage this development.

Since I returned last Thursday Helen and I have been going along fairly peacefully. She has received lovely cards and packages from Judith, Peter and Joyce and Dorothy and enjoyed a few phone catch ups with distant friends and family. On Saturday morning I decided to take her out to a cafe (the coffee interest again) and we had a funny sequence of events where we went to the coffee-shop where Helen's friends tend to congregate after Aqua Aerobics, found no-one there and decided on the spur of the moment to go to Frillies in Nightcliff instead. When we arrived there there wasn't anyone much we knew but we decided to stay anyway and after a few minutes Kaye and Shirley arrived having just gone looking for Helen at her own house after Aqua! I thought this was very impressive of them to intuit we might be at Frillies as it is the first time we have done anything so spur of the moment.

Saturday night Helen, Bilha, Shirley and I made an excursion to the Darwin Entertainment Centre - all dressed up!
We saw a play written and performed by Alan Hopgood entitled" 4 Funerals in 1 day" which was about palliative care, death and dying and was followed by a forum on palliative care issues with the audience and an expert local panel. It was pretty great - fun as a performance and thought provoking as well. Afterward Helen reaped the benefits of wheelchair travel as the actor came over to give her a hug and some special attention. A shame about her diminished vision as he is a pretty spunky 76 year old but Shirley, Bilha and I described him to her on the way home.

Helen and I are on our own this week - Louis is in Brisbane and I think will return next Sunday night. Monday the 11th I start fulltime work in Darwin for a month.