I had no notification about anything by Sunday so off we came to Arran and on Monday the call came to say why did I miss my mask appointment.
Oops, I never knew. I am entering stormy waters.
The booking system has involved, phonecalls, texts and letters. It has been full scale perfect until now.
We are on the ferry back tomorrow. Getting an early one in case of cancellation. It was very windy on the way out and choppy as a choppy chop chopper.
Tube pre- assessment on Wednesday at 10am. There's a red herring appointment that I received by text, 11:45 at ENT. I checked with them and it seems I might have received this in error so I will pop in on my way back and let them know. I have the western dental hygienist Thursday and then I'm off until Monday when mask fitting takes place then Tuesday for the feeding tube.
I'm going to phone the helpline, say "Hi" and find out if there is more pencilled or even penned in timeline than I knew.
Such an easy thing to do and yet I foolishly had been so impressed with everything being so joined up, so I dropped the ball. Every manual in my head says double checks are so valuable and as a patient I've only one thing to do, check and double check.
On the golf course I had no problems. The weather in the morning on Monday saw the wind turn around 150° so that it was off the sea behind us at the first.
This meant the par 5 would be into the wind but the first 4 holes were all downwind.
Yesterday I hit a driver at the 4th and today I hit a wee 8 iron punch off the back foot.
Both were acceptable and easy par 3's. If only golf was always this easy.
It's a beautiful stretch and today was no different.
By the time we'd turned back into the wind at 6 and 7, I thought you'll not drive 6 today but you will hold the green at 7.
We did, a much easier par 3 into the wind than downwind.
Climbing out of the hidden bowl that is the 7th green you see another example of old fashioned golf signage.
A hose in the shape of an 8. So good ice used the picture twice.
Superb, straightforward, simple and shows the greenest way to reuse an old hose.
At the top of the wee hill is the 8th tee and a hole called Hades is better played downwind.
Then it's the par 5 and then the fun of the final three par 3's.
The 10th, called paradise was a driver today and an 8 iron yesterday. Like the 4th, the wind is everything.
11th hole is another bowl and I had the same putt as yesterday.
Both were drivers so today's was a stoater.
But enough of that, the golf was fun and so was the swimming afterwards.
My eczema is doing double time so it was good to get 15 minutes in the water.
So tomorrow the holiday is over and back to normal or at least the new normal.
Yes, the new normal.
The ferry on Tuesday suddenly moved to the "disruption possible" category, a statement you love when ab extra night or two extends your holiday but never a thing you want to hear when you need to get home.
Thankfully after the monsoon passed all was good.
Being on an island, or better still at sea, let's you feel all the weather, quite literally. I remember walking through a cloud when we were on the Camino at O'Cebriero in Galicia. That was indeed a wet walk. It wasn't raining it was just altitude and a cold wet walk through the dew on the ground and in the air.
This was nature saying hello.
Shiskine often shows you 4 seasons in four holes and judging by the sunshine on Lamlash, Arran was showing the seasons in one moment.
People would be lying on the beach or golfing on lamlash wondering what the fusss was about as the holy isle was blessed with sunshine.
We disembarked in the rain and I put Jackie in the shelter with the bags while I got the car out of the long stay car park. A lucrative business indeed. It was as cheap to take the car over but alas there had been no space. This slower process disembarking and the smaller boat meant there was no traffic heading out of Ardrossan and the journey home, like the drive over, was effortless. We saw lots of queues but thankfully never on our side of the road. We went via the southside of Glasgow towards the Carlisle road then re-joined the M8 a bit like re-joining the cancer Camino when I got home.
The letters had arrived and I saw how I'd missed the appointment.
The letter was typed on the Thursday, 15th. It was possibly put in it envelope then too but might not have made it to despatch until Friday the 16th
Edinburgh mail is no longer 24 hours and so it's arrived on the Monday or Tuesday. The good news is it has arrived.
The plan is subject to change but at present it's the operating plan for me.
It shows 6 weeks of radiotherapy with a couple of chemo boosters.
It's still hard to believe but it free and somebody wants to look after me just because I'm part of the species. It's an incredible thought and one that isn't lost on me at a time when around the world people don't care if you love or die. Here in Edinburgh somebody cares enough to want to treat me.
I don't think having your health looked after is a right but I believe it should be. I'm so glad that it is and I'll support it as I always have by talking about it.
I find it so frustrating that all the fantastic people who are working to help me are treated so poorly when it comes to remuneration. They do a job out of a love for others lives. It's up to us, the others to make sure they are compensated accordingly. It's up to us to ensure they have the resources and support they need.
For those who don't believe in the well being of the population as a policy objective please skip the next few paragraphs as I bang on about it as if that was what is glaringly obvious. It clearly isn't for many.
When Paul Weller sang it's the kidney machines that pay for rockets and guns 45 years ago, he was right. What he didn't know was that 45 years later we'd still prioritise war over knee ops and hindsight would show the Jam performed at their peak, much like many of our public services. Fast forward through the decades of decline and withering investment in pipeline staff and infrastructure. Who knew our oil, council house and nationalised industry windfalls would be blown on high unemployment handouts. Who knew deregulation would take even more tax payers out of the PAYE system. Who knew we'd renationalise so many once they'd failed, even bail the banks out at the top and sell them back at the bottom. Who knew that COVID would provide such a great opportunity for Dido & co to suck £billions out for a track and trace system that never saw a piece of tracing paper or the Money Mone & Co appropriated for useless PPE. Yes these politicians love telling us about how much mismanagement waste needs cut in the NHS. As the track record of privatisation shows people can sniff out riches, trouser them and then run for cover like my near neighbour Fred did. I'm sure I heard someone exclaim to a house select committee "a wee boy done it and ran away." Somehow, those thugs never get jailed. Pollute rivers, at least national grid had the decency to have a rights issue before declaring a dividend, borrowing from the shareholders for investment seems almost what the plan had been.
Well, after the recent election it seems the public has spoken but is jumping ship just another way to let us forget how many wars Tory Blair got us involved in. His first 100 days included that self prophecy of this being the first time in history when we didn't send our children off to get slaughtered, except Tory liked a war even more than mentor Mags. I forget how many he got involved in and yet the biggest genocide in a generation with the hittues and tootsies seemed to pass him by.
The NHS just needs some support but these gangsters sneak into the supply chain and with the cash we provide can afford lawyers that exclaim, "wasnae me guv'nor". Let's hope the legal minds come with a conscience.
Oh, well let's freeze the tax allowance and ensure the poorest can disproportionately pay for it for longer. Not a lot of people understand how crass it was of Rishi to freeze the £12570 tax free allowance. In 5 years that could easily have risen to about £15,000. Which means every person by 2026 will be £500 worse off. If you only earn £14,000-£20000 in the NHS you can't afford to subsidise the lifestyle of Michelle Mone, Dido Harding or the many thieving friends of the grasping Boris.
But I digress. I will watch to see what Labour do with this. Keeping the Tory tax plans is one thing but freezing allowances was a disgusting reward to our essential workers, many of whom are on the minimum wage, oh and did I mention, pay their PAYE.
I've written so much more detail on this over the last 4 years I'm just sounding like a broken record.
As life support famously sang " it's just a state of mind", you either believe in the NHS or you want to undermine it.
When they reduced the cap on pensions but still insisted all doctors had to pay 30% of their salary in, my doctor pals suddenly found they were being effectively taxed at 70%+. Their pension contributions being snaffled by the government. Is it any wonder they started to retire in their droves and leave us short of GP's. This creation of crisis is classic union busting or in the case of the NHS, health service busting. Now we see adds for blood tests on the TV. Why would you send your blood to someone you didn't know when your GP and well funded NHS does it for nothing.
Will it never end this blasphemy of consumerism. A bloodless coup or a bloody triumph for collapsing the NHS. I can't seem to get the words for this consumption curve that's eating itself instead of feeding itself.
Talking of which I have a feeding tube fitting pre-fitment appointment so better finish.
Yes, that was superb. I gave some more blood and had another reminder about how much ale I should not imbibe. I also got more information on how long the tube will probably be in and how the rig can be taped up to help with my round the belly golf swing.
This lack of food does sound like I'm going to have to get bigger before I get better.
While I can eat I probably should which is bad news for the guys at the golf clubs and those restaurants we frequent in Edinburgh where the wearing of ponchos by other diners had become obligatory
"Has Al booked a table today?" Was a question that was being asked far too frequently. I've tried to go French and take 4 hours over a meal but I think the liquid diet will win.
I've got to prepare for the op by continuing to reduce the size of my liver. This will give my stomach a bit more room and also help bed in the feeding rig. It's quite a big unit for such a small guy so I am looking forward to those before and after photo shoots.
Crucially no food after midnight, get a bit more fibre in and water until 6am. 4 hours after you might get something but best to have a lot the day before and that'll ensure I'm not hungry or fading away. In general the cancer Camino involves a lot of fuel so just keep fueling.
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