Monday

This morning we took a cab to Westfield shopping mall to look for some shorts. We were not expecting the weather to be as nice as it was, and I wasn’t expecting the thin Columbia pants I brought to be as warm as they are. I only brought one pair of lounging athletic shorts. The mall was very nice with about 4 different levels. Only cost about 17 GBP to get there and well worth not dealing with the hassle of a bus or the Underground.

The weather has been really nice. There may be some rain later today. Tomorrow is 100% chance of rain, but Wed and Thr is 0%. 

Went for dinner at a pub called Bunches of Grapes and had the classic Fish & Chips. Also made a reservation for Sunday’s Roast.

I just have to comment on a few things I have seen where the UK is doing it right and we are doing it wrong. Contactless payment almost everywhere. Even taking the London Underground uses either a chipped card or your phone to enter and exit the Tube which then changes you depending on what Zone you traveled through. No more standing at a ticket machine trying to figure it out. Tied to the first thing mentioned, your credit card never leaves your view. All transactions are made in front of you. Standing in a queue (l
ine)…everybody gets it! No one cuts the line. 

I thought this one was interesting. I bought.a bottle of soda and the screw off cap is engineered in such a way to stay on the bottle like a flip off/on cap. Brilliant!

Sunday

Slept in a little today before hitting the town. Today we took the tube from South Kennisgton station to Convent Garden and went to the Transportation Museum. Neat place but I thought there would be more to see.

I was getting a little knackered so after having a scone we headed back to the hotel. One thing we both agreed on, we should have brought warmer weather clothes. It was in the mid 80’s. I think that added to how tired I was. After a mid afternoon nap, we went down to our favorite store, Harrods. You can see from the pictures which hall I liked the most. Mom stopped at a plain looking leather jacket just to see what it cost. It was about $7000!

On the way back, instead of a cattle drive like when we went to Yellowstone, we saw a rollerblade drive.

Round 8

I figure crusing at 31,000 feet over Bangor heading to London is a good time to update the blog. I am on Round 8 day 4. Since my CA-19 numbers have been going up slightly, I decided to get the normal chemotherapy treatment and not cut out the oxaliplatin which gives me the bad cold sensitivity. The last time I saw my oncologist (and my numbers were still trending down) I asked him if my prognosis has changed. He said no. Mom asked a much better question. How well am I doing when compared to other people going through the same thing. He said very well. He said I’m handling the chemo remarkably well. That was good to hear.

He said if/when this treatment is not doing as well, there’s another treatment with only 2 drugs and none of the side effects as what I am on now. The problem is I would have to have it done every 8 days. That would put a crimp in my travels. He said that there hasn’t been any head to head comparisons of the two treatments, but says they appear to be equally good. Why they started me on one instead of the other I’m not sure, but we’ll keep on this treatment until it is ineffective. I had a little more peripheral neuropathy this time then I remember. Anytime I wash my hands my fingers start tingling. Yesterday, for the first time, I had a tingling on the right side of my head that started at the back and progressed to the front. Only lasted a few minutes but felt very strange.

The other thing to note is he said he’s been calling around to see if there are any clinical trials that might benefit me. This is something I don’t understand and asked Dr. Thomas. The system is set up for us to find the right clinical trials. Why don’t they have a registry where I can upload my case along with known mutations, then people doing the research can look up the patients that fit their research?

This is a really long day. Got to the airport at 0800. Flight was on time and uneventful (as they should be). Got to Atlanta around 1115 and sat around until our flight at 1720. Up until now, I have been super tired even though I slept well last night. Now for some reason I’m wide awake. 

My New Whip

Something I planned to do before retirement and after the RV was paid off was to upgrade to a new vehicle. I bought a 2024 Ford Maverick hybrid Lariat edition with all the bells and whistles. Been driving out for 2 weeks and love it.