Black Pudding might be off the menu!

It's Wednesday morning. No chemo again this week. The blood test showed that platelet readings have not improved, so I can't have the chemo again. Once again, mixed emotions.

This time the nurse did give me the good news as well. The cancer activity marker is down to normal - yeah! and the liver function has improved yet again. So the chemotherapy is certainly doing its work well as far as the cancer activity is concerned and the herbal and acupuncture regime is doing its job on the liver function. So, just as long as I don't cut myself or have a bump or fall that causes internal bleeding, things are looking good. It means another blood test next Tuesday which, once again, will tell us whether I can have another shot of chemo on Wednesday.

I've been religiously eating black pudding to improve my platelet count since Dr Chen gave me that advice. It obviously has had no effect -perhaps I should give it a bit longer. Are 5 days of black pudding enough to affect the platelets? I'll have to ask him that when I see him tomorrow. Special thanks to those readers who have sent me recipes that use black pudding and shared stories about the role of black pudding in their family lives. I've enjoyed it all so much.

In the meantime I have enjoyed my extra week of freedom from medication - and now I have another one. The weather has been superb and I've been riding my bike along the beach path daily. It's magnificent and gives me so much pleasure.

And, of course, the festive season has brought its share of excuses to go out and have fun with friends. Last month I shared the photo of the tennis girls on Melbourne Cup Day. On Saturday night we had our Christmas celebration dinner with paper hats and all the trimmings. A fun time was had by all including husbands - where they exist! I am including photos of the gang on the night - before it all got very rowdy on the dance floor in our hosts' music room.