Heyyy, I'm still here, hehe!!!

Ok, first day of treatment. I won't call it day one cuz they consider the day they give me the stem cells day zero which is on Thursday 22nd. So today is day -3?!

Well, whatever day it is, it was rougher than expected but still bearable, hamdilla. After having had a disrupted sleep because of the bloods coming and going, I finally woke up, full of energy of course, and started getting ready to go down to my first TBI scheduled at 9:00. btw, i need to do 8 of those in 4 days, (ya3ni twice daily for those mathematically impaired!) They took me down in a wheelchair around 9:20 and had yet another gyt explain the procedure for me and make me sign yet another consent... Anyway, after finally taking me in, they spent a good hour just positioning me and sticking on stuff... the actual radiation took 20 min and didn't hurt at all!

when i went back up to my room, i was greeted by the nurse and 4 bottles of high dose chemotherapy! yippe kay-aye! that went rather smoothly too and lasted till my 2nd radiation session.

well, to cut a long story short, i can tell u that radiation turned out to be no piece of cake. and this is just from the first 2 sessions. i have constant, unquenchable thirst. i can't drink any more water lest i will drown! and my eyes are red and blurry. i have soft 'bowels' (sorry bout that!), my jaw is swollen and hurts to the touch and i feel sleepy most of the time. but we have to admit these symptoms are far better than the other ones like vomitting and diarrhea... so, I guess once again, thank God for being easy on me! hope He keeps it up the next few days (or months!) (or years!!!) (Is it too much? do u think I'm asking a lot of Him??) nahhhhhhh. God is great! He'll understand and cooperate.

tomoro ma fi chemo, yay. just the two sessions of TBI. Hope that goes well and not worse than today. And if you know of a better thirst quencher than water, drop me a line.

tks

mwah

H

p.s. (Cristina tks for the puzzle!!! You didn't have to, really. You're so sweeeet! My God, how am I ever going to finish it?)

Ok, I'm in!

I was supposed to just come in for a check in, see the doc and then go sleep @ home and come back ealrly morning, BUT, it turns out my hemoglobin is low (or not high enough for tomoro's radiation) so they had to keep me here to give me blood. So, here I am waiting for my two units. It's a good thing I'd brought my suitcase with me. Now I'm in my jammies, comfy in a room much bigger and better than I expected (thank God), but hungry!!! They said they would get me an off-hours snack, I'm still waiting.
Fadi went home to sleep and Wiss stayimg with me here tonight (first nights always a must) (and seconds and thirds and ...) No, honest, I am expecting to start panicking about tomorrow any minute now. It hasn't started yet, despite all the phonecalls and emails asking me how I 'really' am and how I'm 'really' feeling... I am surprisingly calm, hamdillah. Let's hope I stay like that tomorrow when I'm all alone with the TBI (Total Body Irradiation) machine in a cold, heartless room.
This room, par contre, is actually nice. Not luxurious or anything, but spacious and clean and has a big window overlooking the garden. The bathroom is huge and there's a seat in the bath that Wiss found very comfortable! There's also a huge cupboard with more hangers than I have at home! oh, btw, over here they prefer it if u wore ur clothes during the day and ur pajamas at night. no hospital gowns. yay! That means I need to send Cyba or Wisso to buy me some jogging suits or 'lounge' wear! (that's what they call 'em, right?)
Ok, I'm starting to get restless and really really hungry. I'm gonna go shout at them, show them whom they are messing with. (hope they don't take it out on me with more pricks or something!).

Good night and please please please your prayers tomoro, most important!
tks
mwah
Hala

We @ The Park!

Hi-ya! This is how they say hi or hello here. You hear everyone saying hi-ya! In Beirut, it would be an unfinished sentence: "hi ya albi, hi ya 7ilou, hi ya hayawan, hi ya... Anyways...

Wiss and I finally got to the park (it's right opposite our house, but it's been sooo cold, that we hadn't dared go for a stroll there!). Yesterday, there was some sun (there was frost too, but there was sun) so we ventured into the park. It's beautiful and I can see it from the house. I can even see the children's playground and often visualize Zee playing there and me shouting to her from the 15th floor!!!

So, two more days to go before I am admitted. I've been trying to make the best of it, trying not to think too hard or worry too much. I went to London a couple of days. Wiss wanted to see an exhibition at Tate Modern so we went there, it was really nice. then he dragged me to a couple of art shops and i had to wait for about an hour for him to finish, but i was happy cuz he was ecstatic! Like a kid in a toyshop! habibi.

Today, the weather is lovely, sunny but 'nippy'!!! Ya3ni around 7 degrees!!! Ya3ni, I have to wear thge closet again! I don't have much to do today, so I'm taking it easy, preparing the stuff I have to take with me, shopping for things for the house...

I'm so grateful for those who wrote back with suggestions and recipes for dinner, tks guys! I found that M&S even have half-made meals that u can just finish off quickly and claim as your own doing, so that has made life a bit easier.

Fadi's coming tomorrow. My stem cells are coming tomorrow! yayyy!!! Allah yi7miyon! And Cyba is coming on Monday. Habibti, I miss her. She makes a killer cuppa tea!



Yalla later dudes, must go help clean the house! :(

mwah



H

Keep 'em coming, plzzzzzzzzz!

Well, people, today I went to see the doctor in preparation for my admission to hospital next Sunday. He had a look at the results of all the tests I had done and he examined me and asked a million questions and finally said: "You are a very healthy lady! This BMT should be straightforward." Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyy! Inshallah ya rabb!!! I kept knocking on wood and saying 'inshallah' and 'hamdillah' and kept my fingers crossed. So, you see people, your prayers have been heard, so pls keep them coming. Somehow after that I feel a bit relieved. I am still anxious, of course, but, thank God, every piece of news is more positive than the previous one. Let's hope my streak of good luck doesn't run out.

Today it was freezing in Sutton. Wiss and I strolled down the High Street, bought some groceries, and headed back to the warmth of our house. A cuppa tea, a fleece blanket and a hot water bottle later I was finally warm and could enjoy my daily game shows on BBC2. Starting from a lovely new food show called "Food Poker", then "Are u smarter than a 10-year old", then "Eggheads" then "Who wants to be a millionaire" the programs never end. There's a whole channel called Challenge that just puts game shows, so I'm good! Or you can opt for endless episodes of Friends and Frasier and Becker and all those sitcoms. The movies on Sky aren't that great, though, but who cares?! Hardly have time after all the above shows!

Well, now it's almost 8:00 p.m. In a minute Wiss will start asking what I want for dinner, then he (we) will prepare something and after eating, I start drifting off infront of the tv. Poor Wiss, he has to wake me up to go to bed every night. Well, what can I do, I think it's all the medication I'm taking that's making me so sleepy.

Anyway, let's see what we have in the fridge. Any suggestions for something easy to make at the last minute?

ta ta
H

You Think?

You think if I'm getting his stem cells, I'll be as technologically smart as Fadi??? I sure hope so. I had succumbed to my 'internet connection' fate and was going to wait till end of next week to get connected at home, but Fadi wouldn't have it. He kept looking for ways to provide me with some sort of immediate connection, at least until Broadband came through. So, here we are, some dial-up freebie that's a bit slow but will do the job. All together now: THANKS FADI!!!!!

It's my last week of 'freedom'! I go in next Sunday, ya mama! I should be in for a good 4 to 6 weeks! I hope all goes well. I am a bit anxious and as the date approaches, I feel more and more apprehensive. I'm mostly worried about the radiation part, which is the first part, basically because I'm new to it, although I've been told I won't feel a thing. It's just huge to have your whole body wizzed!

Meena, my niece is coming over for the weekend. So is Lara, my friend. So it's gonna be a busy weekend! Must go clean the house and get some groceries.

See you later,
mwah,

H

Quickly Quickly!

Quickly before they shut me off. I'm at the library again and I only have a few minutes to write (I got stuck on facebook and other mail checking and stuff, Surrey!)

All here is fine. It's Sunday today, so quiet day. We bought the Sunday newspaper so that's gonna take a couple of hours to read! Yesterday Wiss, Meena (my niece) and I went to London and visited some art galleries. It was fun and a nice change form good ol' Sutton.

yalla, i g2g.
catch u tomoro maybe

mwah
H