(Thu Oct 11 2007)
So chemo round #2 starts tomorrow, but I am not thinking about it. I am thinking about which terrible DVD I am going to watch tonight (I think Swordfish - never seen it! Know it will be great/awful!), and I am thinking about the short story sequels that will be in SteamPunk magazine issues #2 and #3 (delivered by Graham), and I am thinking whether my French is going to be good enough to understand Blacksad - Quelque part entre les ombres (from “Monsieurs Glover et Lally”, which arrived today).
I am thinking about how lucky I am to have friends.
(Fri Oct 12 2007)
Roundly and correctly mocked by the entire night nursing staff of the oncology department for watching Swordfish last night. I swear I had my blood pressure taken twice more than usual just so that everyone could come and see for themselves that I really was watching that appalling crap. God, what a terrible film, based on such an offensive and dumb-headed premise and no no no no I don’t even want to think about the stupid thing any further in case I accidentally do myself some permanent damage. Of course it’s completely my own fault for picking “the blockbuster that has everything” over “an elegaic film about childhood, the movies and Sicily…Tornatore conflates the sacred and the profance beautifully” (Cinema Paradiso, also stashed and available in my little hospital cupboard). Where does this desire to watch stupid, horrible trash come from? Why would I still pick up and browse a copy of Heat magazine? I need more breathing exercises. I am a long, long way from enlightenment.
Chemo starting any time now, soon as the big needle is found and enough purple liquid has been wiped and collected from the rims of Satan’s coffee cups. (Bet you’re glad I said “coffee cups” there, aren’t you. I certainly am.)
The big news for today is that I am getting out of hospital tomorrow morning. Yes, at 11am on Saturday 13th, I will be whisked home by luxury private ambulance to continue chemo round #2 in tablet form. Of course, I cannot believe this is actually going to happen, but I’ve heard it said by an old doctor and a young doctor, and even more convincingly by one of the nurses who had it on a clipboard. So I am allowing the faintest tickle of wild, boiling joyful hope and expectation to stir my be-cathetered breast.
Paris’ private ambulance scam, by the way, looks like a great business to get into. I can’t believe these things can be regulated - all you seem to need is a knocked-about transit (the more dents, the more authentic) with enough room in the back to get in a stretcher, patient and big dirty blanket, and maybe a single passenger seat (without working seat-belt, natch). Working fixings for the oxygen cylinder also seem to be optional; on the way back to hospital last time, the little tank of pressurised explosive gas was wobbling around in a very jolly manner. Presumably it’s there to finish off any survivors from the massive irony fallout a crash in one of these things would surely generate - although at least the dudes don’t try to drive like real ambulance drivers (i.e. like a standard Parisian driver). They’re not above trying to use the siren to budge traffic, but (like for genuine emergency vehicles) no-one takes much notice of this at all. In theory, I can book my trips back and forth with any private ambulance company I like, and it’s would be covered by my insurance - but what seems to happen is the hospital receptionists sort it all out unless I intervene and ask if I can try my chances with a different death-trap merchant this time, please.
So the nurse just came in to plug in an anti-vomit baggy into my drip. This is to help stop the purple liquid, which will arrive in half an hour, from making me throw up. (Apparently I am going to wee purple, too - a detail forgotten from the first time round!) An hour after that, I’ll get another chemical (colourless, I believe, but it’s always the quiet ones) which will drain in for a further two hours - and that’s that, for the scary direct-into-the-blood part. This evening, and for the next fourteen days, I’ll take tablets by mouth which constitute the rest of the chemotherapy course. It was really helpful to have it all explained to me like that (two or three repetitions necessary, of course, mainly because I kept mixing up my 24-hour clock times) - I feel very lucky to have no qualms about the medical side of things here. I’m sure it’s not always the same everywhere.
Signing off to go and read about cat detectives and flame-powered musical instruments and trying not to think about purple. A plus tard, mes amis…
10 responses so far ↓
Diane // October 13, 2007 at 1:57 pm
you should be home by now
hope the driver managed to avoid giving you the ’shaken and stirred’ experience this time! Swordfish eh? I don’t suppose you spotted that, according to Wikipedia, the source of all knowledge <> sounds like an “interesting” film, not my scene though - no aliens or spaceships in it ;-))
good luck with the pills - but we need more details, what colour are they? shape? and, more importantly - “by mouth” are you sure? I heard they take pills rather differently over there, wouldn’t want to get that one wrong!
diane x
Diane // October 13, 2007 at 1:58 pm
aghh it ate my quote from wikipedia!
“In one scene, the Finn Axl Torvalds speaks not Finnish but German (but in the German version of the film he really speaks Finnish). Additionally, he shows a German passport instead of a Finnish one in a different scene.”
Cori // October 14, 2007 at 5:24 pm
Purple wee..? I dub thee King of the Barney tributers!
giles (palmer) // October 15, 2007 at 11:30 am
swordfish, heat - you is gunna need a lot more than breathing exercises to get off that train!!
having said that i found myself walking into mcdonalds at 9pm last night and ordering a ‘Las Vegas’ ?? at least you don’t have to live with that particular shame
Matt and Sarah have bought a green transit - there’s probably a picture of it on the web someplace, and it look very nice - i’ll pass on your business idea. i haven’t ever been ‘in the back of the van’ with him, but i saw the state of a few people that had in Fowey last weekend and from the looks of it he’d slot right in without any problem.
And you really are showing excellent entrepreneurial potential in a tough situation there joe - i’m thinking you need a career reevaluation when you get through this -
uummm
Business Angel shall be your new career.
not entirely sure who’s money you’ll be angelling around, but that’s just a detail. big pictures are where it’s at — ask george bush
…until your next post…..
- sayonara amigo
ps clipboards rule
giles (palmer) // October 15, 2007 at 1:51 pm
by the way, am i seeing things or does anyone else see a tiny smiley face in the top right hand bit of the page?
Laura // October 15, 2007 at 5:11 pm
I can see the smiley face too. So it either exists or it is some kind of group hallucination.
Scribe // October 15, 2007 at 5:44 pm
I can see it too, plus it talks to me. What does that say about us?
BTW, watching Swordfish when you’re recovering is generally against all professional medical advice, I hear. Hackers, on the other hand, is bona fide pharmaceutical gold. (As opposed to cinematic gold.)
Daniel Hart // October 16, 2007 at 6:07 am
Patchy night’s sleep, and so am awake at a bizarre hour.
Again, wishing the very best for you, and hope this session sees you coming through stronger still.
Since you speak of films, what are your favourite top five?
I couldn’t really do that meself, but my current favourites are, in no order,
Festen
Together
This is England
My Life as a Dog
Night of the Hunter
One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest
Midnight Cowboy
Taxi Driver
This is Spinal Tap
Would love to know which films rock your particular boat!
The albums list would be much more interesting, I am sure. I hate those “top 100″ things but I would love to hear what actual musicians think… I am very curious to know about what music you and Pat are into. If you could tell me (however obscure as I suspect!) what records you might rate the most, then please deliver!
Thinking of you, and look forward to hearing back when you are ready. Very best wishes, Dan.
Clarrie // October 16, 2007 at 10:48 am
Joe
Have just found out - to quote another film ‘buggar,buggar,etc, etc. My thoughts are with you, number of your teachers send their good wishes, we know you are strong and a fighter. Will try to contact schoolmates is there any particular person you would like to contact.
Clarrie
RedYeti // October 19, 2007 at 11:33 am
Watched what might be described as “The antidote to Action Movies” last night (no connection to any well known Radio 4 quiz programs); Hot Fuzz
It’s a slow build, but successfully even manages to drag in a reference to Aliens towards the end.
It’s from the “Spaced” lot, of Shaun of the Dead fame. In fact I’d highly recommend all the above if you happen to have missed them!
Leave a Comment