Day 109: Daisy's eye studs

I couldn't think of a more appropriate pair of earrings to wear today - a pair of fabulous eye studs, made by Daisy, my talented Berlin-based niece (Day 10), who gave them to me when she visited in March.

Thanks to the steroids, the chemo and the neulasta coursing through my system, I was completely wired last night and barely got a wink of sleep. I was hoping by wearing these earrings would stay awake throughout the day so that I won't have to go through the same thing tonight. The earrings did the trick, and thankfully there's no more steroids which will also help.

I'm finding the best time to sleep is in the early morning - of course the busiest time of day in our house, but thanks to Robbie's huge efforts, that's all taken care of. This morning he made pancakes for the boys to celebrate the last day of NAPLAN tests at school, made me my current favourite treat - an icy orange and ginger juice- before packing the boys off to school and taking Miss Molly for a long walk to give me some peace and quiet. He came home to start cooking some cauliflower soup for lunch and finish the domestics. He is a superman, in every sense.

It's was a stunning autumn day; we enjoyed spending sometime sitting in our courtyard planning its transformation with a landscape gardner who came to take a look and later in the day had a lovely walk around the park. In between I spent some time working through my email inbox and catching up on some easy work tasks, which meant I didn't feel completely useless.

I was so touched this morning to receive another earring gift, from a special colleague, Nicole George, based at UQ but currently on sabbatical in Sweden - she said she thought I needed some Scandi design for my collection and she's right! They're gorgeous and will be displayed soon.

As expected on Day 109 I'm tired, swollen, have sore lymph nodes and a furry mouth and am suffering all the other revolting side-effects of the treatment. It's some comfort that I now know what to expect, to know that it passes and most of all THIS IS THE LAST TIME I have to to endure it -  Whoo hoo!