Well, it’s been a while. And it’s been a good while. Health-wise, the last four days have been relatively good for Annie. And consequently it’s made for four full and busy days as we use the window of good health to catch up.

Last week Annie was re-plugged into the syringe driver which would slowly distribute the anti-sickness cocktail of Cyclizine and Haloperidol directly into her body. It’s a cumbersome device that Annie often finds emotionally irritating as it visually reminds her that she is sick. It also begins to physically irritate her and cause discomfort after a few days of being jacked into it. It was very effective in settling Annie’s nausea a couple of weeks ago but once it was unplugged the sickness returned. When she tried to take the tablet form of the same medicine it had no time to work before being thrown up. This time round the nurses decided to plug Annie back into the driver to get her stabilised, remove it a few days later and immediately follow it with the oral version of the medicine before the sickness had time to resurface. So far, that process has worked very well.

For those who were still wondering, Annie was able to make choir practice last Friday and the following four days she had been doing really well. Pain and nausea have taken a backseat for now but Annie has struggled with fatigue this week. We haven’t had sleepless nights but we have had some very early mornings (dis)courtesy of a few coughing fits.

Following a really lovely weekend with Uncle Pierre and Aunt Mary Jane we were all able to go out into town and enjoy an early morning departure breakfast together. On Wednesday we were joined again by friends Ana, Steve, Becky and the lovely little Mimi for a Christmas meal together. A couple of nights we’ve had some of the young people round wrapping little gifts for children on the nearby gypsy camp; we will be aiming to go out and distribute those gifts with the choir next week. Speaking of which, on Saturday, the choir has its first gig (so to speak!). At 11:30am on Saturday morning we have been given an hour slot to sing in the city centre. As we do, we will be handing out invitations to the Christmas service at Manor Park this Sunday where the choir will sing again.

As of yesterday (Thursday) Annie started to feel as if she was geting a cold. This escalated with a high temperature and sickness later on in the day. We called out the doctors in the evening who confirmed Annie had a fever and advised that we tackle it as we would a cold. Annie can normally carry off colds and flu with a lot more stamina than I can, but with her general health so low, even a common cold can be crippling.

We have one more choir practice this evening, the first of which Annie will not be able to make. But if you’d like to pray for us, please pray that Annie might be able to join us for the hour of singing tomorrow morning in the city centre.

So, we are thankful that this four day window of better health has afforded us a lot of opportunity.

Again, apologies for the delay in posting! But to make up for it, today I will make a few more posts.

May the Lord bless you,

R&A