Vitamin D and in the doldrums.

 
Sunning beside the sea.


So last week was spent grabbing the most of the vitamin D that was available on the shores of the Mediterranean. Well that was the theory. In practice, I was woken by Alison at 9am in the mornings, grab a bowl of cereal and go back into a deep sleep, till 1pm. At which time I would get up, dressed, have lunch and go for a walk down the beach. Two, maybe three hours later, I would find myself exhausted and collapse back on the bed and conk out again.

In contrast to this, Aoife had a ball down at the family pool with Alison and Geraldine, Alison's sister who came with us on the break. Geraldine is a qualified nurse. When not splashing at the pool, it was the turn of the major shopping areas to play host to a little 9 year old girl who had saved up all her pocket money for weeks in advance of this trip. 

Coming home just last Sunday saw a few parallels line up. The Airlingus jet waiting to take us home was the St. Aoife.  The Captain in command of the flight was Kevin Quinn, who is equally at home helping to crew when we are out ballooning. Perfect hospitality was shared on the flight home, thank you Capt. Quinn. Then when we off-boarded the aircraft, we were greeted airside by Daragh, a good friend and neighbour and by chance works in the airport. Daragh had a wheelchair waiting for me as I walked off the aircraft. Brilliant Daragh, thank you.  

So there is this niggling discomfort in my tummy, now turned up a notch with an acute darting pain which could come out of anywhere. After some Sunday night  phone calls, it was decided it would be best if I go directly back to my Oncology team in the Bons. So from 11am yesterday morning, I've had an X-ray on the tummy and have been put fasting since then, but on a drip of fluids constantly. As I scribble away here, I'm off the drip and off the fasting.

So what was the highlight of the break last week? If I told you it happened in the arrivals hall as we got back in to Dublin, would you beleive me ? As we disembarked the aircraft, Aoife elected to travel with me, as Daragh pushed me in the wheelchair. We whizzed thru passport control which meant both myself and Aoife arrived in the baggage hall well before Alison and Geraldine.

With the blink of an eye, Aoife went into a total different mode. She puts me in a seat at the side of the baggage hall. "Daddy, you stay here, I am looking after this".

With that, Aoife goes and gets one of the large baggage trollies and excuses herself with fellow passengers to get near the baggage belt. Next thing I see is Aoife manhandling 1 x 15 kg case and 2 x 20kg cases, off the belt and on to the trolley, the public looking on at whats happening and to be fair, helped her with the last bag. Next thing I see is this 9yr old kid beaming ear to ear as she is pushing the large trolley towards me. I was just so proud  of what I just witnessed. At age 9, minding me, then went and sorted out the luggage and all done before Alison and Geraldine arrived in the hall. You might think it odd, small, even insignificant perhaps that I latch on to this, but you have no idea how proud I was looking at Aoife taking control of a situation and doing it with a big friendly smile, beaming from ear to ear. 

As I continue to write this blog, I have just had a meeting with my Oncologist and his registrar. The plan of attack now is to have a CT SCAN done, taking in a larger area of my abdomen and see what that tells us. Has something moved? Has it come out of remission?, as worrying as it may sounds, the latter is my primary concern. With a definite connection, I had a bit of a mini meltdown this morning. Everything just catching up with me. From holiday to hospital is nobody's first or even last choice and I guess I am no different, why should I be ? A strong pain killer 5 mins later and I fall into a sleep. Alison steadfast at my bedside.

I'm in the right place to get this investigated and resolved.
My Oncology team, the nurses, the care team, are all just fantastic here.

I have my BBC Radio 2 playing here in my room, with Steve Wright in the afternoon, one of my favourite shows.

Thank you so much to everybody who has been sending me good wishes you text and  from my social media pages. This is so much appreciated and means a heck of a lot when I'm in a lonely place. That lonely place for any of us, could just be around that next immediate corner. That's when these messages are read and indeed re-read quietly by myself.

The Murf flies on...


xxx Murf


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Comments

  1. Vitamin D deficiency is very common these days among everyone, i prefer to have sun bath rather than going to any medicine. Thank you for sharing this post with us

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