Detour "Dears"

It is 3 weeks since I posted so I thought I had better do an update to say Hi and so I can look back in years to come at this moment on my current health detour. I was going to call the post "Detour Dilemmas" as I seem to have a few of them at the moment! But dilemma seemed too negative a word so with the current situation Detour "dears" is much more positive! My dictionary tells me 'dear' means cherished and adored so it is much more appropriate. My first 'dear' is to all those people out there who donate their blood regularly to strangers something I was the lucky recipient of yesterday for the first time in my life......

The inevitable side effects of the chemotherapy have been a challenge to say the least with just this past week my haemoglobin dropping to 81 and my platelets from 281 to 55 in just one week. So I had the bonus of no chemotherapy yesterday so instead a blood transfusion so I will cherish a few days break. Maybe next week we'll be back to chemo and possibly a platelet transfusion as well. So if you are one of those 'dear' blood donors I say thankyou. My ticker has not been so happy either so a review with the cardiologist might mean a change to my current regime with possibly continuing the way I am for an extra 6 weeks which will mean weekly for a total of 18 weeks....time will tell how my body copes with that. Meanwhile so many 'dear' friends have been helping me through. My friend who has been sending me daily photos from her garden since early August continues to do so. What gorgeous roses she has amongst many other beauties at the moment......

And some special 'dear' quilting friends brought tears to my eyes with this beautiful quilt entirely hand appliquéd and hand quilted using Japanese fabrics. I adore and treasure it greatly........

And more flowers have come my way too..........

I also received this gorgeous parcel in the post from another 'dear' quilting friend Julie Haddrick. Such lovely William Morris treasures in a reusable tin - thankyou Julie and Peter.......

And 'dear' Dot sent me this gorgeous package. One wee worm lost his head in transit so needed repair but they are very happy in their new homes......thanks Dot as always........

And my voucher for meals from 'dear' friends in Bordertown has stocked the freezer once again......thankyou girls.......

Another 'dear' friend made me some fruit protein smoothies and Tim from Lloyd Curzon Textiles turned his hand in the kitchen with a slow cooked chicken broth and delicious Moroccan Lamb.....thankyou both of you.... 

I am almost embarrassed by all this wonderful attention but very grateful. I follow a triple negative breast cancer instagram site and just today I was reminded of how sad it is that mental illness is not looked upon the same as physical illness. A clinical psychologist from the US - Dr Christine Hibbert has been challenging this very concept herself as one of her daughters has struggled with mental illness and now Christine is going through breast cancer treatment it has become more obvious. Christine was the recipient of the Mother of the Year Award in 2018 and you can read more of that HERE. This post from her blog titled What if We Supported Depression like we Support Breast Cancer is truly thought provoking and so very true as we have watched one of own daughters go through this anguish. Sophie is the mother of little Wade who was born at 28 weeks almost 3 years ago so I am sneaking a photo of Sophie from 2 years ago when we made a donation to the NICU Wade spent 12 weeks and a link to Sophie's own blog Southern Altitude.......

It sure makes you realise how there is still such a stigma and lack of understanding with all aspects of mental health and illness. October is breast cancer awareness month across the world and one of Australia's large bakery chains has been supporting this cause for 20 years this year by holding their Baker's Delight Pink Bun Campaign with 100% of sales going to the Breast Cancer Network Australia organisation. So Larry did manage to buy a pack.......

I have managed to do some return gifts with some flowers to the 'dear' staff in the Oncology unit that have been a part of my life for that last 9 weeks and these were the flowers a week on......

I also made a thankyou gift for Kerryn for teaching my class at Quilt Encounter last week and glad I could do that as I have not been doing much stitching of late.....

I've not been seeing the 'dear' kiddies as much with being vulnerable to infection but we did have an outside visit by the seaside last weekend......and Beau is sporting a grand new haircut as well.......

We have missed 'dear' Wade terribly as well and it was delight to receive this cheeky image during the week from his other Nanna who said she was glad he hadn't worked out how to wind the lipstick up!!!......

So I think that is all for now. Our garden is full of colour with the warmer weather and that makes me smile especially when we manage to get a few blooms inside. Thanks for all your thoughts and wishes and take care and stay safe.