Friday 16th December 2011

Luke is doing really well. His chemo cycles have settled down and they appear to have the dosages under control. Luke had a two week break between the end of the last cycle and this new cycle starting. This was due to Christmas falling at a time when chemo was needed in hospital and also to work around when we will be in New Zealand. We saw Dr D'Rozario a few weeks ago and he is really happy with how Luke is going. He said he continues to remain in remission and basically needs the chemotherapy treatment to keep him that way. He will be on chemo until about May 2013. Last Sunday Luke started a new 3 month cycle. He normally starts this with a lumbar puncture to inject chemo into the spinal fluid. A doctor administers the lumbar puncture via imaging as they ran into trouble early on in his treatment doing this manually as too much scar tissue had built up. Unfortunately the imaging machine broke down last week so this couldn't be done on Monday, instead it had to wait until Wednesday. Luke said the Dr had to try a few times and he was quite bruised and sore the next day so didn't go to work. Other than that he has been feeling okay. Luke finished his exams at the end of November and found out his results today. He got two high distinctions and two distinctions so he's doing fabulously at Uni. Luke has been working part time at DAFF whilst at Uni. His contract was due to expire just before Xmas, however they found some money in the budget to keep Luke on, so he is currently working full time during the Uni break and will work around his Uni timetable once it is set next year. The current contract is valid till the end of June. So that will boost his bank balance. Amy had her Year 10 graduation today. It's sad to think that my babies have both finished high school. She also had her formal on Tuesday night at the Boathouse. She looked gorgeous in a lovely bright blue short strapless dress. All the girls looked so grown up although lots had trouble walking in the big heels they had on! What a busy month it's been. Mum & Dad have moved into the Goodwin Retirement village. We paid an extra deposit amount last Thursday which gave us access to the keys and also the ability to move Mum & Dad's furniture into the villa over the weekend. Stephen & Beverley came down from Gosford to help with the move. The only proviso of having the keys was that Mum & dad could not sleep there overnight until settlement. This took place yesterday so they had their first official night in the villa last night. It has been really hard going - packing, culling and now unpacking at the other end. We are trying to find places for everything but we still may have to cull a bit more. The villa is great and once we have it set up properly it will be a lovely home for Mum & Dad. I really think they are going to be really happy there and the social interaction with the other residents and activities offered at the clubhouse will be really good for them. The only hiccup with the move has been with the phone connection. The provider they were with for their phone and internet advised us at the last minute that they were unable to provide the connection. So we've had to go to another provider and therefore Mum & Dad will be without a phone or internet/emails for another few weeks. They do have their mobile phone and our email to stay in touch with the world. I cannot believe Christmas is next weekend. With all the work moving Mum & Dad, Christmas has just crept up on us and I'm really not very organised at all. We are heading off to New Zealand on the 16th January for a few weeks and we've finally planned the itinerary and booked all of the accommodation. We now just need to think about what we are going to do at each of these places. I'm not sure that I will get around to doing a blog entry before we head off to New Zealand so I'll probably update with all our news of the holiday in February. So I'll take this opportunity to wish everyone a very safe and happy Christmas and all the best for the New Year. xx