Sunday, 24 March 2013
So, the day before we set sail (or wing
then sail) I went up to Guys with Dad to be given the 'once over'. My
Oncologist went into overdrive apologising for the Zometa mix up.
Apparently it was just a big mistake. No one can work out how or why
I was prescribed it but they are very, very sorry. It was actually a
bit embarrassing how sorry she was and I can only assume by the level
of her regret that it was she who pushed the button. Never mind, I
wasn't given it and that's the important thing.
I also had a meeting with my surgeon, done guerrilla style - where my Breast care nurse sends him a text and he leaves theatre (where he is operating on someone else) and we kick some other people out of a room and have an impromptu meeting. He is very keen to get on with the next phase but thinks it will take at least a month for me to fully recover from the Neutropenic Sepsis so my full armpit lymph node clearance has been booked for the 10th April - 3 days before my Husband's birthday.
At 6am the next morning we piled the kids and the cases in the car (which is currently being held together with gaffa tape and cable ties) and headed for Gatwick. After a 5 hour flight and all the waiting around that normally accompanies such a feat we arrived, by coach, on the dockside of Sharm El Sheikh port. There she was in all her glory, the Thompson Celebration. She is 30 years old and is currently undergoing a much needed face-lift. Luckily we were hardly aware of the workmen during the cruise.
What can I say about the cruise itself? I don't think we'll go on another one and I probably wasn't well enough to be going on this one. Our cabin was fine, bigger than we expected and already refurbed, giving us a new shower room. The children were beside themselves with joy for seven whole days apart from when the eldest was sick on the coach just before leaving to go to Petra - part of the cruise we were very excited about. I had to take her off the coach and back on board to visit the Doctor, both of us missing the 8th wonder of the world.
We did all make it to the Pyramids, a stunning Mosque in Cairo, a lunch time cruise down the Nile. We watched dolphins playing in the wake of the ship and spent a wonderfully lazy day at sea being entertained by a ceaseless program of Butlins style events. We explored Aqaba in Jordan and visited a beach resort in Safaga, Egypt where we spent two glorious days snorkeling in the crystal clear Red Sea. My Husband saw a massive green sea turtle and we both followed a pair of courting giant octopus. The girls had their first taste of the underwater world and were amused by hundreds of muti-coloured fish and a possessive clown fish protecting his anemone.
The food was ok, like slightly upmarket school dinners. The other passengers were mainly over 60, extremely friendly and actually fairly good company. If anything, becoming a little too familiar. I was congratulated on too many occasions for doing so well considering... The over 60's have all had a brush with cancer, if not personally then someone they know has. They know the signs and after a few generous cocktails, couldn't wait for an excuse to give me advice/ tell me their tales. All very well-meaning and sweet but not what I went on holiday for.
Apart from the one vomiting incident we managed to swerve the ship's outbreak of norovirus but knowing others were suffering did slightly dampen the experience. By day seven we were quite pleased to be moving on. Especially when we got to where we were moving on to! We had three nights and nearly four whole days booked in a lovely, 5 star beach resort in Sharm El Sheikh. The hotel was beautiful. Our room had a separate room for the kids and a balcony - both were such a luxury after cohabiting on the ship. The food was exceptional and the kids club and water slides were great.
Best of all was the sea. The beach immediately gave way onto a shallow reef, teeming with fish, jelly fish, eels and hermit crabs. The girls paddled with their little bucket, filling it with treasures far superior to previous rock-pooling adventures. They hand-fed the fish with morsels secreted from the breakfast buffet and tried to identify each new spotting using their 'Fish of the Red Sea' chart. They stroked a baby camel and it's Father on the way to the Jetty. Each hotel complex has it's own jetty, they take you out over the shallow reef and enable you to swim and snorkel over the shelf where the reef drops into deep sea.
Both children astounded us with their bravery. They had a swim vest each (they can both swim a bit but not confidently enough for the deep sea) and they had their own masks, snorkels and reef shoes. They happily swam around, sometimes in very deep water, always holding hands with their buddy (me or my Husband) and showed us giant clams, multi-coloured coral and fish in every colour. This is the part of the Holiday I will never forget.
I also had a meeting with my surgeon, done guerrilla style - where my Breast care nurse sends him a text and he leaves theatre (where he is operating on someone else) and we kick some other people out of a room and have an impromptu meeting. He is very keen to get on with the next phase but thinks it will take at least a month for me to fully recover from the Neutropenic Sepsis so my full armpit lymph node clearance has been booked for the 10th April - 3 days before my Husband's birthday.
At 6am the next morning we piled the kids and the cases in the car (which is currently being held together with gaffa tape and cable ties) and headed for Gatwick. After a 5 hour flight and all the waiting around that normally accompanies such a feat we arrived, by coach, on the dockside of Sharm El Sheikh port. There she was in all her glory, the Thompson Celebration. She is 30 years old and is currently undergoing a much needed face-lift. Luckily we were hardly aware of the workmen during the cruise.
What can I say about the cruise itself? I don't think we'll go on another one and I probably wasn't well enough to be going on this one. Our cabin was fine, bigger than we expected and already refurbed, giving us a new shower room. The children were beside themselves with joy for seven whole days apart from when the eldest was sick on the coach just before leaving to go to Petra - part of the cruise we were very excited about. I had to take her off the coach and back on board to visit the Doctor, both of us missing the 8th wonder of the world.
We did all make it to the Pyramids, a stunning Mosque in Cairo, a lunch time cruise down the Nile. We watched dolphins playing in the wake of the ship and spent a wonderfully lazy day at sea being entertained by a ceaseless program of Butlins style events. We explored Aqaba in Jordan and visited a beach resort in Safaga, Egypt where we spent two glorious days snorkeling in the crystal clear Red Sea. My Husband saw a massive green sea turtle and we both followed a pair of courting giant octopus. The girls had their first taste of the underwater world and were amused by hundreds of muti-coloured fish and a possessive clown fish protecting his anemone.
The food was ok, like slightly upmarket school dinners. The other passengers were mainly over 60, extremely friendly and actually fairly good company. If anything, becoming a little too familiar. I was congratulated on too many occasions for doing so well considering... The over 60's have all had a brush with cancer, if not personally then someone they know has. They know the signs and after a few generous cocktails, couldn't wait for an excuse to give me advice/ tell me their tales. All very well-meaning and sweet but not what I went on holiday for.
Apart from the one vomiting incident we managed to swerve the ship's outbreak of norovirus but knowing others were suffering did slightly dampen the experience. By day seven we were quite pleased to be moving on. Especially when we got to where we were moving on to! We had three nights and nearly four whole days booked in a lovely, 5 star beach resort in Sharm El Sheikh. The hotel was beautiful. Our room had a separate room for the kids and a balcony - both were such a luxury after cohabiting on the ship. The food was exceptional and the kids club and water slides were great.
Best of all was the sea. The beach immediately gave way onto a shallow reef, teeming with fish, jelly fish, eels and hermit crabs. The girls paddled with their little bucket, filling it with treasures far superior to previous rock-pooling adventures. They hand-fed the fish with morsels secreted from the breakfast buffet and tried to identify each new spotting using their 'Fish of the Red Sea' chart. They stroked a baby camel and it's Father on the way to the Jetty. Each hotel complex has it's own jetty, they take you out over the shallow reef and enable you to swim and snorkel over the shelf where the reef drops into deep sea.
Both children astounded us with their bravery. They had a swim vest each (they can both swim a bit but not confidently enough for the deep sea) and they had their own masks, snorkels and reef shoes. They happily swam around, sometimes in very deep water, always holding hands with their buddy (me or my Husband) and showed us giant clams, multi-coloured coral and fish in every colour. This is the part of the Holiday I will never forget.
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