27 March 2020 – 21:28 GMT – 7°C Mostly Clear – Co. Dublin, Ireland
Chemo for our daughter started today. We’re the drivers because everyone else has children whose awareness of contamination has yet to develop. Only the patient can go into the hospital. The same hospital in which our neighbour is in palliative care with widely metastasised cancer. A cruel situation for her, separated from family. And cruel for her kids and grandkids. Less cruel for our daughter in absolute terms but it’s hard to consider absolutes when you’re sick
A bit of gardening seemed useful, to make room for a bench that may become a restful place in which to pass isolated time. Something I found helpful when undergoing radiation therapy five years ago. So I trimmed a willow and some bottlebrush to make space. And thought about the car I crashed this week five years ago and other accidents that befell me when my hormone and radiation therapies compromised my executive functions. I recall being angry with Jeffery Archer’s accounts of his prostate treatment that same year. I could understand that he might have been trying to make it seem less scary, to encourage more men to get tested, yet he seemed to trivialise prostate cancer. His position at 74 was utterly different than mine at 59 and others I know at 52. I felt the media redeemed themselves with their sensitive and educational articles after AA Gill died in 2016. Much more encouraging like the TV ads that Bob Monkhouse made before he died, the message was more wholistic than cutting out an errant walnut-sized organ. It’s great to have these life-preserving treatments but they affect us all differently. The psychological element is one thing, the response to immunity suppression another.
In short, we have had a lot of cancer. My wife wrote “In Your Face” during her encounter. Move quickly and you might be able to get a copy from FabHappy.
Tonight, Ireland strengthened the Covid-19 curfew even more. I hope the ECB negative interest rates mean our banks will automatically drop interest rates on mortgages to around 1%. Short term relief is much needed. Long term borrowing by the government seems mandatory, much easier if there is no interest and somewhere between 10 and 100 year payback.
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