Tag Archives: boxing gloves

Food, wine and good times..

20 Oct

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 I’ve just had the most amazing few days in Melbourne with two of my dearest family friends, Lina and Ian and their boys Charlie and Josh.

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Although I was physically running on empty – this was my last hit out/trip away before treatment.  We shared some beautiful time together talking about life and enjoying the most fabulous food and wine.

My cousin-in-law/friend/creative collaborator Jodie arrived so we could attend the Jean Paul Gaultier exhibition, which just completely satisfied every element of creative design, garment construction and was just all ’round extraordinary!

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We were on cloud nine and although had paid to go to a formal ‘Q&A’ with the man himself (which was nice enough), we busted our way into a VIP event and were treated to second row seats, a more candid designer and many laughs. It topped off a truly wonderful experience.

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Paul arrived and Lina and Ian’s amazing hospitality continued for us and Jodie – gourmet delicacies, spectacular wine and seriously great conversations.  We talked about our journalism and news histories as well as personal/family memories – not only has Lina known me since I was born – she was one of the first people to hold me as a baby.  We also touched on what’s happened health-wise since we last spent time together, almost in disbelief.

I was caught off guard at airport when tears came from nowhere – my love and gratitude for friends such as Lina and Ian was completely overwhelming.  As was the realisiation that this may be the last time like this.

On the flight home, I was seated at the opposite end of the plane from Paul.  I found myself next to a fascinating man – who just turned out to be an Orthopaedic Surgeon (along with fellow JPG exhibition atendee and fine furniture/interior design lover), so we had great energetic conversation about being in isolation, the power of the mind, yoga and meditation, music, keeping connected, all of that.  Despite having asked to be seated next to Paul if it was possible, I really enjoyed this connection with Dr Steve and was very happy chatting with this new friend.  I was in the middle seat and at some stage mentioned Pink Polar and the man sitting to my other side happened to be a vet and also knew all about Geoff and the Boobsled crossing Antarctica.  We shared lots of laughs between the three of us.  It was the quickest flight home courtesy of this cool seating arrangement!

Spending time just savouring the friends, family and being open to new acquaintances in my life – courtesy of this hand, is a positive I hadn’t predicted.  Although not pleased about the difficult weeks and months ahead I have to face this reality.  No escape is what reinforces the meaning of ‘reality’.

Life is all about ‘climbing the highest peaks and navigating the deepest valleys…’

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ROLLER COASTER OF THIS REALITY

12 Aug

So I’m back on the roller coaster of fortnightly monitoring through blood tests. I’m gaining a whole new education as I learn about blood cancer and the definitive factors which will impact upon my care – the importance of numbers of red blood cells, white blood cells, platelets etc.

Through how I was feeling physically, the fatigue, the shortness of breath, the extreme bruising plus this new understanding of regular blood tests – I could tell things were sliding and quickly.

My last appointment with Dr Kennedy backed this up.  I’d shown a marked decline in the last 2.5 months of records and he felt we should be aiming for transplant prior to Christmas. WHOAH…….. This was a shock for my family and I.  It appears I was a whole lot sicker than any of us realised.

He indicated if there was anything I desperately wanted to do, that it was a good idea to do it now, as it’d be a while before I was well enough. My first question was to ask if we could wait until after Christmas as my little brother David was getting married and it would be odd for the family if I wasn’t there.  The answer was ‘on this current trajectory Kate, you probably can’t hold on’.

Next – I asked if I could squeese a trip to New York in, in between my fortnightly bloods.  The answer was an emphatic yes!  So long as I went soon. Dr K said it was the best medical advice he could give and that I should experience the Empire State building at night.

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BONE MARROW/STEM CELL TRANSPLANT UNIT

22 Jul

First visit to the Bone Marrow/Stem Cell Transplant Unit at the Royal Brisbane Women’s Hospital (about an hour from home on the Gold Coast) was a rude shock.  The sight of multiple, massive waiting rooms full of sick people smacked me in the face like an icy breeze and I wanted to run.  It’s not been so long since I was one of those people and I’d hoped my time as such was done.

I’d been referred to Associate Professor Dr Glen Kennedy.  Luckily for me, a man I could be very direct with and enjoyed an instant rapport. He understood my ‘need to know’ and that taking the softly softly approach was not necessary – a great start given we’re talking about life and death.

I was not surprised when he delivered statistics giving me a survival time frame of somewhere between 3-9 years if my MDS was left untreated.  Learning how quickly this disease could progress to Acute Myeloid Leukaemia was troubling and my gut instinct was quietly screaming ‘pay attention Kate, this may be the path you’re headed along’.  I chose to keep that to myself.

The consultation finished with some wise words and a very strong take home message from Dr K – ‘You will see a transplant in your lifetime Kate, you won’t survive without one.’

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BOOK THE TEST!

12 May

I never really felt like I ‘got over’ the last breast cancer (or the first one for that matter).  I was constantly beyond tired, to the point of fatigue and sick of hearing people say ‘ohh you’ve been through so much’….yeah, yeah.  I knew something wasn’t right.  About a year ago I was wrapping up work on the Pink Polar Expedition (of which I’ll be forever proud of my mate Dr Geoff Wislon and my involvement – plenty on that elsewhere), but as well as burning the candle at both ends, I noticed I was coming up in these ugly bruises all over my torso and legs.  They were dark and appearing spontaneously – that is not impact bruises.  They were almost uniform at times and quite frankly looked like someone had come at me with a hammer.

After a couple of mentions to my GP and Oncologist, more in depth testing – the only thing that showed as being slightly abnormal was my MCV – or Mean Cell Volume.  Gut feel was screaming ‘something’s up Kate – keep pushing!!’….So while I asked for a referral to a Haematologist, no-one was quite expecting what came next.

I must admit to having a rather awkward first consultation with this Dr.  In his eyes – I was a recovering BC patient, with a marginal increase in the size of my red blood cells ‘almost not worth mentioning’.  I had been told by my Oncologist and had read about the chance that some of the BC treatment I’d had could lead to Leukaemia.  This Dr almost flinched at the mention of the word and told me I was getting ahead of myself.  He also suggested it could be something called Myelo Dysplastic Syndrome (a ‘pre-leukaemia’), when I asked for some reading material he reluctantly handed it over.  The only definitive way to diagnose was to do a Bone Marrow Biopsy – which we almost argued about.  To me – it’s just another test.  To him – it was putting a hole in my back and skeleton and perhaps performing an unnecessary procedure.  He was going on 5 weeks holiday and could keep an eye on me with blood tests and maybe do it when he got back.  THEN he dropped the ‘if it was my wife, would I be doing this?  No…..absolutely not.  It’s such a small change and you’re otherwise well’.  But I KNEW I wasn’t.  So I put on my imaginary boxing gloves, leaned forward and said ‘with respect Dr, I would hope your wife is not 36 years old with the cancer history I have.  Please book the test!’

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