My Clock - By Susie Hemingway

How peaceful in this pavilion
as the pendulum is free to swing,
I wish to guard these regulated movements
as you oscillate in free time.
I wish to savour your liberty of actions
your power of self-determination
I need to imprison and restrain this time,
to mend this clock of mine.


All Rights Reserved - June 2008

A Good Day.

It's funny how some good days just get better as they go along and when you expect them least. Hamada has been doing so well lately, more than we could have dared to believe, only a few short weeks ago. Still sleeping a lot but noticeably better. Yesterday we made the trip to Lincoln County Hospital for his renal check-up, and for a change we had a really short wait for the consultant, which was a joy. After all his checks B.P, Urine, Weight, etc, we had the quickest time with the Doctor, I can ever remember. Kidneys are holding at the 15% reading, Createnin level is better, B.P within the normal range, and the best words of all "I don't need to see you for eight weeks"! now how good is that? We do of course, have to attend the Heamatology Clinic as usual but how amazing it felt not to have to make that extra journey so often. We came out into the beautiful sunshine and felt on top of the world. We then had a nice walk, (well Hamada in his wheelchair) around Lincoln Town Centre, which is a very pretty place, full of young people from the University and the shops are great. We made a few purchases, the only advantage with a wheechair , I can see, is the ability to carry your parcels as well as the passenger. Having a nice lunch in an outside cafe, we so enjoyed our day. Simple pleasures but simply lovely.

Hamada Makes The Evening Party.

After not going very far in the past few months, Hamada was well enough to go on Saturday to Jenny and Ian's evening party at the Village Pub. He enjoyed a wonderful steak dinner, with salmon to start, and some very good cheese to finish. He was driven there, although it's only a few minutes away, but managed to stay for most of the party after. It was so lovely to have him join us all once again, mind you he did sleep for most of the next day - but an improvement never-the-less. Well done Hamada.

A Great Weekend And A Confusing Phone Call !

We had a wonderful weekend at "Hemingway " celebrating my sister and brother-in-laws Pearl Wedding Anniversary more about that on www.susiehemingway.com Hamada so enjoyed having all the family here and we had such fun with garden games and a great BBQ. We erected a large Marquee in the garden so that nothing would be spoilt, with our sometimes, rather odd weather. Jo sang for us and so did Manu which was just wonderful. Hamada ( who never smokes cigarettes) enjoyed a smoke of Apple and Mint sharing a'Shisha' pipe with Jo, taking him back to Alexandria, Egypt. For a small while Hamada looked pain free and very relaxed. It was a joyous day and created such lovely memories for us all.

On Tuesday I received a telephone call from one of Hamada's team at Lincoln Hospital, saying that the results of the last Bence Jones Test had at last been returned. This, contrary to the last reading, showed that the results were very good! It appears that the marker is again very faint indeed! We are not going to get too excited by this, our lives are up and down enough with all these tests and medical problems we face everyday as it is, although we really are tempted to do so. I am aware that this is a very difficult test to read at the lower end of the scales and that mistakes can be made at this level. Still with this reading now at 0.01 does that mean that Hamada could just be hanging on to his remission or not? (It's only been eight months since Hamada's Stem Cell Transplant)

Please all you very knowledgeable guys out there, I would be grateful to know what you think. We are not returning to the Haematology Clinic until July 3 when we will discuss this in full.

Lovely Weather .

Hamada enjoying the sun.