Birthday Cake, a Uni Course, Centrelink and a girly morning.

Gee a week since I've posted! I've finally had a week where things were semi normal (can they ever be in the Fischer household?) and I've actually managed to get things done. Day 10 post chemo saw a more normal feeling of wellness return. I can eat most things, if they appeal to me. Well except fish and chips. We decided Sunday night to treat ourselves to fish and chips from a local shop. And while it was well cooked and the chips were lovely and fresh, it appears my tolerance for that sort of fat has dropped off somewhat, and I was left feeling rather green around the gills. Rick was fine so it wasn't a case of off food, just my liver yelling at me WTF do you think you are doing to me????!!!!!  (for those who don't know WTF is an acronym for What The F@*$) I dropped 3 kilos in the first week post chemo, and for the first time in my life I'm actually concerned about losing weight! I think I've put about half a kilo back on, but if even 2 kilos per treatment, well that's 16 kilos gone. That would have me at 60 kilos. All I can say is thank god I have my curves.

Anyway, I should have been kinder to my poor liver. It's trying to process and get rid of a lot of shit going through my system. So fish and chips is off the menu till probably summer.

Last Thursday was Kiah's birthday, and I really felt the need to do something normal so decided to make her a birthday cake. Then I got the idea to be adventurous and make her a giant cup cake.... then I saw reason, and my ability to beat about a kilo of frosting... so I rang Sammy and enlisted her help. Well, talk about an afternoon of giggles, and sprinkles and frosting and more giggles. Firstly I needed some very specific ingredients and as much as I love my husband, and trust him to do things for me, the controlling birthday cake nazi in me just couldn't let me leave him to purchase the right items. I mean lets face it, despite me telling him where it would all be located, making sure he bought mini marshmallows as well as normal marshmallows probably isn't high on his priority list and does he even know what the difference is between icing sugar and icing mixture. I had been very specific and explained in no uncertain terms that the items on the list MUST make it into the trolley. I had visions of him getting confused in the baking aisle and some sort of emergency call over the supermarket PA system, "Husband down in aisle 7... Husband down Code Red, this is not a drill people!!"  I could imagine the old dears standing back, tut tutting saying to each other, "Oh the poor dear, he didn't stand a chance". In the end it all got the better of me and I went in and we were out again in about 15 minutes. The experience was as I had thought. After asking twice, "do we really need that?" ... a couple of withering looks from me, and the job was done.

The cake idea in theory was a brilliant one, The practical side... well let's just say that Samantha and I whilst pleased with our efforts, won't go into professional cake decorating any time soon, nor shall we ever make marshmallow flowers again. Ever. By the time we finished, there was no room on the table, in the sink or on the bench. Rick's only duty was to mind our 4 mth old grandson, James. They had a great afternoon together. They both napped through most of it.

End result was a very pretty (albeit somewhat lopsided) cake. It tasted... well it was store bought cake, so it was a very pretty cake :)  and we had a lovely morning tea for my girl's birthday.

So inspired by my ability to do something other than face plant on the couch and stay there all day, I spotted an online free uni course on learning about food as medicine.  I decided after looking into it, that 4 hours a week for 3 weeks is something I could manage, was a topic I was interested in and thought, well, why not. I signed up. Man I haven't studied since... well a very very long time. So this should be interesting. I will get a pretty piece of paper that says I completed this course... Monash University.. blah blah blah... and I can say that yes, I have studied at Uni, No one really needs to know the duration hah!

Then it was time to tackle the issue of Centrelink. While it would be lovely to think we can afford for me to have 12 months off work, we kissed those pesky insurance policies goodbye when the going got tough back in the GFC. A lack of work in the building industry in this area... and bingo... a diet of toast and baked beans is looking like the menu for a while. And I dislike baked beans. We've been treated very kindly by the staff at Centrelink I will say that. I guess if you dress nicely (actually wear shoes and your undies aren't seen above your pants which are down near your knees) be respectful that procedures and policies must be followed, and you haven't claimed since.. well ever, then likely you will receive similar treatment and respect. However, apparently having a family trust in place (like a lot of small mum and dad businesses have in place) throws them into total confusion and all paperwork is sent off to experts which currently I've advised, takes 42 days to review. Suffice to say, the lengthy wait on the phone and subsequent phone call is marking our claim as a priority and we hope to have some communication from them early next week. In the meantime, I keep filling out forms sent to us, and duly sending them back. Did I mention how much I dislike paperwork.

And lastly, yesterday, Kiah and I attended a workshop put on by the Cancer Patient Foundation called the Look Good Feel Better workshop. Each cancer patient received a beautiful basket of lovely skin care products and makeup all donated by the beauty industry. These products were of such a high quality and the big names were there, Clinique, Rimmel, Estee Lauder and I got such a thrill to see a lip shine by a little Aussie company called Dusty Girls. This company is based in Beenleigh and pride themselves on all natural products. We tried wigs, scarves and had a blast. It was a little confronting to see such beautiful ladies facing their hair loss and realising that in a week, I too will have that fine bit of fluff covering my head. Lets face it. It's cute on a 6 month old, not on a 50 year old. This is my next hurdle. Facing the world in my scarves and hats and people recognising that I am a cancer patient. I've booked in to the Wig Library the day after my next chemo. These are wigs supplied by the Cancer Council for patients suffering hair loss, for the duration of their treatment. Given that my hair wont start growing back till about a month after the end of my treatment, and will probably take 6 months to get a decent coverage, I better get used to, and professional at tying scarves. I am grateful that it will be during winter so I wont be feeling the heat, and I know I should be grateful that yes, I'm alive. But would you like to be without your hair for 12 months?

Anyhoo, back to the workshop. We had a ball, I had makeup applied by the retired head of an international beauty product company and lots of giggles. I did try a blonde wig. I don't think it's really me and I'll stick to brunette till my own makes its shining return!