Day 12

Today should have been cycle 5 of my wife's chemotherapy, unfortunately her white blood cell count came back low from her last blood test, so the chemo has been suspended for a week. Instead today was another trip to the hospital, this time to pick up a set of vaccine injections - deep joy, more jabs for me to give to her! It is really worrying, seeing so many people in masks and gloves going to and thro' to the hospital - every minute seems like an hour when she is out there, exposed to god knows what!

My wife is becoming so depressed with the whole thing, as it is becoming increasingly difficult to find somewhere to inject her each night - her consultant has mentioned the possibility of transferring her daily blood thinning injection over to tablet form, which would relieve some of the pressure off of both of us! I hate causing my wife pain, but we both know at the moment she needs the jabs - a blood clot on top of everything else that's going on clearly wouldn't be a great idea.

We are nearly 2 weeks down in our "shielding" and it is really starting to get to my wife. She used to see her mum and dad at least 3 or 4 times a week. She hasn't seen them now for just over 2 weeks, and it is hurting her! She does talk most days on the phone to her mum, but that is no substitute for face to face contact.

She is also worried about her dad, who is showing the early signs of Alzheimer's and didn't really understand why he couldn't go out - and if he couldn't go out then why was he allowed to go into his garden! Fortunately he appears to now get it, and as the weather has been kind the last couple of week he has been able to potter around the garden, keeping him out of the mother-in-laws hair - just as well, as she would probably have killed him by now if they had both been cooped up indoors.

Today was a strange start, we were doing our usual tea and biscuits in bed with the little one, when we heard the doorbell ringing - at 8am! Who would be at the door at this time. We live in a town house so I had to rush down 2 flights of stairs, well as quick as I can "rush" - the wife always tells me I'm not very quick...

When I got to the door there was our "baby" on the doorstep again - I say baby, in reality it was actually a delivery for the vulnerable of items that the government think make a staple diet for those that can't get out - it is very much appreciated that the intention is there, but as things appear to be slowly getting back to normal, shop stock wise, we have now asked for these deliveries to be re-routed to someone more needy!

Talking of shopping, we finally received information from Sainsbury's that my wife has now been registered as vulnerable with them, and we have been able to book a once a week time slot for a food delivery, that hopefully will relieve some pressure of the very kind people who have been running shopping errands for us. Their help has been much appreciated at this time, you know who you are - thank you!

Further good news too, as late yesterday my delivery of bedding plants arrived. Again, the doorbell rang and I answered to the invisible man - well actually the nurseryman was sitting in his van at the end of our drive, checking to make sure I took his babies in! They are lovely looking plants too, can't wait to get them in, which will be tomorrow's task!

Today's task was to turn what was our "bar" in the garden, back into a summer house. I have bought a chilled beer machine, which has pride of place in our kitchen, so didn't really see the need to have a bar in the garden too. On top of this, while under chemotherapy my wife has been advised to stay out of the sun as much as possible, so turning the bar back into a summer house seemed like a perfect solution. I spent most of yesterday afternoon laying laminate flooring in the bar, and if I do say so myself it looks good - just my wife's job to accessorise now, something which she is good at doing, generally at my expense...!