All the news (good or bad) from Summerhill Stables

We have had a really rather calamitous time since the last blog. At the end of last week, quite unexpectedly Pikey developed a growth on her head between her right ear and right eye. It was painless but she had had some similar eruptions two or three years ago which were very quickly brought under control.

So it was off to the haematologist in Barrow on Monday for an emergency appointment. He said it was a nodule of myeloma cells and needed to be treated with a combination of radiotherapy, chemotherapy (thalidomide and cyclophosphamide) and a blood transfusion.

We are waiting for an appointment with Mr Biswas, the oncologist in Preston who deals with radiotherapy; we liked him very much last time. By the way, Biswas is a very common surname in Jamaica.

Thalidomide is the drug where we have to agree to forgo unprotected sex – that is despite Robert’s vasectomy and Pikey’s hysterectomy. We think that cyclophosphamide is the one where your hair can fall out so we are brushing up the wigs which Pikey sported back at the turn of the century.

We saw the orthopaedic surgeon on Thursday and he said that the operation was a great success and that Pikey could have the brace off in a month and possibly put weight on her leg again in two months. We see him again on June 5th.

Pikey had the blood transfusion of 3 units today in Lancaster which seems have gone very well.
We are trying to get all this done before Robert goes in for his knee op at the beginning of May.

The value of this blog in disseminating information has really proved itself because the first few essential phone calls Pikey had to make reduced her to tears – not easy. She is very down physically due to her anaemia which the blood transfusion will, hopefully, cure. We still have to ring up a few people who either don’t even have a computer or who have a computer which is not connected to the internet or who have a computer which was connected to the internet but is now knackered. Where have these people been???

Pikey is really very grateful for all the birthday cards and all the flowers - it’s like a cross between W H Smiths and Kew Gardens here. She is forever grateful for all of you who watch the blog and give us both such support.

On a lighter note a recent survey of 1000 people in the UK, made up of Afghanis, Pakistanis, Indians, Poles, Iraqis, Somalis, Africans, Albanians, Bosnians, Turks, Geordies, Brummies, Glaswegians and Liverpudlians were asked if they thought Britain should change its currency to the Euro. 99% said "No, they were quite happy with the Giro". Edward please explain this to Susie.

Amazing facts. Robert wrote last week about the two new babies. Baz Felber was born at 2:48 PM (Pacific Zone Time) on March 26th. Austin Heath was born at 2:40 pm (Eastern Zone Time) on March 26th, at 7 lbs 9 ounces and so is 3 hours and 8 minutes older. Sebastian, however, weighs three ounces more. So he's got that going for him.

Loads of ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ Robert and Pikey.