3rd May - 7th May

On the morning of the 3rd of May my rash had gone down so I continued on my piriton, took my chemo and headed into work for the shift. It was the only day I would be working in the week due to being at the vets on both Thursday and Friday with Harry so I covered duty for the day. It was feeling quite nice to be out of the house and doing something 'normal' for the day as well as working and doing what I know I can do. My brain is back up to speed and I find duty cover very similar to how I used to pre-diagnosis, surgery and treatment. Julie came back up again to help with Harry's dressings and agreed that now it had been cleaned up it was looking better. We explained that he was planning re-constructive surgery which she agreed should help. By this stage Harry was wearing his dressings, tena pants, a long sleeved t-shirt with the arms cut short and the pet medical suit.

After dinner we took the dogs out as usual and just before bed Lel told me that my lips looked funny. I was aware that I had had an itch by the outer corner of both eyes however I wasn't too worried by this. As we went to bed, I looked at my lips and they were starting look very puffy and swollen. Having had anaphylactic reactions in the past I knew that I could still breath fine so wasn't too concerned at this time. I continued to take the piriton as advised and we went to bed.

On Thursday the 4th of May as we got up, I can only describe my lips as looking like Lesley Ash's lips post surgery!! I also had a massive rash on my torso from above my lips all the way round my back with the only area not covered being directly over my abs. It didn't hurt but it was very odd looking and clearly not healthy. I was very glad that I wasn't going to work as I looked shocking. I phoned the chemo line who advised me not to take my dose until they had spoken with a registrar and called me back. At around 9 the nurse called back and told me not to take the dose, to take them with me to my next appointment and to take some more piriton if needed. She said that if it was an emergency to go to A&E but other than that, speak to the doctors but that they would discuss further use of procarbazine at my next chemo session..

Dad came over again round 9.30 and we took Harry and Jade over to the vets. Brendan was encouraged by how Harry's bum was healing and after a laser treatment and re-dress he said he would be happy to operate the following day.

On the 5th of May, dad was back over early doors to take us over to the vets. We took both Jade and Harry again as mum was staying at home with Toby. Due to his surgery we didn't give them breakfast and left Harry there at 9.30. Brendan reckoned that he would be out of surgery by round 2 or so and to call after that. At 3 I still hadn't heard so phoned and spoke to one of the nurses who said that it had gone well and Harry was in recovery coming round well. I asked whether we would be ok to come over as soon as Lel finished work which they said was fine. I asked whether Vicky would mind coming to sit with Jade so that we could have the whole back seat for Harry given that he would be likely to be a bit dopey still. She landed round half 4 so we headed over there to collect him.

Brendan saw us for the discharge and said he was happy with how the surgery had gone. He showed Lel pictures of what they had done and she was really impressed. He said that they were still waiting on the full histology results but it appeared that they had got all the tumour out and they were just waiting now to see if he had the right gene to allow the chemo to work.

As we got Harry home, we took his pants off and took him out for a walk to get him to do a wee as Hazel had been concerned that he hadn't done one since surgery. We took him for a gentle walk around the block, he did a poo and a wee. As we got him back into the house and started to dress him, his eyes glazed over and his legs gave way and he collapsed on us both. Having been told that he fainted after doing a week after his first surgery I wasn't took bothered as it seems to be his party trick! He's a softie!! We dressed him and carried him into the lounge and lay him on his bed. He was out for the count for the rest of the evening.

We had arranged for Emma and Vicky to come over on the Saturday to give us a day out. We both needed a cancer free day to relax as with Harry now having had his tumour and my latest flare up we both felt we wanted some peace and quiet away from it all. At 8.30 Emma came over and we headed up to Windermere for the day. We headed over to the far side of the lake and for a wander on the shore line to relax before heading back over to Bowness for some lunch and to buy a pressie for Emma and Vicky.

We got back around 5 as we had arranged for Julie to come up to help us with the dressings change. She was so impressed with the job that Brendan had done which really reassured me as I still couldn't look at it.

On Sunday the 7th, Emma popped over for a couple of hours so we could do a bit of shopping and not have to worry about Harry as he was starting to look like he wanted to get into his dressings. As well as the dressings he was having high grade manuka honey on it which he appeared to have a taste for... The consensus is that he needs his name changing to Winnie (the Pooh)!!