home again

Hi everyone,

Catherine and David are now home from their coast holiday with church friends. It was a lovely time with friends, refreshing for Catherine/Mum especially to be near the beach which she loves! David had good and bad moments, as usual most of his time was spent sleeping/resting but he was able to have a few outings, like to the markets one day. Mum drove him down to the beach where they were able to sit in the car and eat hot chips together while watching the waves.

C&D spent two extra days at the coast just the two of them which was a very nice peaceful time for them to spend together. David was also able to eat quite well which is such a blessing!

They came home on Thursday. David was booked in for another chemo sessions on Friday but he has made the decision not to continue with the chemo from here on in. He gave it a go but the side effects were just too much for him to deal with on top of how wretched and weak he already feels. (Side effects like extreme nausea, flu like symptoms, throat and mouth ulcers, amongst other things). It is always a balancing act between treating the issues and the treatment causing more issues in the mean time?! It is a hard decision but everyone around David supports his right to make whatever decision feels best for him. His wonderful medical team will continue to try to keep him as comfortable as possible.

DAY OFF

In order to give C&D some quiet time together in the midst of countless appointments, phone calls and lots of wonderful visitors, we are now trying to institute a 'day off' for them each week. This is so they can just get a quiet day of rest together, with opportunity to have quality time to spend together  and a bit of 'down time' from the relentlessness that is their life managing David's condition and everything that comes with it.

The idea is that this day will generally be Mondays, so we are asking that people not visit or call them on Mondays.

This will hopefully enable them to rest and have time together on this day. Their 'day off' will sometimes change if they have to attend an essential appointment on Monday, eg this week they have an apt with the oncologist on Monday so their day off (for this week only) will be Thursday.

If you are keen to visit on another day, please contact me and I will try to sort something out if/when David is up to it.

Iain is visiting with them this weekend (he comes to town from Sydney almost every weekend and is a fantastic support) and I was over for dinner tonight too. David was well enough to sit up for dinner with us and prayed a beautiful prayer, full of thanks for all the love and support he is receiving from everyone. So, just passing on how grateful he is and how loved he feels. Thank you everyone! :)

They have quite a few appointments this week with various medical people, so no doubt I will update later in the week on any news arising from that.

xx Kate