last interleukin treatment & keep eating the pasta

Take that needle away from me!

This morning Caroline had the last interleukin treatment, an injection rather than a drip. She had no ill effects, but her port has been painful, we think perhaps after the sedated procedure yesterday, when it might not have been treated as gently as usual. The dr said that her body wants to get rid of the alien object, and they gave her a muscle relaxant and a hot water bottle, (or a baby as Magy calls it), to ease the pain. I went to another lecture this morning, a different dr, suggesting a rather less strict regime of a mediterranean diet with lots of tomatoes, pasta, olive oil and red wine, I'll settle for that. His main message was that a low glycaemic index diet is best, not just for cancer, but heart disease stroke and alzheimers. Oh and you don't have to eat brown pasta, white pasta or noodles have just as low GI.

Lunch was fantastic, stuffed peppers, chicken with white corn, loads of salad and chocolate cake (well nearly). We had a walk after lunch at the beach, and back past the border fence and El Yoghurt, where I bought a bead bracelet for Shelley, one of the patients, whose birthday was today.

Caroline beside the border fence hung with white crosses in memory of Mexicans who died trying to cross the border.

3 pm was my second laughter therapy class with Shary, where we sang 'How much is that doggie in the window?' with appropriate barking and tail wagging actions. Later Caroline and I sat in the courtyard and watched Carol & Clifford leave for Canada after a month here, Clifford holding his chilled vaccine flask and Carol needing lots of tissues.

Shary's laughter therapy class

This evening we stayed in the cafeteria for a sing-a-long with Bruce & Vicky. We knew most of the melodies, but not the words, which have been rewritten with the hospital as the subject. We had an unannounced visit from Willie Nelson (Bruce), who sang 'To all the clinics I've known before'. There are some amazing voices here; some of the hospital staff sang, including one girl who sang a beautiful Cielito Lindo duet with Bruce.