Midnight Cowboy

Oct 1 2009

Back when we suggested the Three Peak Challenge standing around our Addenbrooke's bed, I completely underestimated how little time I would have to train.....

Back when we suggested the Three Peaks Challenge standing around our Addenbrooke's bed, I completely underestimated how little time I would have to train and also how big my problem with food has become.

I've always had a healthy appetite, however, since June this particular facet of my lifestyle has spiraled out of control. It's amazing; I can't not sit at my laptop working for more than 30 minutes without pining for food and smuggling a chocolate roll past Hayley. At meal times I still manage to plough through an extra large portion, followed by the remnants of Lucia and Camille's meals. It's become an addiction, and one that needs kicking before I balloon to the size of a house.

Eating a lot and training hard would normally be an OK mix, if only I had time to train. Last Sunday I decided that the only way to get out and about would be to wake up early and step out into the fresh morning air. I invited Hayley's brother James to join me, as he too needs to train for the climb. The alarm sounded and I flopped out of bed. My phone displayed the time as 5.00am which meant I had 15 minutes to get ready to go. James walked to our house and met me outside at 5.15am, unfortunately I had not considered that it could still be dark at that time. In fact, it wasn't just dark, it was pitch black, and we were stepping out without a torch.

I hope my neighbours didn't see us tip toeing down the road, as I was dressed all in black with hooded top and James in similar attire was being straddled by a rucksack. The only thing that was missing from this dubious sight, was the word "SWAG" printed across James' bag.

To make things even more complicated, we went off-road. Over the heathland and into the woods. Walking along a pitch black pathway, listening to the sound of the babbling brook running alongside was tense. I led the way as I had been down there before, however, on my previous excursion I hadn't logged the position of all trip hazards or death drops (two foot into a foot of water), so my previous experience wasn't particularly useful.

After a couple of hours of power hiking, we emerged back into civilisation and in the daylight. The training for the day was complete, I just now would spend the rest of the day dreaming of bed.

James followed up on his training by taking his wife into hospital on Monday to have their second child; a little girl called Florence. Congratulations to both of them.

Camille has now had a pretty good week although periodically cranky and being a diva at bed time. I may have mentioned over the previous month or so that Camille has become obsessed with uninteresting inanimate objects, many of which have to follow her to bed. As I lay next to her on Tuesday night, I gazed over her to see the following items: a wooden spoon, a purple Waybuloo , a syringe (not including a needle), a flower blanket, a sick bowl, two dummies and an Upsy Daisy doll.

Once completing the millionth recital of Monkey Man by Kylie and the Wiggles she finally dropped off and I then spent the next five minutes de-cluttering her bed. This obsession does not look like ceasing, god only knows how far this could go.

Hayley had popped to the hospital to see the new family member on Tuesday so I had the difficult challenge of getting both Camille and Lucia to sleep in separate rooms. Camille needs supervising at all times before bed, but of course Lucia is a bit more self-sufficient. The only problem with Lucia is that she gets over excited and impossible to get out of Camille's room; but, give her some credit, she only bounded in twice and the second time was caused by her momentum trying to stop from a lengthy gallop.

Lucia has actually gone to Centre Parcs with her Auntie and Uncle for a couple of days. We decided that this would be good for her as otherwise she would just be at home with us, but more and more, when we are away from Lucia, either in hospital or on this kind of trip, I have really begun to miss her.

Hayley's been active this week in trying to understand the requirements, limitations and possibility of resection of Camille's tumour. We are still pretty unclear about exactly how this element to the treatment gets actioned and what risks and issues we would need to be aware of if Addenbrookes were to operate now. We are hoping that Addenbrookes will spend some time next week, talking through this area again in some more detail. However, until that point, we continue to research to try to gain our own understanding.