Monday 26th October

My birthday! Helen had a huge day and coped really well. First thing Louis picked her up from the hospital and brought her to Dorchester St. The 3 of us drank lemon and ginger tea together and chatted and opened prezzies...and completely lost track of time. Helen had just negotiated the 3 flights of substantial steps up to Louis' flat and was admiring his renovations when we discovered she had about 10 minutes until she was due back at the hospital to go through "orientation to chemotherapy". Supposedly she was joining us for a birthday breakfast but as our time had slipped away she had to eat a hastily scrambled egg and a banana on the way back to the ward. Louis accompanied her to the 2 hour talk on chemo while I had a birthday treat hanging out with my friend Sarah. Poor Louis didn't get breakfast at all as the talk was >2 hours.

We then left Helen to have a bit of a rest.

The good(ish) medical news of the day was that her CXR did not show much re-accumulation of the pleural effusion. The not so good news is that that means the breathlessness and the dullness at the base of her R lung are due to collapse. However, it might improve depending on her response to treatment - we'll have to wait and see.

In the evening Louis hosted a birthday party for me on the rooftop of Dorchester St - Helen made it up the stairs again and really wasn't breathless at all - no need for the oxygen we had handy. She was ensconced in a red armchair under cover with a small glass of Moet and lots of friends from my old Brisbane time came and shared food. It was to have been all on the roof under the stars but it seems I am something of a drought-breaker; instead we had a fabulous electrical storm and torrential rain, necessitating a retreat into the flat with only occasional excursions out to experience the downpour. Helen migrated to a green velvet armchair in the living room and stayed til ~9ish which was fantastic. Wendy and Louis both provided beautiful birthday cakes: orange-almond and historic-Pavlin-recipe-chocolate. There were sparklers (luckily the oxygen was safely downstairs) birthday singing and a great collection of people who love me. I had a ball and was so glad to celebrate with Helen and Louis.